Orphek or AI

[southerner2]

I am a rookie reefer. Check my post and look at my tank. I am not running a very elaborate system and it is slow in coming. I am planning to upgrade to a 120g or so in the next year and wanted a system that I could "take with me" to the new tank. I went back and forth with the AI/Orphek thing for a long time (months). There are a lot of differences between the two and dimming is only one of them and that didn't matter to me because I knew I wouldn't play with it after the first day or two.

WHAT I BELIEVE- people spend a lot of money on their tanks, an inordinate amount of that money goes into the lighting systems. The last thing that most of us will do is to admit that the 1000's we dropped wasn't the best purchase possible. Most people will never admit that they didn't make the best choice. It's hard to spend that money and I only spent $850. Imagine people buying 3 or 4 lights and then realizing that oops...I should have bought..........take my coralife skimmer for example (ugghhh) it still hurts to think about it.

For me the all the hype around the LED thing boils down to success of tanks. It is true that most of the systems out there were grown out with MH and then switched to LED....It's just a fact for now because the tecnology is still new. So, I had to look, listen and evaluate for myself. The biggest thing that did it for me is when I saw tanks from my own marine society that had either AI or Orphek. Several of the guys in our club have AI and one guy and his wife went with Orphek. In talking with both "camps" The thing I found was they were both happy. I asked a lot of questions, algae growth, coral growth, feeding response to moonlighting, on and on and on....these people probably thought I would never leave their homes.....The couple even had my wife and I stay for dinner.....hahaha

In the end I went with Orphek beacause of a few factors:
1. Less DT algae under the Orphek
2. I like the color better. This is both about the color of the water and the coloration of the corals. I didn't like blue water. I liked the bright vibrant colored corals.
3. Coral growth- The couple with the Orphek saw better growth in their system and the amount of new growth visible on their colonies was impressive. The AI tanks had some growth as well... just not as much.
4. Apparent quality and long term reliability. This was obviously an opinion thing on my part I offered to disassemble their fixtures, they politely declined so I had to just look and touch and read.

I realize that the first 3 could be as much a result of the individual systems I saw the lights on as anything. However in my search I found a couple of tanks that gave me what I needed....a true side by side comparison. This tank really "did" it for me.....

[viperfish]

Originally Posted by southerner2

I am a rookie reefer. Check my post and look at my tank. I am not running a very elaborate system and it is slow in coming. I am planning to upgrade to a 120g or so in the next year and wanted a system that I could "take with me" to the new tank. I went back and forth with the AI/Orphek thing for a long time (months). There are a lot of differences between the two and dimming is only one of them and that didn't matter to me because I knew I wouldn't play with it after the first day or two.

WHAT I BELIEVE- people spend a lot of money on their tanks, an inordinate amount of that money goes into the lighting systems. The last thing that most of us will do is to admit that the 1000's we dropped wasn't the best purchase possible. Most people will never admit that they didn't make the best choice. It's hard to spend that money and I only spent $850. Imagine people buying 3 or 4 lights and then realizing that oops...I should have bought..........take my coralife skimmer for example (ugghhh) it still hurts to think about it.

For me the all the hype around the LED thing boils down to success of tanks. It is true that most of the systems out there were grown out with MH and then switched to LED....It's just a fact for now because the tecnology is still new. So, I had to look, listen and evaluate for myself. The biggest thing that did it for me is when I saw tanks from my own marine society that had either AI or Orphek. Several of the guys in our club have AI and one guy and his wife went with Orphek. In talking with both "camps" The thing I found was they were both happy. I asked a lot of questions, algae growth, coral growth, feeding response to moonlighting, on and on and on....these people probably thought I would never leave their homes.....The couple even had my wife and I stay for dinner.....hahaha

In the end I went with Orphek beacause of a few factors:
1. Less DT algae under the Orphek
2. I like the color better. This is both about the color of the water and the coloration of the corals. I didn't like blue water. I liked the bright vibrant colored corals.
3. Coral growth- The couple with the Orphek saw better growth in their system and the amount of new growth visible on their colonies was impressive. The AI tanks had some growth as well... just not as much.
4. Apparent quality and long term reliability. This was obviously an opinion thing on my part I offered to disassemble their fixtures, they politely declined so I had to just look and touch and read.

I realize that the first 3 could be as much a result of the individual systems I saw the lights on as anything. However in my search I found a couple of tanks that gave me what I needed....a true side by side comparison. This tank really "did" it for me.....

Well said southerner2. You were very fortunate to have physical set ups to view before making your decision, most have only internet pictures and reviews to base their order on. We all know how seldom pictures recreate the actual colour spectrum of tank lighting. One thing for sure, it will be interesting to see how LED evolves over the next short while!

[abcha0s]

For what it's worth, the sunrise, sunset and traveling moon are my favorite features of the LEDs I own. I don't care about cloud cover or lightning.

I wouldn't suggest that corals care the slightest bit about sunrise/sunset, but the fish sure do. The behavoir during the first hour and last hour of the day are very different. I have 12 Anthias in the tank and they actually school for the last 15 minutes of daylight. My wrasses are much more energetic when the lights start to fade. It is fascinating to watch the distinct change in dynamics depending on the light phase.

My absolute favorite time to watch the tank is the last hour of the day. My second favorite time to watch the tank is with my morning coffee as the sun rises over the reef. Simply awesome.

My final verdict on whether the money I spent on LEDs was a good purchase or not will have to wait. Ask me a year from now. However, the money that I spent for the dimming capabilities over the equivelent cost of a non dimmable solution was worth every penny.

That said, I like the Orphek lights a lot. Just not as much as the ones I bought, but then I am biased.

- Brad

[Slick Fork]

Originally Posted by abcha0s@conceptaquatics

For what it's worth, the sunrise, sunset and traveling moon are my favorite features of the LEDs I own. I don't care about cloud cover or lightning.

I wouldn't suggest that corals care the slightest bit about sunrise/sunset, but the fish sure do. The behavoir during the first hour and last hour of the day are very different. I have 12 Anthias in the tank and they actually school for the last 15 minutes of daylight. My wrasses are much more energetic when the lights start to fade. It is fascinating to watch the distinct change in dynamics depending on the light phase.

My absolute favorite time to watch the tank is the last hour of the day. My second favorite time to watch the tank is with my morning coffee as the sun rises over the reef. Simply awesome.

My final verdict on whether the money I spent on LEDs was a good purchase or not will have to wait. Ask me a year from now. However, the money that I spent for the dimming capabilities over the equivelent cost of a non dimmable solution was worth every penny.

That said, I like the Orphek lights a lot. Just not as much as the ones I bought, but then I am biased.

- Brad

Absolutely agree. When I had my large tank with the dimmable T5's the "shoulder" times were my favourite to watch as well.