Orphek 120 Blue Plus LED Strip reviews???

[FishieBusiness]

Hi All,

Hope that all are well in these trying times. That said I'm thinking of buying 1 of these to add to my current set-up.

Does anyone have experience or reviews with this lighting?

 

[Jacob]

I had 1 use only a week. Mine only 90 blue bar let me know if you’re interested

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

I had 1 use only a week. Mine only 90 blue bar let me know if you’re interested

Unfortunately @Jacob, selling is limited to only "Paid Members".

 

[MarvinsReef]

I have 2 of the orphek blue plus in the 90 and 120 model. Overall I like them. The construction is outstanding it is just built solid. The electric driver gets really hot to touch but I hear this is normal. I worry about the drivers longevity due to the heat. I have the early version of the blue plus when they were coming onto the market about a year ago and my or90 has the green led bulb on the end of the bar. I dislike this the most since it creates a severe green spot like affect shining on my sand bed that is annoying. I have heard this is not the case though anymore since they put a different color on the end of the or90. A few other people complained on reef2reef about this as well after I bought mine. I cannot speak for par values since I do not own a meter. If anything they add a good deal of pop and make some corals fluorescense more. Hope this helps.

 

[FishieBusiness]

I have 2 of the orphek blue plus in the 90 and 120 model. Overall I like them. The construction is outstanding it is just built solid. The electric driver gets really hot to touch but I hear this is normal. I worry about the drivers longevity due to the heat. I have the early version of the blue plus when they were coming onto the market about a year ago and my or90 has the green led bulb on the end of the bar. I dislike this the most since it creates a severe green spot like affect shining on my sand bed that is annoying. I have heard this is not the case though anymore since they put a different color on the end of the or90. A few other people complained on reef2reef about this as well after I bought mine. I cannot speak for par values since I do not own a meter. If anything they add a good deal of pop and make some corals fluorescense more. Hope this helps.

This really does thx. I am looking for that pop exactly!

I was checking a few threads on R2R also.

 

[FishieBusiness]

I had 1 use only a week. Mine only 90 blue bar let me know if you’re interested

My tank is 4ft long so the 90 is too small for me but thx for the offer

 

[coralfishreef]

I have Reefbreeders Lumenbars and their drivers are also very hot. I previously emailed Orphek to see if the Orphek drivers are hot like the Reefbreeders and Orphek’s response was that their drivers are hot and that is normal.

The Orpheks bars look like they have better heat sink fins on them. How hot do the bars get?

 

[MarvinsReef]

OR bars do get fairly hot to the touch. I cannot hold my hand on them for long.

 

[thespsguy]

I have all Orpheks Atlantic G2 guys and they are the best light ever, run 6 in my tank and it's amazing, so I assume the bars would be as well.

 

[FishieBusiness]

I have Reefbreeders Lumenbars and their drivers are also very hot. I previously emailed Orphek to see if the Orphek drivers are hot like the Reefbreeders and Orphek’s response was that their drivers are hot and that is normal.

The Orpheks bars look like they have better heat sink fins on them. How hot do the bars get?

How do you like the reefbreeders?

 

[FishieBusiness]

Love these names from RB
The Colors
Jungle Sun – Mix of Neutral White LEDs with some Red and 420nm violet in the mix- for planted tanks as well as refugiums and reef tank accents.

Reefer 14K– Optimal mix of white and colored LEDs with a 14,000K output

Royal Ice– 50/50 480nm Cool Blue and 450nm Royal Blue- perfect for adding some color POP

High Octane UV– Mix of 420nm and 405nm violet, and 380nm UV- guaranteed to make your SPS corals happy

Pimp My Lights– Choose you own layout and we will custom build it for an additional $25 per LumenBar (2-4 weeks lead time)

 

[coralfishreef]

I haven’t used the Lumenbars for very long so I can’t say much about how well they grow coral. I took a leap of faith after seeing Dong’s tanks (Acro Garden) lit with RB Photons and Lumenbars.

On my new tank I have Royal Ice (Blue) and High Octane UV bars for supplemental light. The blue bar adds about 80 PAR around 18” down mounted at 6.5” above the water (rocks are about 11.5” down from the waterline) - 11” away from the glass, and around 70-80 PAR about 17.5” down from the waterline and 3.5” away from the glass. The HO UV bar adds around 30-40 measurable PAR. Measurements were taken with a Quantum MQ-210 with all flow turned off.

My impressions are that the RB Lumenbars are “cheap” LEDs similar to the Orpheks. I have not owned an Orphek fixture, but I suspect that the build quality of the 2 brands is similar based on photos of the Orpheks. The Lumenbars feel solid and are nicely sealed, but the included driver looks and feels super cheap. FWIW RB sells an upgraded, dimmable driver (Mean Well) for $65-$80 per driver.

The RB Lumenbars have Epistar LEDs which I have not found much information about. For reference, the RB Photon fixtures have Cree LEDs and the Orpheks have unknown LEDs custom made for Orphek. The RB and Orphek drivers appear to be the same or similar drivers at least from photos.

 

[coralfishreef]

For comparison, I also have a single Blue RB Lumenbar over my IM20. The tank looks really blue, but the couple of softies left in the tank are growing.

The bar on the IM20 is mounted 7.5” from the water. 5.5” down from the top of the waterline the PAR measures at 140. 6” down PAR is 130, 8-9” down PAR is 90, 10” down PAR is 60. The bar is mounted diagonally so PAR measurements may be different if mounted square.