Quote:
Originally Posted by
2Quills http:///forum/thread/381645/best-lighting-for-a-180g-tank-for-a-1000#post_3325686
The Orpheks i'm pretty sure use the 2W LED's. Their claims to be able to keep SPS are rather bold and misleading IMO. It may very well be possible to do so on a shallow tank but I seriously doubt it in a deep tank. They don't use optics which tells you right there that the penetration is limited. Guys who've been running 3watt Cree LED's which are the best on the market HAVE to use optics to get the penetration they are looking for in deep tanks.
Over on reefbuilders they got ahold of one of these units and dissected it. They found that they aren't using any type of heatsink in the unit to cool the LED's whatsoever. The electrical and power components are all glued into the unit. The wattage that they are advertising them at leads one to believe they are being ran at pretty much max capacity which means they will run hot which also means they probably won't last terribly long. They have one cheap fan inside the unit and that's it. So if bulbs start to go out there's no good way to replace a bulbs without doing some major modifications to the unit.
Lastly...on the claims of being able to keep SPS. The manufacturer makes claims of their unit producing these fabulous PAR numbers but they did this test in air and not over water. Another thing to be considered are the guys who have been running LEDs for a couple years now are seeing that they standard mix of white and blue does great for everything but SPS. The SPS tend to lose color...this could be from a lack of color spectrum as well as a lack of U.V. since LEDs don't produce U.V. The issue isn't with corals bleaching it's just that they lose color. SPS have certain pigments and produce these beautifull colors as a result of their natural defense to protect themselves against U.V. radiation. And these colors are what make them so beautiful to look at in the first place.
LEDs are great but were still learning about the pro's and con's as far as the harder corals are concerned. I think the problems can be worked out with supplimenting the standard white and blue mix with possibly some other color LEDs and or the integration of U.V. LEDs.
Sparty...I'd stay away from the Orpheks right now. They are new on the market and not many guys willing to shell out the cash to be the ginea pigs. If you want a good plug and play fixture check out the Pacific Sun fixtures. They use 3w Cree LEDs as well as Optics. They are dimmable and come come with a built in interface to run with the Profilux controlers. I believe they will also mix and match colors for you as well.
Corey, that was a plethora of information! But, GREAT information! Thank you for all the information up front. It saves me time from doing a ton of research over the weekend and possibly making a poor purchase.
