Orphek v4 compacts initial impressions

wdebenedettojr

Well-Known Member
BRS Member
So I just changed out my lighting in my 90 gallon and I ended up going with orphek v4 compacts. Two of them. I went with the compacts vs the regular v4 bc I like a modular design and I was skeptical that one v4 could adequately light my tank.

Let’s start off with the ordering process. So I couldn’t find anyone in the US that had these in stock so I bought direct from orphek. Paid for the lights on a Tuesday and was told they should have them shipped out by the following Monday before Chinese New Year. I wasn’t sure how I felt in the beginning about taking a week to ship after payment but whatever since my lighting system was fine at the time. Tuesday of the following week comes by and no tracking number. I email James (orphek rep in USA) asking status. Was told still haven’t shipped but hopefully by Wednesday. I was pretty upset that they still had not been shipped yet but I gave it another day. Wednesday rolled around and still no tracking. James explained that bc of the upcoming holiday in Hong Kong everything was being set back. I told him if I didn’t have a tracking number by Friday I was canceling. Friday came and I got a tracking. Orphek also paid for faster shipping bc of the delay which was nice.

I received the lights yesterday and hung last night.

The lights were packaged very well and there was no damage during transit.

First impressions:
-build quality is very nice
-the units are very sleek (acrylic unibody)
-units are heavier than expected

You can tell these lights are meant to be hung higher then other lights.

-the hanging kit that comes with the lights, the quality is good but I was hoping for something more sleek but hey it works.

The lights require orpheks “gateway” in order to operate. Essentially it’s a mini router only for the lights. Allows all adjustments to lighting schedule/intensity thru your phone

I’m only running the light in acclimation mode for 10 days so my corals adjust but of course I had to play with the colors lol. What I can say is for ppl that love the t5 look, these can almost perfectly mimic it. Impressed so far with how the colors blend and look. Much better than my old look. The blues look so much more natural than the arcade blues leds usually throw off.

I should mention I had some technical difficulties getting one of the units to sync with the gateway. An email to orphek was answered in less than 5 minutes and it was rectified. Nice to know the email for support is monitored!

I have attached some pics of them and some of the looks. The last few pictures of some sps in brain corals is with just the us channel on. I thought the color was crazy!

Time will tell how these are but so far I’m digging the lights

Build quality 5/5
Hanging kit 3/5
Gateway 4/5
Coloration 5/5
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Ok so I went ahead and set my lights today. I was on the acclimation program.

I’ll start by saying the app works. The UI to adjust everything is a little clumsy and cumbersome. Not super easy to use. However I had no issues with connecting and adjust colors to my liking. I know my old pacsuns and hydras/radions adjusting is pretty easy considering it will calculate ramping up/down easily. Unless I am doing it wrong (which is possible) seems the light won’t ramp unless you set it to.

An update to coloration and how my corals are adjusting. My bubblegum milli is a little pissed off right now but it’s towards the top so it could be shocked. However all my other corals look much happier and I swear I’m seeing new growth on some of my acros after a week.

So far the light is impressive and everything adjusting well

The app gets a 3/5 so far since it just doesn’t feel “smooth”
 
Sent an email off to James at orphek about the ramping. Light does ramp between the set points automatically.
 
So far so great. No issues with the lights. 95% of all my corals have a nice growth spurt since the lights were changed. Three of my sps corals that I have had for a while browned out a bit which I expected some to do since changing the lights can stress them out.
 
Wanted to show a visual update of the tank with the orpheks on since February. I went away for business to Cleveland for three weeks in July and lost a few pieces due to a powerhead dying but all in all I’m happy with the progress.
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