Here's what Reef Builders has to say about Mike Maddox, the author of that blog:
Mike Maddox believes that metal halide lamps are a form of incandescent lighting, so it's no surprise that he gets a lot of other things wrong too. Mike Maddox has accomplished some impressive feats of blunder in his writing career; he has slammed all local fish stores and basically the LFS owners and employees, he has rallied against the use of propeller pumps in reef tanks (when's the last time you saw a reef tank running on just powerheads?), and for the cherry on top, Mike Maddox, director of Orphek USA has written a ludicrous slam of a competing LED light "“ the Radion XR30w "“ without ever having set eyes on it.
Think about that for a moment, what kind of twisted moral compass does it take to have an (undisclosed) interest in one company, publicly criticizing the "˜competing' product of a highly respected and successful company, before you've ever seen it?
Nevermind the fact that Maddox setup Captive Aquatics two years after and five miles away from Captive Aquatic Ecosystems, a professional practicing aquarium installation and service company. Nevermind the fact that Maddox is liable for at least two counts of libel against Reef Builders, including accusing us of taking payments for reviews and posts, something which we would never consider doing and something which is highly illegal. But what you should mind is super imposing these lies from Mike Maddox with his relentless propaganda in favor of all things Orphek.
The output of the Orphek light at 24" distance over a 24" square is the worst distribution of light we've seen in an LED light. Each contour line represents a change of about 20 umols of PAR from 500 umols in the center to under 100 umols at the top and bottom.
Instead of getting behind a better LED light, Maddox has chosen to rally behind the Orphek, posting all over the comedy act which is the Captive Aquatics blog about how great the Orphek light is. Rather than show us the beef, show us some real nice progressive reef tanks using these lights, MM uses a barrage of mental and analytical gymnastics to try to convince readers why the Orphek is better on paper, but the number of beautiful, successful Orphek-lit reef tanks is not at all in balance with how much lip service it receives.
There's a reason we haven't written much about any Orphek LED lights, and that's because they are low performance and low value Chinese OEM products that don't even look good over reef tanks. The Orphek fixture is the worst offender with a super concentrated blade of light which peaks at 500 umols of PAR at 24″ in the middle but quickly drops off by 100 umols every few inches away from the center.
In this scenario an average colony of any coral sitting under an Orphek fixture would suffer high light bleaching in the center of the colony while its outer portions would barely get enough light to stay alive. The Orphek fixture is so impractical that we turned down offers to review the light, all you have to do is shine it on a wall to see what appears to be a blade of coral-killing light.
But the real issue here is MM posing as an average blogger, always singing the praises of the Orphek light online and in forums, meanwhile never disclosing that he gets paid every time someone buys an Orphek in the U.S. What kind of obtuse and crass person would go around propagandizing their own interests while accusing independent reporters and writers of being on the take? Somehow, "˜the teapot calling the kettle black' doesn't seem to go far enough to express the trench of hypocrisy that is Mike Maddox.
I agree with others that it is complete garbage.
