CoralCare Gen 2 vs Orphek Atlantik

hart24601 · Mar 17, 2021

Pau Hana Reefer said:
Great point about the mounting height. That is one of my current pain points... I built my canopy far two short. My Viparspectra are currently 6.5” above the water. I can squeeze another 1.5” max without having to make changes to my canopy. Dana Riddle’s review of the CC included a PAR mapping for the lights mounted at 6” and the results were impressive.

Based off the height I would change my vote then. My orpheks are 13” off the water.... CC would be more uniform that low. I would worry the orphek would not blend well that low. Fwiw my lights are 34” over the bottom of the tank and I get 300 par on the bottom.

Pau Hana Reefer · Mar 17, 2021

hart24601 said:
I had some of mine burn out and it was just outside the warranty period of my orphek. They still sent me the upgraded board for shipping only despite me offering to pay for it. Here is a close up of the leds new vs old. You can see they significantly upgraded the connections on the leds so I am not worried about them failing on the new lights. Also bonus pic of acro and clam 2mo growth under orphek.

hart24601 said:
Based off the height I would change my vote then. My orpheks are 13” off the water.... CC would be more uniform that low. I would worry the orphek would not blend well that low. Fwiw my lights are 34” over the bottom of the tank and I get 300 par on the bottom.

I've seen consistent feedback that Orphek seems to take care of their customers, and go above and beyond. Those are definitely some nice results from the light!

After your change in recommendation, I took a look into available data for Orphek's. You're right, CC does seem to be the better choice when hung at lower heights. While I would modify, or even rebuild, my canopy, I would rather not. This is definitely important to me, so thank you for bringing this point up! Looks like I'll be trying CC.

Next dilemma... how do I hide this purchase from my wife? ;Wacky

Preyou · Mar 30, 2021

Pau Hana Reefer said:
I've seen consistent feedback that Orphek seems to take care of their customers, and go above and beyond. Those are definitely some nice results from the light!

After your change in recommendation, I took a look into available data for Orphek's. You're right, CC does seem to be the better choice when hung at lower heights. While I would modify, or even rebuild, my canopy, I would rather not. This is definitely important to me, so thank you for bringing this point up! Looks like I'll be trying CC.

Next dilemma... how do I hide this purchase from my wife? ;Wacky

Don't know how you are going to hide it, but do it before the end of the month of you are going to do it. I just picked up a pair of CC's from BRS with the controller for $1469 shipped. You really cannot beat that price no matter what you do.

Midrats · Mar 31, 2021

Seems like a ton of cash when the light these are trying to mimic is less than half the price.

pigmo · Mar 31, 2021

yea i completely agree with @Midrats, why the H would you buy LEDs to mimic T5s, when you can just get T5s for 20 to 50% of the price.

LED pricing is outrageous! ;Chicken

Braver69 · Apr 3, 2021

pigmo said:
yea i completely agree with @Midrats, why the H would you buy LEDs to mimic T5s, when you can just get T5s for 20 to 50% of the price.

LED pricing is outrageous! ;Chicken

While I agree leds are expensive, when you add in bulb replacements the t-5 fixture is not as cheap as it appears and not everyone can get the bulbs they want locally either. Plus while the coral cares are meant to mimic t-5 output, you do gain greater control of par output then you would ever get with an actual t-5 fixture. So far I really like my Coral Care fixtures and there is something to be said for being dead silent.

kutcha · Apr 3, 2021

pigmo said:
yea i completely agree with @Midrats, why the H would you buy LEDs to mimic T5s, when you can just get T5s for 20 to 50% of the price.

LED pricing is outrageous! ;Chicken

because bulbs are 20$ a pop and most people are getting 6-8 bulb fixtures so your looking at 120-160$ every 6 months in bulb replacements

rc1626 · Apr 3, 2021

kutcha said:
because bulbs are 20$ a pop and most people are getting 6-8 bulb fixtures so your looking at 120-160$ every 6 months in bulb replacements

Although I do agree about the bulb changes, to say every six months is not realistic for many. More like 12 months for most and some may even push to 15 - 18 after BRS's video on them.

I'm also a CC user for about 3.5 months now. So far I'm liking them alot coming from halides. The tank was started with an 8 bulb ATI fixture over a year ago so it's seen each lighting format along the way. Unlike the flat t5 look they also give a very little shimmer with the 4 clear spots in the glass panel. I've opted to put a couple kessil a160's on my 180 to add a little more to that shimmer and they do a nice job at that.

Overall corals have not skipped a beat to this point.

To each their own.

Hot2na · Apr 4, 2021

I love the whiter look..and have my radions @ 12k..that being said I have used orphek led bars to light a mixed softie/lps tank with EXCELLENT results....

Jack Ravensbergen · Apr 4, 2021

Had the first edition cc and now the gen2 ... love them

atoll · Apr 4, 2021

Couple of points about the new Orpheks.
They have replaced some of the UV and deep blue LEDs with new spec ones and improved the connections in response to some LEDs failing prematurely.

120reefkeeper · Apr 13, 2021

I Like the Phillips Coral Cares. I've seen a few tanks running them and they looked fantastic! The Coral growth was much denser than I've seen with other L.E.D's

GillMeister · May 26, 2021

EHaddad said:
Agreed! I got an email from Orphek confirming.

Can you post the text from this email? I'm on their mailing list but I didn't get this message. I'm sick to death of the app as it is now. I can't even change the time on my lights without the app crashing. TBH, I can't do anything without it crashing.

Fairymary58 · May 30, 2021

Jack Ravensbergen said:
Had the first edition cc and now the gen2 ... love them

Why did you swap from the gen 1 to the gen 2? Was it just due for an upgrade or something missing in the gen one you wanted?

Jack Ravensbergen · May 30, 2021

Fairymary58 said:
Why did you swap from the gen 1 to the gen 2? Was it just due for an upgrade or something missing in the gen one you wanted?

Good morning ,
I was quite happy with the first edition but had them allready for 4 years.
My lfc had a great deal for me to swap them for the new ones .
Had to pay 500.- euro for two new ones , so out they went quick

Tjm23slo · Jun 21, 2021

Folks - in a hobby where stability is of the utmost importance, how often do you futz with the light spectrum? Intensity? Duration. The app is clunky and setup goofy but I’ve set the lamps up once and I go months without touching the app.
I bought mine used.

the oddest setup was the flashing light reset by quickly unplugging the lights 4 times and when you connect you connect to the gateway not the lights. I had to reset the lights to get the gateway to recognize the lights. Once there fairly straight forward. 4 channels 7 time slots 2 are 0s if you want the light to go off. 1 is a 1 s
To signal on. Which gives you 3 more to handle Ramps.

they need to be in order. The scroll is funky.
Lights are awesome. Spread the out.

Ef4life · Jun 27, 2021

Love my orphek, absolutely love the spectrum it provides. After buying it I won’t even consider another brand of led again. Except for a small tank where it’s too large.