Hanging with Orphek the light bar

[BighohoReef]

Hey all, I'm looking for some specific lighting advice on the Orphek OR120 LED light bar. We're currently moving 30g LPS/Euphyllia dominated tank to a new WB 135.4. I've been testing out our T5 lights and just find the spectrum to be flat and uninviting (I'm aware it probably is amazing for the coral growth). Hence my research into the Orphek, I've watched as many youtube videos as I can but I'm having trouble with pulling the trigger on a specific version. I'm curious how many folks out there use the OR LED bar. What size and color? How are you liking it over your tank? If you could a bit about the results you are seeing. Pictures welcomed!

I’ve included the led bar versions I'm looking at and a shot of the tank with the T5/XR30s. I was planning keeping the radions up coupled with the light bar

• Reef Day Light – Full Spectrum Day Light (380nm- 700nm ) for both marine or reef aquariums, with SPS/ LPS or soft corals.
• Blue sky – Blue /Cyan Spectrum (450-500 nm) for better coral growth & color and fluorescence.
• UV/Violet – UV/Violet (380- 440nm) for maximum coral growth & color and fluorescence.

 

[Conway88]

Have you thought of buying orphek atlantik V4 or compact? I have compact mounted on my reefer 250 with blue sky bar works fantastic.

 

[minus9]

I'm using three OR2 60 blue plus bars with Kessil's and I really like the combo. Orphek has since released an updated version of their bars, OR3, which uses 5w diodes at half power to last longer. Same output as the OR2's.
I'm with Conway88, the compact along with their bars covers a lot of ground/water.

 

[shadesatsetbreak]

I use or2 blue+ with T5s. The blue+ is a cross between their blue and uv bars. I pair up one light bar for each T5, or one light bar to two T5s. I'm still experimenting with bulbs but the coral+ and Aquablue special from ATI both look good alongside the LEDs. I'd say a mostly daylight bulb like the Aquablue special with the blue+ orphek bars is a winning combo. If you like a little more pink, the coral+ has that. Right now my only combos are 1-1 orphek- T5, and 1-2-1 Orphek-T5T5-orphek.
I'm planning on setting up a rig with four orphek bars and four T5s- get a nice even spread. I'll have a little more flexibility with testing t5 combos once that happens.

For research purposes, Ive just been looking at old Reefbrite xho-t5 combos, and related threads.
I'm waiting for orphek to come out with a dimmer for the lightbars. Otherwise right now I run just the LEDs no T5s to ramp up/down, and do everybody on for the peak of the day.

Overall, I'm really pleased with orphek bars with T5s. You get the orphek pop along with the spectrum from T5. If I had a really big tank though, I'd probably just throw some orphek panels into some hybrid T5 fixtures, cuz rigging all these T5 fixtures and single led bars together is kind of a pain. And takes a lot of outlets. For sub-100gallon rigs, I'm convinced it's the way to go if you want an expensive-looking lighting solution at a fraction of the cost.

 

[shadesatsetbreak]

This is two orphek blue+ paired up with two T5 daylight bulbs.

 

[BighohoReef]

Have you thought of buying orphek atlantik V4 or compact? I have compact mounted on my reefer 250 with blue sky bar works fantastic.

I haven't thought of it since we have the XR30s. I'll do some video watching. Can you control the atlantik with the apex?

 

[BighohoReef]

I use or2 blue+ with T5s. The blue+ is a cross between their blue and uv bars. I pair up one light bar for each T5, or one light bar to two T5s. I'm still experimenting with bulbs but the coral+ and Aquablue special from ATI both look good alongside the LEDs. I'd say a mostly daylight bulb like the Aquablue special with the blue+ orphek bars is a winning combo. If you like a little more pink, the coral+ has that. Right now my only combos are 1-1 orphek- T5, and 1-2-1 Orphek-T5T5-orphek.
I'm planning on setting up a rig with four orphek bars and four T5s- get a nice even spread. I'll have a little more flexibility with testing t5 combos once that happens.

For research purposes, Ive just been looking at old Reefbrite xho-t5 combos, and related threads.
I'm waiting for orphek to come out with a dimmer for the lightbars. Otherwise right now I run just the LEDs no T5s to ramp up/down, and do everybody on for the peak of the day.

Overall, I'm really pleased with orphek bars with T5s. You get the orphek pop along with the spectrum from T5. If I had a really big tank though, I'd probably just throw some orphek panels into some hybrid T5 fixtures, cuz rigging all these T5 fixtures and single led bars together is kind of a pain. And takes a lot of outlets. For sub-100gallon rigs, I'm convinced it's the way to go if you want an expensive-looking lighting solution at a fraction of the cost.

I appreciate the feedback and detailed combos! With so many options and combinations for lighting its been a little overwhelming. In my planning for the light setup, I was thinking daylight T5-radions-T5 I'd have both the T5s on a wifi power strip/timer. Now with my mindset on getting the Orphek I was thinking OR(front)/Radion/T5

But as my picture shows the bleed on the white light from the T5 is almost too much, I like the fixture idea but I don't want to hang anything from the ceiling. I'm wondering if I can hang it from a thicker pick of 8020. I definitely like the blue light more than the white light kinda leaning in that direction for the led bar. I like your options though so back to researching

Do you have any pictures of your current setup?

 

[BighohoReef]

This is two orphek blue+ paired up with two T5 daylight bulbs.

Wow, the blue looks really soft. How big of a tank do you have? Which Orpheks are you running? Can you share a pic of the light setup?

 

[BighohoReef]

I'm using three OR2 60 blue plus bars with Kessil's and I really like the combo. Orphek has since released an updated version of their bars, OR3, which uses 5w diodes at half power to last longer. Same output as the OR2's.
I'm with Conway88, the compact along with their bars covers a lot of ground/water.

I've been waiting for the announcement of the OR3... looks like I missed it somehow (They didn't do a big rollout as Ecotech did for the Gen5s (lol). I did a brief search last night looks like there are some early reviews. Are their any options to control the intensity of the led bars or are they just on/off like the T5? If you have the chance would you upgrade?

 

[minus9]

I've been waiting for the announcement of the OR3... looks like I missed it somehow (They didn't do a big rollout as Ecotech did for the Gen5s (lol). I did a brief search last night looks like there are some early reviews. Are their any options to control the intensity of the led bars or are they just on/off like the T5? If you have the chance would you upgrade?

I haven't seen anything about the dimmers yet. I kinda treat mine like T5's, so I gradually increased the length of time they are on until I reached my goal. It would be nice to ramp them up an hour or so, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[shadesatsetbreak]

Wow, the blue looks really soft. How big of a tank do you have? Which Orpheks are you running? Can you share a pic of the light setup?

This is just a 38gallon bowfront with 2led bars and a wavepoint dual T5 fixture, all 24 inches long. I'm repurposing these orpheks to an 80gallon I'm about to put together. I'm away for the weekend but will send a picture when I get back tomorrow evening.

These are the or2 60cm Blue+. Which, as described by the customer service dude, is a cross between the regular blue bar and the actinic bar.
It is kinda crazy how the T5s overpower the LEDs so much. You see it less in the water, but it's still on the surfaces, if that makes any sense. And when the t5s are off, it seems like a lot of blue. I'd say more than a single blue T5, without doing a side by side comparison. I found that if you just follow most T5 suggestions for a tank, but switch some of those out with light bars of equal length, it works ok.
For example, the 80gal cube I'm repurposing these bars for can fit 24" T5s. For that many gallons about 7-8 T5s would be about right. So I'm going to go with either 4x60cm orphek bars and 3 single T5 reefbrites for a total of 7 'bulbs', or maybe throw a double slimline fixture in the middle to make it the full 8, I haven't really decided. Whatever looks like it fits the tank better.
It's an ongoing experiment to get to the perfect blend. I think that using the blue+ bars in place of blue T5s is a good starting point.

 

[shadesatsetbreak]

This is the wavepoint 2-bulb and two orpheks I run right now. I should getting the reefbrites and redoing the whole rig some time next month and I'll start a build thread and post a link here.