Orphek ICON Upgrade

biecacka · Feb 26, 2023

You upgraded from the v4g2?
how high off the water are your lights?
what were your par numbers before the upgrade?

I have the v4g2 and have been considering the upgrade if the par is worth it.

corey

mtraylor · Feb 27, 2023

Yes I upgrade from v4gen 2's. I have mine at 10.5" off the water. You can go higher to spread the light more, but my aquarium is the living room and I dont want to wear shades while sitting next to it. LOL.

I cant remember what the PAR numbers were from V4 gen 2's when everything was working.....but the ICON's will definitely be slightly higher due to the spectrum with 100% full. There is no doubt about it that the Orphek panels are PAR monsters. That includes the v4 gen2 and the icons.

I personally dont know any other light that puts out this much PAR. That being said. I dont crank them to 100% as its not needed and would be too much in my current configuration. Im currently running max at 70%.

biecacka · Feb 27, 2023

These are my numbers at 17inches off the water. BRS recommended 14-16. The way I mounted then this was the height they came to.
not horrible numbers but I sometimes wonder if I should lower them to increase output some.
i run the pre programmed “coral growth and color” program.

Corey

ThatPhillyReefer · Jun 25, 2023

mtraylor said:
Ok. Here is what the schedule that I started running. Now that I have reset aquarium and have my first 2 corals in here. I'm thinking of changing my morning dusk and dawn settings. But I really like the white view from the Helius program. It really lets me see the real color of the fish.

Overall View

Dusk

Midday Start

Peak Helius Program

Now all of these are supplemented with the OR3 Blue Plus's. If I didn't have those, I would have to change the programming to get the look that I wanted. But since I'm running them horizontally instead of vertically it works out really well.

The other settings right of the peak are exactly the same, but put at different times.

I'm going to be making allot changes to this whole thing once Orphek comes out with the dimmers for the OR3's. This will give me more options on my dusk dawn and day viewing with the blue plus being dimmable. For the mean time I think I may make my dusk dawn feature more blue/red to see how I like it.

hey i want to try out your schedule! whats the other 3 dots light intensity?

ThatPhillyReefer · Jun 25, 2023

biecacka said:
These are my numbers at 17inches off the water. BRS recommended 14-16. The way I mounted then this was the height they came to.
not horrible numbers but I sometimes wonder if I should lower them to increase output some.
i run the pre programmed “coral growth and color” program.

Corey

where do i find the pre programmed program?

mtraylor · Jun 27, 2023

ThatPhillyReefer said:
hey i want to try out your schedule! whats the other 3 dots light intensity?

They are the exact same as the first ones. It just goes in reverse.

biecacka · Jun 30, 2023

ThatPhillyReefer said:
where do i find the pre programmed program?

They should be in the app you download.

corey

FishTruck · Sep 18, 2023

Thanks for posting this. I just tore down a failed V4 -2 upgrade and found something interesting. One of the four processor screws was in too far. This forced an airspace between the led board and the heat sink. Close by was a fried LED.

I made sure to remount the new led board tight down on the heat sink first, (and smoosh down the thermal paste) then mind not putting in the processor screws too tight. I have two more failed V4 2 s to check out soon.