Can't decide Orphek or Radion/T5

[Az reefer]

Please help!!! I cant decide between 2 Atlantik V4 Orphek lights or 3 gen4 pros with a coralife t5. This is going to kight an sps dominant 165gallon tank. 72wide 20 deep 26 tall. Opinions and comparisons would help out alot. I like the idea of the radions programming and the t5, I have also seen the Atlantik video by BRS. Im at a total crossroad here
Current light is 8 lamp 5' T5

Thanks for any input, Happy Reefing!!!

 

[Crabs McJones]

Led/T5 gets my vote every time

 

[gcarroll]

Every one of the lighting options you mentioned are fine choices (including your current lighting). It really depends what you like and what you are trying to achieve. It's all personal choice. Don't let someone make that choice for you as you may regret it later.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Every one of the lighting options you mentioned are fine choices (including your current lighting). It really depends what you like and what you are trying to achieve. It's all personal choice. Don't let someone make that choice for you as you may regret it later.

A+ advice right there. At the end of the day, budget, goals and personal preference are going to be what ultimately makes your decision

 

[Abhishek]

Every one of the lighting options you mentioned are fine choices (including your current lighting). It really depends what you like and what you are trying to achieve. It's all personal choice. Don't let someone make that choice for you as you may regret it later.

Come on , you got to add geissemann spectra to the voting list !!
Right Greg ??

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[mcarroll]

Current light is 8 lamp 5' T5

Why are you looking at such a dramatic change in the quality of lighting with the options you posted?

Switching from what amounts to an flood light, to what amount to spotlights seems like it might be unneeded.

LED strips would put out light that's a lot more similar to what you're running in the 8x 80w fixture you have now.

Consider dumb strips like Current's TrueLumen Pro's...these and others like them can be used pretty much 1:1 as a T5 would be used, though there's obviously no reflectors here, so they'd have to be mounted close to the tank.

GHL, Hamilton, Reefbrite and others make higher powered strips that can replace more than a single T5 and also have lenses in some cases which would be better suited you want to hang them up off the tank.

Without knowing why you want to switch (e.g. are we "fixing" what isn't broken?), I think I'd actually vote for not changing.

 

[Daniel Waters]

Please help!!! I cant decide between 2 Atlantik V4 Orphek lights or 3 gen4 pros with a coralife t5. This is going to kight an sps dominant 165gallon tank. 72wide 20 deep 26 tall. Opinions and comparisons would help out alot. I like the idea of the radions programming and the t5, I have also seen the Atlantik video by BRS. Im at a total crossroad here
Current light is 8 lamp 5' T5

Thanks for any input, Happy Reefing!!!

Do you not like your 8 lamp T5? That should do wonderfully over your tank. If you want more pop or blue, add some LED bars.

But if you're set on switching, you should go look at each fixture in person. That's going to be the best way to truly tell how the light looks to you as far as shimmer, color separation, etc...

 

[Az reefer]

Do you not like your 8 lamp T5? That should do wonderfully over your tank. If you want more pop or blue, add some LED bars.

But if you're set on switching, you should go look at each fixture in person. That's going to be the best way to truly tell how the light looks to you as far as shimmer, color separation, etc...

I am looking for more pop and a little more par. The option of the reefbrites is looking like the route I might take. I love the t5 growth, just want a little more pop! Thanks for the input and happy reefing!!

 

[Daniel Waters]

I am looking for more pop and a little more par. The option of the reefbrites is looking like the route I might take. I love the t5 growth, just want a little more pop! Thanks for the input and happy reefing!!

A little more par? If you're using an 8 bulb ATI fixture, you should have plenty of par. If it's just a more generic T5 fixture, then you should consider the ATI. I definitely get substantially more par from my ATI than my previous non-ATI fixture.

More "pop"...With T5s, I'm not sure you're going to ever see the pop you can get with JUST LEDs, but you could add some deep blue type led strips and you can use those alone or with your dawn / dusk channel in your T5 fixture and you should get plenty of pop for morning and evening viewing times. That's pretty much what I do, so I feel like I get the best of both worlds. I get a little shimmer from my LEDs, some extra par, controllability with the LEDs, and great spectrum, par, and distribution from the T5s.

 

[mcarroll]

I'm not sure just a few watts of blue LED's will be noticeable against 8x T5's. Doesn't seem like it could be worth it cost-wise.

 

[Daniel Waters]

I'm not sure just a few watts of blue LED's will be noticeable against 8x T5's. Doesn't seem like it could be worth it cost-wise.

I agree with @mcarroll

It would provide the look you want if you run them for dawn / dusk alone (without the T5s) or would probably be okay running with your 2 bulb channel on your ATI (assuming you keep a blue plus / actinic bulb type combo on that channel). Only thing visually you'd notice with 6 bulbs or all 8 bulbs running is some extra par, a slight bit of noticeable shimmer, and maybe a very slight bit of more blue hue to the tank.