I own all three of these bars, Orphek, xho and quanta and replaced the Orpheks and xho’s with the quantas. You can easily light a reef with just the different quanta bars and not look back. The quanta outperformed the Orphek and xho combined. Xho’s are good at spread, but don’t have any intensity and for what they are, they’re way overpriced. The Orpheks have to be mounted higher to even out the spectrum blending, which comes at a cost of intensity. The quantas solve both of those issues/problems. This is my real world experience with all three bars.
I think you can mount them fairly close, you'll just get more punch out of them. The Orpheks need to be mounted 10" or higher to even out the spectrum blending, but if you have a deep tank, then a little closer works (but not really). Orpheks use 90 degree lenses, Quanta bars use 120 lenses, so you can mount them a lot closer. Usually, 120 means that the intensity is lower, but that's not the case with these bars. Quanta's have more diodes per bar length than Orpheks (or the cheaper alternatives).
So far they’re doing the job for me. I wouldn’t hesitate to run these on their own paired with a Quanta daylight bar or two.
I believe T5 is significantly better than LED bars. Data talk is cool and all, but it really comes down to results. The nicest store I have ever seen in terms of acro health and colour uses T5 as a primary lighting source. The owner actually told me he doesn't like LEDs.
Tough one to answer.
I love T5’s for their ability to light the entire tank, but I think you would be surprised by the Quanta bars. I’m rocking them with my 14k hammies and they’re great!
Well you know T5 with some blue supplements regardless of brand, is a proven method.
