Testing the Philips Coral Care LED's claims - Are they realistic?

[Reef News]

Today on BRStv, we have a brand new episode for our series, BRStv Investigates. In this series we explore popular reefing theories, products, methods, and what the manuals are missing, with a focus on putting them to the test!

This week we are taking a look at the exciting new LED light from Philips. Yes, you read that right! The Philips Coral Care LED is the first foray into the reef aquarium world for the tech juggernaut. Today, we will put their claims to the test. Is this light really as awesome as the marketing material claims?

So follow along as we answer today's question, provide some helpful insight, and help make reefing just bit more fun and easy for you and your tank.

 

[MasterBacon]

Great review !

 

[Robbie Gibbins]

Awesome review. But the $1000 range kills it for a lot of people. Would be nice to see it come to the US at a more reasonable price per unit since most people will need 2 units al least for a 6' tank. I can't see dropping my current LED fixture which is growing corals at $600. For new units at $2000 or more

 

[eg8r210]

Great review. Seeing how the diffuser light works was eye opening and I agree I can see other lighting companies using this idea. I think this light is ugly. I have a canopy so that would lessen the issue of poor aesthetics but then you have to consider the price. They definitely aren't in the affordable range for me.

 

[atoll]

Philips have alienated a lot of people to this light not just on price but on the all important (to many) aesthetics, there is no getting away from it it's just plain ugly. Sorry Philips if you want to be a big game player you need to go back to the drawing board and redesign the fixture and reconsider your pricing. Orphek's for instance look far nicer and are more affordable.

 

[aaron23]

Seriously Awesome review

 

[Antics]

Love this series BRS! I think it's hilarious that at the end or the review Ryan casually says that the look/mounting issues will rule out most prospective buyers. It really is hideous and extremely heavy! I think when it was pointed out that the design seems targeted at wholesale/distribution it's a spot on assessment. I don't think it's possible Philips looked at all the most used lights in the hobby and didn't note how important aesthetics and form factor were.

 

[nitro]

For me I would rather have beautiful thriving corals and a not so beautiful fixture than the other way around...

 

[Antics]

For me I would rather have beautiful thriving corals and a not so beautiful fixture than the other way around...

I think a lot of people can agree with this mindset. But there are also a ton of people in the hobby who will choose aesthetics as the deciding factor when comparing two similar brands.

 

[tigé21v]

I think a lot of people can agree with this mindset. But there are also a ton of people in the hobby who will choose aesthetics as the deciding factor when comparing two similar brands.

I'd agree. If it's a setup in your unfinished basement like mine is, the looks really don't matter. But so many of the hobbyists I see on here have their tanks in their main living area, a part of the decoration of the room. The level of money and effort they have put into their tanks to make them look as clean as possible is amazing. Trying to picture some of those absolutely gorgeous systems with these shop lights strung up above them....
I'm a little surprised he didn't mention what sort of warranty comes with a $1000 light.

 

[kattz]

I was one of the first generation DIY LED adopters for my tank in the early 2000's. While everyone was going Royal Blue and Cool White, I was using Red, Cyan, Royal Blue, Warm White, Cool White, and Green to try to match the spectral output of a proven MH bulb. Optics for everything. This was four years before Radions were even previewed.

My findings were that I had excellent PAR, but the wavelength of the arrays could not be tuned correctly, even though every color channel had full control via three Apex VDM modules. That's still the problem today IMHO; most reefers are so busy evaluating a multi-spectrum LED system for its "looks" regarding light output (this blue rocks the acans!) or aesthetics that there is little to no thought for proper wavelengths that might not appeal to the eye, but promote healthy corals.

Given the choice, I'd rather a fixture that can simulate dawn/dusk and full daylight sunlight at the optimal FIXED wavelength than something with 5-10 sliders on an app that one can change the color with. You want a toy, buy a toy. You want a healthy tank, use the correct lighting and leave it that way. Who cares about the thunderstorm effect? Again, owner aesthetics only, absolutely no benefit to the tank. This is the reason that T5's and MH lamps still outperform LED's with few exceptions - you can't narf with the settings to change the color into an unhealthy or unusable range. You buy the bulbs or bulb combos that are proven to work and that's IT. No changing it once installed.

Regarding appearance, again, is your tank a piece of furniture/artwork or are you more interested in what's IN the tank? Personally, when I look through the glass, that result is what I'm driving for. Who cares what the fixture looks like? This is an industrial grade sealed fixture. Sure, it's not pretty, but who will notice when your corals are rocking the house from a visual aspect? Don't like it, build a canopy.

The planned (until now) light fixtures going over my 300DD are MH/T5, and with the Apex-controlled ballasts are $3000. So dropping $3000 for three of these if they will last a long time and I don't have to buy bulbs annually for the T5 and MH units doesn't faze me one bit.

Hanging 100+ pounds from the ceiling in any house is zero challenge. No worries there.

I think that Philips going into this lighting is an awesome potential for us reefers. They have the engineering and research horsepower to basically kick everyone else in the market in the butt. This could also be the driver for pushing down LED fixture prices globally. Yes, the Philips offering is pricey now, but the more they sell, the lower they will cost.

I'm excited about this.

Kev

 

[Robbie Gibbins]

I was one of the first generation DIY LED adopters for my tank in the early 2000's. While everyone was going Royal Blue and Cool White, I was using Red, Cyan, Royal Blue, Warm White, Cool White, and Green to try to match the spectral output of a proven MH bulb. Optics for everything. This was four years before Radions were even previewed.

My findings were that I had excellent PAR, but the wavelength of the arrays could not be tuned correctly, even though every color channel had full control via three Apex VDM modules. That's still the problem today IMHO; most reefers are so busy evaluating a multi-spectrum LED system for its "looks" regarding light output (this blue rocks the acans!) or aesthetics that there is little to no thought for proper wavelengths that might not appeal to the eye, but promote healthy corals.

Given the choice, I'd rather a fixture that can simulate dawn/dusk and full daylight sunlight at the optimal FIXED wavelength than something with 5-10 sliders on an app that one can change the color with. You want a toy, buy a toy. You want a healthy tank, use the correct lighting and leave it that way. Who cares about the thunderstorm effect? Again, owner aesthetics only, absolutely no benefit to the tank. This is the reason that T5's and MH lamps still outperform LED's with few exceptions - you can't narf with the settings to change the color into an unhealthy or unusable range. You buy the bulbs or bulb combos that are proven to work and that's IT. No changing it once installed.

Regarding appearance, again, is your tank a piece of furniture/artwork or are you more interested in what's IN the tank? Personally, when I look through the glass, that result is what I'm driving for. Who cares what the fixture looks like? This is an industrial grade sealed fixture. Sure, it's not pretty, but who will notice when your corals are rocking the house from a visual aspect? Don't like it, build a canopy.

The planned (until now) light fixtures going over my 300DD are MH/T5, and with the Apex-controlled ballasts are $3000. So dropping $3000 for three of these if they will last a long time and I don't have to buy bulbs annually for the T5 and MH units doesn't faze me one bit.

Hanging 100+ pounds from the ceiling in any house is zero challenge. No worries there.

I think that Philips going into this lighting is an awesome potential for us reefers. They have the engineering and research horsepower to basically kick everyone else in the market in the butt. This could also be the driver for pushing down LED fixture prices globally. Yes, the Philips offering is pricey now, but the more they sell, the lower they will cost.

I'm excited about this.

Kev

I agree that pricing will come down and having s big name like Phillips and their research capabilities is amazing. And eventually when the price comes down more people will flock to a light with proven capabilities. Until then it's tank dreams for me

 

[gus6464]

Where are people getting the $1000 pricing. That wasn't mentioned anywhere in the video. I have a CoralCare coming next week from the Netherlands and it was $800 shipped to my door in California including the controller. The light is $749 EU and that's with 19% VAT. It is cheaper than a Radion XR30 Pro.

 

[rockskimmerflow]

I was one of the first generation DIY LED adopters for my tank in the early 2000's. While everyone was going Royal Blue and Cool White, I was using Red, Cyan, Royal Blue, Warm White, Cool White, and Green to try to match the spectral output of a proven MH bulb. Optics for everything. This was four years before Radions were even previewed.

My findings were that I had excellent PAR, but the wavelength of the arrays could not be tuned correctly, even though every color channel had full control via three Apex VDM modules. That's still the problem today IMHO; most reefers are so busy evaluating a multi-spectrum LED system for its "looks" regarding light output (this blue rocks the acans!) or aesthetics that there is little to no thought for proper wavelengths that might not appeal to the eye, but promote healthy corals.

Given the choice, I'd rather a fixture that can simulate dawn/dusk and full daylight sunlight at the optimal FIXED wavelength than something with 5-10 sliders on an app that one can change the color with. You want a toy, buy a toy. You want a healthy tank, use the correct lighting and leave it that way. Who cares about the thunderstorm effect? Again, owner aesthetics only, absolutely no benefit to the tank. This is the reason that T5's and MH lamps still outperform LED's with few exceptions - you can't narf with the settings to change the color into an unhealthy or unusable range. You buy the bulbs or bulb combos that are proven to work and that's IT. No changing it once installed.

Regarding appearance, again, is your tank a piece of furniture/artwork or are you more interested in what's IN the tank? Personally, when I look through the glass, that result is what I'm driving for. Who cares what the fixture looks like? This is an industrial grade sealed fixture. Sure, it's not pretty, but who will notice when your corals are rocking the house from a visual aspect? Don't like it, build a canopy.

The planned (until now) light fixtures going over my 300DD are MH/T5, and with the Apex-controlled ballasts are $3000. So dropping $3000 for three of these if they will last a long time and I don't have to buy bulbs annually for the T5 and MH units doesn't faze me one bit.

Hanging 100+ pounds from the ceiling in any house is zero challenge. No worries there.

I think that Philips going into this lighting is an awesome potential for us reefers. They have the engineering and research horsepower to basically kick everyone else in the market in the butt. This could also be the driver for pushing down LED fixture prices globally. Yes, the Philips offering is pricey now, but the more they sell, the lower they will cost.

I'm excited about this.

Kev

I share similar sentiments regarding the 'over controllability' of modern LEDs. It's very much a double edged sword with regard to having success with coral. For myself and my clients' achieving success with live coral is the number one priority. There are always ways to incorporate a canopy or light box around fixtures that don't suit the decor, but there isn't a way to fix an inadequate light emitter. For that reason I almost exclusively spec T5HO as the primary lighting with Led strips used only for accent and the hour or two of low intensity led blue 'glow' once the T5's shut down. I've never had to scratch my head and wonder if the lighting is tuned properly or if someone messed with the settings. I like the direction philips is taking the led market with this unit. I'm hoping more examples of evenly diffused, consistent spectrum fixtures begin to trickle out.

 

[Flippers4pups]

These LED's are ugly because they are just tweaked "Gentle space gen2's". They mass produce these by the thousands. No doubt these led fixtures made for warehouses, exhibit halls etc......are made from top notch materials. Now it would come down to what led diodes and drivers are used in them.

Now Philips making a more pleasing fixture for the hobby, doubt it.

This explains why they weigh a ton.

http://www.lighting.philips.com/mai...igh-bay-and-low-bay/high-bay/gentlespace-gen2

 

[kattz]

These LED's are ugly because they are just tweaked "Gentle space gen2's". They mass produce these by the thousands. No doubt these led fixtures made for warehouses, exhibit halls etc......are made from top notch materials. Now it would come down to what led diodes and drivers are used in them.

Now Philips making a more pleasing fixture for the hobby, doubt it.

This explains why they weigh a ton.

http://www.lighting.philips.com/mai...igh-bay-and-low-bay/high-bay/gentlespace-gen2

That was a good find and good info. Thanks!

Kev

 

[rockskimmerflow]

These LED's are ugly because they are just tweaked "Gentle space gen2's". They mass produce these by the thousands. No doubt these led fixtures made for warehouses, exhibit halls etc......are made from top notch materials. Now it would come down to what led diodes and drivers are used in them.

Now Philips making a more pleasing fixture for the hobby, doubt it.

This explains why they weigh a ton.

http://www.lighting.philips.com/mai...igh-bay-and-low-bay/high-bay/gentlespace-gen2

Makes sense they would adapt a commercial fixture already in production. Since these in theory are purchased in large quantities by commercial/industrial customers, I have better confidence that these will indeed last a long time since low failure rate is very much in Philips interest for the high bay lighting customers. And a 20+lb light tells me a serious heatsink is at work which should make for very stable LED temps and longevity over prolonged usage cycles.

 

[Flippers4pups]

After reading about the gentle space fixtures, I'm throughly convinced that these reef lights are top notch built. Years of experience building these and their applications are over the top. Concerns of thermal degradation with these are now laid to rest. Period.

Cost, I did not factor the vat. But we haven't seen US pricing yet, so I'm waiting on the release of this from philips.

Back to weight, this housing is very heavy and must be because of the heat distribution needed. Okay, it's needed. But it's still heavy. They do offer mounting options for the gen2 housing, which is a plus. But it's still heavy!
Mounting 4 units over a large tank would be pushing 100lbs!

 

[maroun.c]

Very personal choice but id go with a dead silent fail proof fanless cooling design over a more slick and nice looking but noisy one. The weight is the result of a 10 KG heat sink to allow for not having fans.

 

[Davesgt]

Overall in my opinion this light is gonna up the bar for other LED companies. I'm a AI user and have been after using various other leds ( Kessil, Radion, Black box, Maxspect), the reason is because in my opinion the color blend seems smoother. With this fixture it puts them all on blast and will more than likely give you the actual color blend that a lot of us are looking for, and no more led spotlighting. Just like this review shows the spectrum closely to the ATI blue plus, I can safely say that alone might persuade a lot of t5 users to actually give leds a try. Now for the appearance of the LED yea its pretty ugly but its also in white and to me that just pulls your eyes to it, if it was in black id say that we probably would not be as hard on it lol.