Par and coverage. I compared two 3’ QP meso blues to three 2’ OR2 blue plus and two 3’ xho’s over a 125g cadlights tank. I took measurements with the Orphek/xho combo, then used two 3’ QP MB’s and found that the two QP’s had increased the intensity by an average 50-70 micro moles. I found that the xho’s simply “show” fluorescence (or just add pop) and add no meaningful intensity and the Orphek’s with their narrow lenses couldn’t cover the same area and had a lot of spectral separation. You can physically see the individual bands from the Orpheks, but the Quanta’s have awesome blending. Plus, the QP’s have a slight shimmer, which is nice. So for the same price, the QP’s give you better blending/spectrum, more diodes and just plain better performance. Luca’s updated version of the bars have 4 diodes under each lens, which gives you even better blending and spectrum. Orphek is just now catching up to his original design and he’s already going past that with the new Helix.
