My Review of Orphek Atlantik V4 after 15 Months

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sawdonkey

sawdonkey

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@sawdonkey Mine seem so much harder than that. It took about 15-20 minutes to get the solder off the one led to break it free. Any tricks for that? Did you remove the board from the heat sink to


corey
Put a flathead screwdriver where the LED meets the board and give it a tap with a hammer. If the solder points don’t break from that, melt them with your iron.

Yes, I’ve replaced a board and it’s a pain. SOOOOOO many screws! However, after replacing the board, I’ve had no problems with that fixture.
 

biecacka

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The person who replaced my board (I bought the lights used) stripped half the dang screws......I wanted to remove the board from the heat sink and then use a heating pad from underneath to help reattach the leds.

corey
 

biecacka

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Whelp.....got all the leds off and replaced. 4 of the 7 are working. No clue about the other three. I have an email into them to try to trouble shoot it or provide me with a location to mail them and have them replace them. It was not as hard as I was making it to be yesterday once @sawdonkey said just use a hammer and screwdriver to get them off. But the ones not working now are confusing me.
so I put the 2 halides back on until I get this resolved.......


corey
 

oreo54

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Whelp.....got all the leds off and replaced. 4 of the 7 are working. No clue about the other three. I have an email into them to try to trouble shoot it or provide me with a location to mail them and have them replace them. It was not as hard as I was making it to be yesterday once @sawdonkey said just use a hammer and screwdriver to get them off. But the ones not working now are confusing me.
so I put the 2 halides back on until I get this resolved.......


corey
Any chance you reversed them?
you can test LED's w/ a DIGITAL VOM (most) set to either diode or Ohms..
Probes on each side should dimly light an individual diode..when w/ the correct polarity.
 

oreo54

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Reversed what and how? I seen no +/- on the diodes.

corey

It's sometimes just a dot or cut in the case. Or sometimes just the width of the pads..
There is a DEFINITE right and wrong way to mount them.
Actually the plus/minus looks to be marked on the TAB if "egg" diodes..
Neg. side looks to also have a wide "shoulder" where it meets the diode proper..

eggdiode.jpg



From what you just said I'll assume the 3 are backwards..

Make sure you add thermal compound under the center where diode meets board.
 
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biecacka

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Nope. I put them on correct. One was backwards and I switched it and it worked. The other 3, I have no clue why they aren’t working. I am putting thermal paste (as per orpheks recommendations) under each one.


corey
 

oreo54

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Well like I said, if it's the diode a VOM can confirm. Keep in mind some UV's (true UV) are very hard to tell if they are on..

Last issue would be a damaged trace, which is a wee bit harder to fix..
 

biecacka

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Thing is when I turn these lights on and stand close but at an angle I can see the UV lit. Plus I can see it working on others. So I’m at a complete loss other than sending it back in.

corey
 

ron b

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On my previous builds, I’ve used black box LEds (Ocean Revive) and had a lot of success. When I set my tank back up at the start of last summer, I thought I’d try something of a higher quality to see if I could get even better results. I purchased two Orphek V4s and a gateway directly from Orphek to the tune of nearly $2,000.

My initial impression was that I loved the spectrum, the controllability, and the overall look. I was super happy with the lights for a few months. Then, I noticed that the UV/violet Chanel in one of the fixtures was not lighting up. I emailed with the Orphek guys and they told me to open the fixture and jump each diode with a wire to see which one is bad. So I did and it was a burned out 380nm diode. So the sent one to me and I soldered it in. First, I should not have to solder diodes into $1000 light fixtures, second, every time I take my lights down, it’s a three hour endeavor. So, I soldered it in and it worked....for a while.

Shortly after this , the other fixture did the same thing, so I had to solder in another diode. Shortly after this, the UV channel in first one that went bad went bad again. Also, the blue channel was flickering. I emailed Orphek and they sent me a whole new fixture.

A few months later, and the other fixture’s UV channel is not working again. I emailed Orphek and the sent me a whole new board. I had to take the light apart and put it in. Total pain. Not to mention, the new fixture they just sent a few months ago, now has a partially working UV channel and a flickering blue channel.

So today, I take my lights down and jump diodes with a wire and replace FOUR diodes (I took these from the old board they replaced). Everything was working fine and I put the lights back up. Right now, I’m looking at my tank and one half of it is twice as bright as the other, because half of the blue channel and half of the UV channel aren’t working.

I have a friend that lives close by and he has three fixtures. He has had a very similar experience with all three. So....to sum it up, Orphek has great customer service and the really need it, because their product is flawed. If you’re considering dropping a couple thousand dollars on aquarium lights, I’d look elsewhere. If you like to take your lights down and put them up again over and over, like to solder, and like to talk to customer service, Orphek V4s are for you.
Sorry you had these issuses. If you change get radions orphek has had so many issues it isn't funny.
 

Oldreefer44

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From the Orphek web site:
There are TWO LEDs that don’t seem to be ON and FOUR that seems to me that are dimmed, is this normal?
YES – these LEDs are Infrared 850nm and UV 380nm- meaning that they are the type of lights of shorter or longer wavelengths that doesn’t excite our eyes‘ receptors — Therefore we can’t see anything beyond (infrared) or violet (ultraviolet)

If they appear to be lit from the side they are working.
 

Mortie31

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Sorry you had these issuses. If you change get radions orphek has had so many issues it isn't funny.
Why Radions? That’s a massive step backwards!! and they have lots of issues as well!! And worse of all there point source lights, which are about as opposite as you can get from the orpheks, sorry but your suggestion doesn’t make sense on so many levels...
 

biecacka

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From the Orphek web site:
There are TWO LEDs that don’t seem to be ON and FOUR that seems to me that are dimmed, is this normal?
YES – these LEDs are Infrared 850nm and UV 380nm- meaning that they are the type of lights of shorter or longer wavelengths that doesn’t excite our eyes‘ receptors — Therefore we can’t see anything beyond (infrared) or violet (ultraviolet)

If they appear to be lit from the side they are working.
they are not visible from the side while other LEDs in the same wavelength are. That is what led me to believe they werent working. I am waiting instructions from Orphek. These are the second generation, but have been updated with the new boards and fans of the most current model available .

corey
 

ron b

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Why Radions? That’s a massive step backwards!! and they have lots of issues as well!! And worse of all there point source lights, which are about as opposite as you can get from the orpheks, sorry but your suggestion doesn’t make sense on so many levels...
Lol ok radion a step back funny I've never had to repair my own lights that i paid 2000 bucks for and have constant failure. Radions grow every single coral just fine if that's a step back glad i took it.
 

biecacka

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There is no doubt that radions can grow every coral. However, I believe that the orphek can as well If not I would not have chose it to begin with. the option to fix my own light is similar to Neptune with the Trident.....I can service it myself or send it in. I didn’t think it would be that hard so I opted to do it myself and now I have to send it in anyway. Doesn’t mean when I get them back they won’t grow coral. there are plenty of issues with radion users and their lights but they also have a greater market share So it’s easier to get lost in the shuffle. Either way if the orpheks don’t end up being my cup of tea.....I’m going back to halides. They also work.

corey
 

Grigs

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See these are issues I don’t want to deal with. I don’t have time to do these things and most people don’t. They need to step up their customer service game.

I'm no computer genius, either, and I was able to figure out the programming with minimal grief. It did take a couple of tries before I programmed what I wanted, but it's not awful. You can also just use their installed programs, if you want.
 

Mortie31

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Lol ok radion a step back funny I've never had to repair my own lights that i paid 2000 bucks for and have constant failure. Radions grow every single coral just fine if that's a step back glad i took it.
I’m sorry they just don’t... hence diffusers, shadowing, poor coverage, you need twice as many as they recommend, having to turn whites down so low to prevent burning. point source lights are basically flawed, but newbies repeatedly get persuaded to buy them by fan boys and slick marketing, only to not get the results they want and sell up and leave the hobby, but if people want to go the puck style route the Ghl 7006, kessil 360 and AI hd 64s are all better lights than the radions... ive never had to repair my orpheks either... just like hundreds of other users but like virtually all products you are going to have some failures, but the size, spectrum and coverage of orpheks are unrivalled IMO which maybe why more and more are choosing them over radions...
 

Grigs

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There is an option to send it for repairs in the US. I will say this....I opened mine up today to fix and it was NOT AS EASY as I anticipated. The leds are soldered onto the PCB board and the soldering iron couldn’t get hot enough to get off. my buddy owns a store that repairs electronics so he has all the correct tools. He thinks maybe they use the European solder which takes much more heat to loosen up and his soldering gun doesn’t get that hot. We had to use a heat gun and it actually still was a pain. He ended up mixing the manufacturing solder with a much lower heat solder and a “braid” to scrub the excess off. Hours to get figure this out and we removed 1 led. And because the PCB board is attached to the heat sink and not easily removed (stripped screws) we cannot get a good connection to solder the new led on. 7 more for a total of 8 on this one light. It appears this might be a long job....I’m not happy about it. I emailed them and am awaiting for any helpful hints they might have for my adventure tomorrow........:mad:


corey

The reason that you had a tough time getting the LED off and back on is because it is connected to the heat sink. The heat from the solder was being dissipated through the heat sink, rather than must melting the solder. Lol... It's a catch 22. This is also a problem with more advanced multilayer PCB's. We are past the point of the 1970's bread board, I am afraid...
 

ron b

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I’m sorry they just don’t... hence diffusers, shadowing, poor coverage, you need twice as many as they recommend, having to turn whites down so low to prevent burning. point source lights are basically flawed, but newbies repeatedly get persuaded to buy them by fan boys and slick marketing, only to not get the results they want and sell up and leave the hobby, but if people want to go the puck style route the Ghl 7006, kessil 360 and AI hd 64s are all better lights than the radions... ive never had to repair my orpheks either... just like hundreds of other users but like virtually all products you are going to have some failures, but the size, spectrum and coverage of orpheks are unrivalled IMO which maybe why more and more are choosing them over radions...
I see it's about even people like radion or orphek but radion sells way more than orphek just saying
 

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I see it's about even people like radion or orphek but radion sells way more than orphek just saying
Yes they do, but not because it’s the best product... but by marketing and fan boys... all 3 of the products I listed + Orphek are technically better products than radions... but most people new to the hobby don’t research enough, don’t know what the differences are that make the real difference and end up buying what’s popular in the misguided belief that it must be the best as it sells the most... The trouble with the male ego is we never admit these things to ourselves which is why we’re inherently easy to manipulate....
 

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