Orphek ICON Upgrade

mtraylor

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Well I updated my lighting on my main display from Orphek v4 gen 2's with 2 OR3 150's to Orphek ICON's with 4 OR3 150's. I thought I would put my lessons learned together for the upgrade to share with everyone and maybe make your upgrade a bit easier.

I upgraded the following
  • LED PCB + PC CARD COMBO Kit
  • Aluminum TOP
This kit comes with the glass lenses on everything 430nm and below. I'm hoping this fixes the issue's that I had on my V4 gen 2. If you make these upgrades. You will have brand new light. So I'm very excited to see how this performs.

This is my new setup
20220525_130942.jpg


FTS (Update Taken 02/2023
DSC_6699-3.jpg


DIFFERENCES
The PCB Boards are very different between the V4 Gen2 and the ICON. First pic is a picture of one of one of my old V4 gen 2 boards that had burned LED's in 440 and below and a few cap's burned on the 20k LED's.

V4 Gen 2
20220518_213937_1.jpg


This is the new icon board. Pic is not great but the form factor I believe is changed a bit for cooling. I'm excited to see how the glass lenses work. I couldn't tell if the led itself was glass but the cover's they provide are.

ICON
20220518_223253 (1).jpg


THE UPGRADE
Before you start your upgrade. There is a reset button to install. All the videos and documents say optional installation of reset button after you have upgraded everything. I personally dont think that is optional since you have to hit the reset button multiple times to get the fixture in synch mode for your mobile. This is the easiest way.

My recommendation is to drill the hole in the mesh while your old fixture is still in tact. This way there is pressure on both sides of the mesh and makes it easier to drill. You will need a 3/8" drill bit for proper hole size. I found it was easier to start with a small bit and work up to proper size.

ICON_reset_Button.png



Following are a couple helpful links to installing the PC Card and Board. It takes about 3 4oz tubes of thermal paste for installing the boards. I think I found mine for about 10.98/tube.


PC CARD


PC BOARD


INSTALLING TEMP Probe
When you install the new temp probe. I got a tip from James. If you dont have any of the adhesive they used for your original temp probe. You can just wedge the probe in one of the aluminum louvars. Example below is how I installed mine.
20220519_180046.jpg



SPRINGS
In your install kit you will find some springs. There are no instructions on where those springs go. James let me know that they go under the brass extensions to adhere all the aluminum together for heat dissipation
orphek_spring.jpeg



PROGRAMING
Programing of the lights now is way easier than before. The upgrade was worth it just for that. The lights run allot cooler than previous V4 gen 2's. The fans are really quite which was a surprise as I heard some people complaining about it. I found the fans are silent rather they are in quite mode or not. I left them in quite mode as I dont see any cooling performance issues in that mode. I do have aluminum hanging kit so I have allot of aluminum to dissipate heat.

I have currently took the helius program and made it a bit bluer in the morning and night, but with the 4 OR3 150 blue plus's. The light fixture looks allot like the Radion G5 AB+ program without manipulating the Helius program that much. This is what I see visibly and not with spectrometer.

This is my current program
Screenshot_20220604-172121_Orphek iCon.jpg


The view shows the broad programing changes but not each individual setting. I linked all three lights together and started the lunar and clouds program. The lunar lighting is pretty nice. However I find that after you group your lights together there is no way to make a delay between each light. This would be ideal for dusk and dawn lighting with multiple lights and not to mention the cloud feature.

On my old GHL mitras you could link all your lights and put a delay from light to light so when you ran the cloud feature, you could watch the clouds move over your entire aquarium. In the new Orphek feature for clouds, I have not really seen it work. If its working, then I cant tell much. I think there is some room for improvement here, so I will await there next updates.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
I really think this upgrade was worth the money. The lights look great and program easy. I cant wait to get my tank broken down and back up again to see how it performs on my sps.
 
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Sean Clark

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Thank you for sharing. This will help a lot of people trying to decide on upgrading.
 
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mtraylor

mtraylor

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Np. Hopefully it will help some people make their upgrades allot easier and make a decision as well. I recommend the aluminum top if you want to reduce heat on the light. That old lid just kept the heat in the fixture. My lights run at 31 degrees C when I just had 2 OR3 bars a couple inches away from the main fixture. Huge improvement. Filling that space with another OR3 it went up a couple degrees.

Since I have aluminum rails. You can put your hand on them now right around the junction and feel the heat being dissipated. The fans just push cool air to your hand. Really happy with the new look as well. Very clean looking.

Since all the guts have been replaced. Its all brand new and I'm hoping will last a long time. The spectrum or color looks great. It reminds me of my Radium 20k MH's with VHO actinics. Cant wait to see corals under this.
 

Darklad

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How is your schedule doing ?
Mind sharing the whole settings ? I'm kinda got sick and tired of the white look that the helius giving me :p
 
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mtraylor

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Np. I can share mine. Let me figure out how to do that.

I basically go from light blue in the morning to helius and then back to light blue in the evening. It works really well for me at the moment with the 4 or3 blue plus's. they bring the blue to the party for me. Not using much on the main ICONS's
 

Darklad

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For how long you keep your OR3 on ?
I believe the only way now to share the the whole schedule is to take screenshot of every point .
 
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mtraylor

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I basically run the OR3's for about 11 hours. They supplement all day except the dusk and dawn functionality of the ICON's. I bring each one on and off staggered so that they gradually give the fluorescents and not all on at one time.
 
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mtraylor

mtraylor

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Ok. Here is what the schedule that I started running. Now that I have reset aquarium and have my first 2 corals in here. I'm thinking of changing my morning dusk and dawn settings. But I really like the white view from the Helius program. It really lets me see the real color of the fish.

Overall View
Screenshot_20220604_Orphek iCon.jpg


Dusk
Screenshot_20220918-1_Orphek iCon.jpg


Midday Start
Screenshot_20220918-2_Orphek iCon.jpg


Peak Helius Program
Screenshot_20220918-3_Orphek iCon.jpg


Now all of these are supplemented with the OR3 Blue Plus's. If I didn't have those, I would have to change the programming to get the look that I wanted. But since I'm running them horizontally instead of vertically it works out really well.

The other settings right of the peak are exactly the same, but put at different times.

I'm going to be making allot changes to this whole thing once Orphek comes out with the dimmers for the OR3's. This will give me more options on my dusk dawn and day viewing with the blue plus being dimmable. For the mean time I think I may make my dusk dawn feature more blue/red to see how I like it.
 

BPaul

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Any chance you still have one of the V4 Gen 2 LED boards that didn't have any burn out? I am hoping to delay the upgrade and just replace the old LED board.
The upgrade looks incredible, but I was hoping for something to tie me over for a few months.
 

Reeefer00

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Just wanted to drop a note and say tank you so much for the review and info. I just received my upgrade kit and felt a bit overwhelmed.
 
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mtraylor

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Your welcome. I'm glad I could point out a few things to make things easier.
 

Miles Laughton

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Good review… I’ve just done the same myself!
Although I must admit I prefer the v4’s spectrum… I welcome its reliability!
 
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mtraylor

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Thank you. Yeah the new new lights are less blue with the helius program, but I'm liking it so far. However I do have blue plus led bar supplements.

I'm now in the process of moving corals from my frag tank with G5's on it to my display. I moved a new York Knicks torch yesterday with plenty of color to my display and it seems to lack a bit of color upon first placement in the sand.

Thus is where I will start to acclimate the corals and see what color I'm getting out of them. Will see over the next several weeks. If I don't get what I like. I will start to change my settings over to a more AB+ settings.

Time will tell. So far. The lights have been great. Just waiting on the OR3 controller they keep teasing for the past 4 years
 

Miles Laughton

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Hi mate… it only took a few days to come.. poss one week max.
Just go careful doing it.
Preparation is key, get set up on a bench or a table so you’re not working on the floor on your knees.
Buy a decent 9mm metal bit if you choose to fit the reset button and buy/ use plenty of cooling paste. This doesn’t come with the kit.
Watch you don’t pinch the wires fit the board where they go through the led board when screwed on.
apart from that piece of cake!
Let me know if you need any assistance.
 
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mtraylor

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You will not be disappointed. Be sure to get everything if you want the extra cooling which will make the light last longer. To me it's the most important for longevity. No gateway freedom is awesome. You will see
 
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mtraylor

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Well I have my first sps piece in the aquarium under the new lights. LPS and anemones have been super vibrant. Loving the light. Since my tank is fairly new after resetting everything. I'm hoping its ready for the sps. Will know over the next 2 weeks. Once they start going. I will start sharing photos.

This is FTS with some lps in the aquarium and my Chicago sunburst. As you can see. The fish colors are super vibrant. Its amazing color. Best I have ever had and I started years ago with MH's. Had 3 400K Radium's with 320watts actinic over the aquarium back then. Just for comparison.

I will try to get some individual pics today and post them.

DSC_6699-3.jpg
 
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mtraylor

mtraylor

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With my current settings. I put my first sps in the aquarium a week ago. Picture below. After a week. I now have a nice base growing on the bottom of the sps that is starting to spread. However. I noticed that the corals is no longer nice a reddish. Its more light in color now. Growing but not as vibrant.

I took out my PAR meter and measured several spots in the tank. At this spot I'm upwards 500 PAR and at the sand I'm at 280 - 300 par. This is at 29" deep. The light is doing what I want it too. The spread is really nice.

Now I have to strategically place certain corals where I want them for optimum color and growth. I did reduce the power on the settings I currently have by 10% to see how that fairs out for now. My next steps may be to to see if I can tweek the light to more of an AB+ setting. Will keep you posted.
DSC_6793-2.jpg
 

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