Waterbox 100.3 Orphek Back to SPS Reef Madness
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OP
OP
Been quite the journey with battlecorals cricket spine. Excuse the terrible pics, I didn’t try taking nice ones during the worst so they are cropped badly.
When 1st arrived:
then it got knocked off and lost for week in the back of the tank. Greened out but survived somehow.
then astrina starfish ate the bottom half or more….. worst pic here as it was in the bottom of another photo. Was sure that it wouldn’t make it.
And today!
Quite the adventure for this coral.
When 1st arrived:
then it got knocked off and lost for week in the back of the tank. Greened out but survived somehow.
then astrina starfish ate the bottom half or more….. worst pic here as it was in the bottom of another photo. Was sure that it wouldn’t make it.
And today!
Quite the adventure for this coral.
OP
OP
I have a couple acros touching and the pc rainbow seems to be a lot stronger than the Oregon tort and kills where it touches, so I used from f aptasia since it makes such a nice coating on the pc rainbow to give the tort some space. I will have to repeat eventually but it worked well. So now I call this product f acros!
couple quick iPhone shots when I put it on last week. Waited 20 min to turn all the pumps back on as this spot gets a ton of flow.
Here they are a week later. The pc rainbow already has a new growth edge so it worked as planned and the acro healed fine.
couple quick iPhone shots when I put it on last week. Waited 20 min to turn all the pumps back on as this spot gets a ton of flow.
Here they are a week later. The pc rainbow already has a new growth edge so it worked as planned and the acro healed fine.
OP
OP
Bit of an update. I noticed my orphek channel 3 was out again, now I have had good luck and very much like my orphek for growing coral, and had good service replacing the previous board when if had issues when they sent me a new one despite being out of warranty for shipping cost only. It also seems perfect, to me, for a 3x2 tank and I like having it mounted high. I really don't know what I would replace it with other than orphek bars, the other options like neptune sky doesn't cover as much and needs to be mounted lower for light spill reasons.
I decided to upgrade to the new icon board, the icon controller (BT and WiFi) - those two are standard kit upgrades, which I like about orphek, I also sprang for the glass lens for the UV and violet channels as new ones come with those, and also spent money for the new aluminum top which ideally acts as another heat sink.
Upgrade shipped from Hong Kong and once it was processed by DHL it took 6 days to arrive. It included a very nice printed heavy stock owners manual on the ICON control, I like to see owners manuals not just links to online, so that was nice, and it also came with a really nice booklet with large clear photos on how to do the various upgrades.
I had ordered thermal paste as they don't supply it, and that took a great deal more than I anticipated, but a run to best buy and thankfully a sale for half price paste solved that issue. That stuff is harder to apply to a large area than I anticipated, but 6 tubes hopefully was enough, just a small layer was applied, but it doesn't have the force to spread it like a CPU, I didn't have any squish out which means I didn't apply too much, perhaps too little, or most likely there isn't enough pressure even with the screws to totally flatten it. However with the tiny bit previously on there before it has to be an upgrade. I cleaned both surfaces with acetone so we should be good there.
Overall it was not hard, although it took a good while as I was pretty careful and took the opportunity to clean the parts well. The lens fit with the stock acrylic was never good so I had to remove some material from the bottom of one of the optics to get them to fit and just glued it in place, not a huge deal. Drilled the hole for the reset button, which was harder to drill than I anticipated, but no issues and works fine.
Got it remounted, plugged in, already installed the new app on my phone and it connected and even had a few software updates. The new app is really nice, a 10x or more improvement over the old. I modified their stock program a bit. The lunar settings are impressive, they can dim so much you can just get a hint of moonight in the tank, and like true moonlight, it's not just blue, although you can set it however you want. I also like there is a current status tab which shows what the channels are running and the temp.
The new fans seem to move a great deal more are as well. Here is hoping for longevity!
Overall I am impressed and happy to see orphek making positive changes to their lineup. Having owned many brands of lights the upgrades are typically just 'eh' and don't have the ability to upgrade existing lights. Heck Kessil ran the same fixtures for seemingly near a decade without a new model. It's refreshing to see a company have a light that can be upgraded, but also the upgrades improve every area that was lacking, no cost cutting, if anything more expensive, but from what I have seen the new fixtures are same or lower price plus no need for the $100+ gateway!
I decided to upgrade to the new icon board, the icon controller (BT and WiFi) - those two are standard kit upgrades, which I like about orphek, I also sprang for the glass lens for the UV and violet channels as new ones come with those, and also spent money for the new aluminum top which ideally acts as another heat sink.
Upgrade shipped from Hong Kong and once it was processed by DHL it took 6 days to arrive. It included a very nice printed heavy stock owners manual on the ICON control, I like to see owners manuals not just links to online, so that was nice, and it also came with a really nice booklet with large clear photos on how to do the various upgrades.
I had ordered thermal paste as they don't supply it, and that took a great deal more than I anticipated, but a run to best buy and thankfully a sale for half price paste solved that issue. That stuff is harder to apply to a large area than I anticipated, but 6 tubes hopefully was enough, just a small layer was applied, but it doesn't have the force to spread it like a CPU, I didn't have any squish out which means I didn't apply too much, perhaps too little, or most likely there isn't enough pressure even with the screws to totally flatten it. However with the tiny bit previously on there before it has to be an upgrade. I cleaned both surfaces with acetone so we should be good there.
Overall it was not hard, although it took a good while as I was pretty careful and took the opportunity to clean the parts well. The lens fit with the stock acrylic was never good so I had to remove some material from the bottom of one of the optics to get them to fit and just glued it in place, not a huge deal. Drilled the hole for the reset button, which was harder to drill than I anticipated, but no issues and works fine.
Got it remounted, plugged in, already installed the new app on my phone and it connected and even had a few software updates. The new app is really nice, a 10x or more improvement over the old. I modified their stock program a bit. The lunar settings are impressive, they can dim so much you can just get a hint of moonight in the tank, and like true moonlight, it's not just blue, although you can set it however you want. I also like there is a current status tab which shows what the channels are running and the temp.
The new fans seem to move a great deal more are as well. Here is hoping for longevity!
Overall I am impressed and happy to see orphek making positive changes to their lineup. Having owned many brands of lights the upgrades are typically just 'eh' and don't have the ability to upgrade existing lights. Heck Kessil ran the same fixtures for seemingly near a decade without a new model. It's refreshing to see a company have a light that can be upgraded, but also the upgrades improve every area that was lacking, no cost cutting, if anything more expensive, but from what I have seen the new fixtures are same or lower price plus no need for the $100+ gateway!
OP
OP
Lights hit their current program max a bit ago and I took some temp readings, then again 1hr later and they seemed to hold steady so for the house at 74 I don't expect the readings to get higher than this, unless I extend the program which I might do later. Since one channel was out I don't want to shock the coral. I have some PAR numbers to post later.
Temp reported by the unit's heat sink = 101
Aluminum top = 95 but varies
Metal sides where exhaust vents = 100-105
Pointing the heat gun straight up into the LEDs not sure what part it's measuring = 130-150
Here is my kessil h380 temps with same inexpensive reptile infared heat meter:
Top = 85
Side exhaust = 112
Side panel = 95
Bottom metal = 105
Pointing into the LED = Exceeded the max of the machine of 230 although the edges recorded 220 before the 'HI'
Overall temps seem to be a bit cooler than the h380, upgrading the top to aluminum was a good call it would seem.
Temp reported by the unit's heat sink = 101
Aluminum top = 95 but varies
Metal sides where exhaust vents = 100-105
Pointing the heat gun straight up into the LEDs not sure what part it's measuring = 130-150
Here is my kessil h380 temps with same inexpensive reptile infared heat meter:
Top = 85
Side exhaust = 112
Side panel = 95
Bottom metal = 105
Pointing into the LED = Exceeded the max of the machine of 230 although the edges recorded 220 before the 'HI'
Overall temps seem to be a bit cooler than the h380, upgrading the top to aluminum was a good call it would seem.
OP
OP
I just tested my kessil a160 on the pico. It runs about 95 all over the housing evenly, the reflector on the bottom is 120, and the COB chip is again over 230 'HI', although right around it as I also saw a 220. It's much cooler than the h380, I wonder what those diodes run at.
OP
OP
The old board looked to be in good shape despite the failure, I wonder why the channel stopped, but it's not worth my time to investigate it:
The new aluminum top and machining marks on the bottom, which I think look pretty neat and wouldn't mind them being visible!
The new board with glass lens, those lens were put there just for shipping and are not yet installed on the correct channels.
I didn't get a picture of the ICON controller, but it looks similar to the old. A few hours later and we have light!
My previous program for orphek lights was to peak all channels up for 3-4hr, then drop channel 1 to around half of the others for another 4hr or so with the other 3 running 100%. I wish I was able to get that program but the gateway no longer pulled it up before the upgrade, but thankfully the light kept running it. I do not know when channel 3 went out, but I think it was some time ago as I had two clams die in the DT that were healthy and growing for 2 years, after taking PAR measurements before the upgrade I know why, they went from being in peak of in 300-350 PAR to way, way less. Like 100.... I am surprised the remaining 3 were able to keep growing, but all clams are different with lighting needs, even in the same species.
Anyway here is the old BRS review screenshot of their prefered colors with the spectrum. They took one channel with reds to 40% and another to 70%, I still wanted run a peak with those colors, but I do understand the drop of the red channel which I did as well but that quite that far as I said above after a few hours of it maxed:
While the ICON has 6 channels, channel 1 and 2 are very similar to the above spectrum wise particularly channel 1:
Running the stock Oprhek program while fine during the day, the amber and red is a bit much for my taste at night so I replicated my original programming here, but without keeping the LEDs at max because they are putting out so much more PAR. I will watch the tank closely and adjust as desired but keeping the ratios. If I don't see signs of bleaching I can increase the 5pm intensity amount.
Here is the bit I was shocked at..... So here is a poor drawing of PAR values when it was a mixed reef running 100% over a year ago that I saved. You can see 200 was about the min and 300 hit the bottom under the fixture. The rock work was much shorter than now, so don't take this as concrete, just a guide. The 500 PAR number were about halfway up give or take.
Before swapping I took values of the PAR with the burnt channel 3..... drawing is worse, but I have 3 pillars and smaller ones which made easy reference points. The top of the center was 360-400 PAR, tops of the others varied from 150-200 with a bit more near the middle. The bottom with clams that was 300 dropped to 180, and some spots even more around and under 100.... so I lost at least 50% PAR. My mysterious clam deaths are explained.
I know that rough sketch doesn't make much sense but it does based off coral or clam landmarks.
I have not done a detailed measurement with the new upgrade yet, but I did put channels to 100 and measured on the PC rainbow, that was at 400 max. It now reads 800-900, so the upgrade restored and might have even gained a bit of PAR however the structure is much higher. So I am watching the coral carefully for bleaching and running a reduced schedule as above. I am glad I checked! That is a huge difference.
The new aluminum top and machining marks on the bottom, which I think look pretty neat and wouldn't mind them being visible!
The new board with glass lens, those lens were put there just for shipping and are not yet installed on the correct channels.
I didn't get a picture of the ICON controller, but it looks similar to the old. A few hours later and we have light!
My previous program for orphek lights was to peak all channels up for 3-4hr, then drop channel 1 to around half of the others for another 4hr or so with the other 3 running 100%. I wish I was able to get that program but the gateway no longer pulled it up before the upgrade, but thankfully the light kept running it. I do not know when channel 3 went out, but I think it was some time ago as I had two clams die in the DT that were healthy and growing for 2 years, after taking PAR measurements before the upgrade I know why, they went from being in peak of in 300-350 PAR to way, way less. Like 100.... I am surprised the remaining 3 were able to keep growing, but all clams are different with lighting needs, even in the same species.
Anyway here is the old BRS review screenshot of their prefered colors with the spectrum. They took one channel with reds to 40% and another to 70%, I still wanted run a peak with those colors, but I do understand the drop of the red channel which I did as well but that quite that far as I said above after a few hours of it maxed:
While the ICON has 6 channels, channel 1 and 2 are very similar to the above spectrum wise particularly channel 1:
Running the stock Oprhek program while fine during the day, the amber and red is a bit much for my taste at night so I replicated my original programming here, but without keeping the LEDs at max because they are putting out so much more PAR. I will watch the tank closely and adjust as desired but keeping the ratios. If I don't see signs of bleaching I can increase the 5pm intensity amount.
Here is the bit I was shocked at..... So here is a poor drawing of PAR values when it was a mixed reef running 100% over a year ago that I saved. You can see 200 was about the min and 300 hit the bottom under the fixture. The rock work was much shorter than now, so don't take this as concrete, just a guide. The 500 PAR number were about halfway up give or take.
Before swapping I took values of the PAR with the burnt channel 3..... drawing is worse, but I have 3 pillars and smaller ones which made easy reference points. The top of the center was 360-400 PAR, tops of the others varied from 150-200 with a bit more near the middle. The bottom with clams that was 300 dropped to 180, and some spots even more around and under 100.... so I lost at least 50% PAR. My mysterious clam deaths are explained.
I know that rough sketch doesn't make much sense but it does based off coral or clam landmarks.
I have not done a detailed measurement with the new upgrade yet, but I did put channels to 100 and measured on the PC rainbow, that was at 400 max. It now reads 800-900, so the upgrade restored and might have even gained a bit of PAR however the structure is much higher. So I am watching the coral carefully for bleaching and running a reduced schedule as above. I am glad I checked! That is a huge difference.
OP
OP
Took par readings. All 6 at 100% as it peaks at 11 then readings with 2-6 at 80% and channel 1 at 40% which it gradually tapers to for the bulk of the photoperiod. I’ll attach my drawing so can see what I tried to reference. It’s of course hard to get front to back depth in a photo, I could have shrunk font for those in back, medium in middle and large for front but too hard to see I think.
also for most the reading was taken where the middle yellow value is.
also for most the reading was taken where the middle yellow value is.
MoKan Reefer
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Awesome build thus far!
I know it's a little off subject but you didn't happen to keep your old pc/control board and led board did you?
I know it's a little off subject but you didn't happen to keep your old pc/control board and led board did you?
JayKim
Active Member
One of my Orphek channel 3 stopped working just after two years. In my case one of the led on channel 3 was bad. So I ordered a new board to replace it thinking that I can use the old board as parts if any of the leds on the new board goes bad in the future, but it's almost impossible to remove the led from the board without destroying it. Not very DIY friendly.
OP
OP
i do have the old board and parts still.
However I am not sure what all works. The 1st board that failed clearly had burnt leds. Channel 3 stopped this time but didn’t look burnt so no idea where the problem is or if in both the board and controller
OP
OP
I am surprised to hear this, the board seems similar to the old reefbreeders value fixtures to remove the leds with a heat gun, I assumed they were the same.
I have to say putting together pretty much a brand new light it felt pretty much like a diy led build haha. Especially the easy connect diodes if those even are sold for the hobby anymore.
JayKim
Active Member
The led chip seemed super glued onto the board, the +/- are soldered on. I haven't seen reefbreeders' fixture up close so I don't know. I guess if you have a heat gun it's possible to remove it without destroying it. If this is the case I take back what I said. Replacing the whole board is quite the work because you have to take everything apart and put them back. I guess what I am trying to say is that it's disappointing that just because of 1 bad led you have to replace the whole board. This was the one bad led on my fixture.
JayKim
Active Member
Look through this manual it walks you through trouble shooting. I used a wire to jumper the leds to find the bad one. Orphek Troubleshooting
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