Lighting choice

[Willzs]

So I've currently got 3 Orphek OR bars above my tank but I'm thinking about swapping to a Hydra 32hd in place of 1 or 2 of these bars. 

 

Would it be enough light with 1 OR3 and a Hydra 32? Tank is 90cm x 50cm x 50cm.

[mitten_reef]

1 hour ago, Willzs said:

So I've currently got 3 Orphek OR bars above my tank but I'm thinking about swapping to a Hydra 32hd in place of 1 or 2 of these bars. 

 

Would it be enough light with 1 OR3 and a Hydra 32? Tank is 90cm x 50cm x 50cm.

Stick with the OR bars. One hydra won’t give enough coverage for a tank that long. 

[Willzs]

1 hour ago, mitten_reef said:

Stick with the OR bars. One hydra won’t give enough coverage for a tank that long. 

What about using a combination of the 2? I was thinking either 1 or 2 bars with the hydra?

[ReefGoat]

Pics? How do you like the orphek bars? Do they provide a decent amount of par? 

[Willzs]

9 hours ago, ReefGoat said:

Pics? How do you like the orphek bars? Do they provide a decent amount of par? 

I like the Orphek bars and the given figures for PAR are good, not tested myself as I don't have access to a meter. They are a bit on the blue side for me though.

[ReefGoat]

Looks nice. I see they make different spectrums. I wonder if a combo of these spectrums from them (blue, reef, uv, blue) would be comparable to a 4 bulb t5? Would be a slight more cost up front but without the cost of replacing the bulbs yearly could be worth it. Hm

[Willzs]

42 minutes ago, ReefGoat said:

Looks nice. I see they make different spectrums. I wonder if a combo of these spectrums from them (blue, reef, uv, blue) would be comparable to a 4 bulb t5? Would be a slight more cost up front but without the cost of replacing the bulbs yearly could be worth it. Hm

Mine are 2 reef blue and 1 reef day if that helps

[mcarroll]

On 11/14/2020 at 2:45 PM, Willzs said:

So I've currently got 3 Orphek OR bars above my tank but I'm thinking about swapping to a Hydra 32hd in place of 1 or 2 of these bars. 

 

Would it be enough light with 1 OR3 and a Hydra 32? Tank is 90cm x 50cm x 50cm.

Curious why you went with the Orpheks to begin with and also why you want to change?  Sometimes expectations are everything.

 

In terms of "enough", you can consider the old "watts per gallon rule" of 3-5 watts.

 

Are the Orphek's you have running about 12 watts each, actual power usage?  If so, three of them at 36-watts total on what amounts to about a 56 gallon system, you're currently at just about 0.64 watts per gallon.

 

1 watt is still doable (I've done it on a stony coral tank of similar depth) but already pretty extreme on the low end...and you're just about at 50% less than that.

 

If you don't like em anymore and are more interested in switching, then you can target other systems in the power range I mentioned.  

 

Again, your system is about 56 gallons in size, which would suggest that you have around 100 watts on the low end.

 

For example, two AI Primes, two A160's, two Current USA IC strips, etc.  200-300 watts would be fine on the high side of the range.  A Hydra 32HD fits the bill (even without the added light bar), but I'd really suggest two smaller lights vs one large one.

 

If you still like the Orphek's, there's no reason you can't add more strips....up to 6 or 8...as much as the space allows.  8 Orphek bars fits the bill just as nicely as the Hydra 32 does.  I'd guess that 6 or 7 would be just as fine.

[mitten_reef]

On 11/17/2020 at 6:28 PM, mcarroll said:

 

 

Are the Orphek's you have running about 12 watts each, actual power usage?  If so, three of them at 36-watts total on what amounts to about a 56 gallon system, you're currently at just about 0.64 watts per gallon.

 

1 watt is still doable (I've done it on a stony coral tank of similar depth) but already pretty extreme on the low end...and you're just about at 50% less than that.

 

 

FYI

3-ft orphek has 40W consumption each (using 120W-rated chips), with outstanding PAR numbers.

https://orphek.com/or2-150-120-90-60-reef-led-lighting/

https://orphek.com/par-map-or2-120-blue-plus/

 

[Willzs]

So I decided to swap the orpheks out. I've now got an evergrow it5080. Only running at 30% on the ab+ program at the moment but I'm much happier with it.

[ReefGoat]

Looking good

[mitten_reef]

On 11/15/2020 at 4:43 AM, Willzs said:

I like the Orphek bars and the given figures for PAR are good, not tested myself as I don't have access to a meter. They are a bit on the blue side for me though.

I am actually contemplating this combo.  is it this blue in real life? or have you already adjusted the photo for white balance?  I know their Daylight bar is pretty warm, maybe 15-18000K in-person? still, might benefit from a 1:1 ratio of daylight-to-blue+?    

[A.m.P]

From what I've read people don't necessarily love the look of just orphek bars, but they seem to be a great solution to evenly-lighting a tank.

I think matteo worked with one of the bars for a bit and didn't like them at all, but I could be mis-remembering.

[Willzs]

1 hour ago, mitten_reef said:

I am actually contemplating this combo.  is it this blue in real life? or have you already adjusted the photo for white balance?  I know their Daylight bar is pretty warm, maybe 15-18000K in-person? still, might benefit from a 1:1 ratio of daylight-to-blue+?    

This is 2 blue and 1 reef day. Not adjusted the colours at all.

[mcarroll]

9 hours ago, A.m.P said:

From what I've read people don't necessarily love the look

But you *know* what they say about people...

[Tamberav]

I love my one OR3 bar on my sunpower. Adds some nice pop and the trippy black light effect at sunset for the husband.

 

They feel built nice and don’t run hot. Sturdy feeling.

 

I wouldn’t run a bunch of bars though... they are not controllable and each have a cord. That’s just too much money invested for what doesn’t look very clean. Great for supplementing though.