Orbit lighting

[CrayolaViolence]

Any opinions on the Orbit LED lighting in comparison to the MARS lighting? Does the Orbit lighting have a higher PAR and PUR?

 

[shifty51008]

Orbit lights are weak compaired to the marsaqua's.

 

[joshbrookkate]

Gee, Crayola, you are asking the same questions I asked when I started a year+ ago.
I got the Orbit, used it for a few months but found things not doing well in my 75g. So I set up T5HOs and use the Orbit for the led actinic punch. Much better.

Michelle

 

[tcermd]

I did buy two current pro LEd's for my 125 gal build. Still cycling but will keep people informed. I plan on a mixed reef, wanted to buy American... they look great and easy to use with ramp timer. $800 for 2 48inch during the black friday sale Drs F and S

 

[FortyFour]

I use 2 Orbit LED 48" fixtures on my tall tank and find it to be more than enough for LPS and soft corals. They ran me about $400 for the pair on Amazon.

 

[CrayolaViolence]

Are all the Mars Aqua lights thick and in need of fans? Or do any of them come in a slimmer model that sets on top of the tank like the Orbit and can grow corals. I know they come slimmer, I have a small one for my refugium, but wasn't sure if they were strong enough in the slim model to grow corals.

 

[Marchillo]

I have 2 orbits (gen 1) on a 40g breeder and have an RBTA that is thriving at the very bottom of the tank. Granted it's a small tank but I was nervous how the RBTA would do. The local reefer who sold him to me and saw his progress and was impressed.

Not sure Id get the gen 1 for anything deeper or anything that needs more light than an RBTA. Also I think having two is key since coverage overlaps.

I should say if I were to start from scratch I wouldn't get this light for a full on Reef.

 

[garygonzales]

there is a mars aqua thread in the lighting forum....fyi

 

[Ron Reefman]

The Current and Marineland led fixtures run leds at 0.5 watts per led. MarsAqua runs 3 watt leds at 1.8 watts per led. Most other inexpensive Chinese led fixtures run 3 watt leds at 2.2 watts per led.

The difference is in how well the light penetrates the water. Here is the Current website's graph of PAR for their fixture.



At just 12" deep they show the PAR is only 40 to 50 and then say it will keep lps and softies. That is mostly true, but 40 to 50 PAR is pretty low even for those corals. At 24" deep they say the PAR is 5. Seriously... 5? And I don't care what they say, you can't keep photosynthetic corals healthy, let alone grow them, at a PAR of 5. At 24" deep in my tank with EverGrow IT2080 fixtures that are 3 years old I get a PAR of 150 with the blue channel at 90% and the white channel at 40%. That's a HUGE difference.

 

[Marchillo]

The Current and Marineland led fixtures run leds at 0.5 watts per led. MarsAqua runs 3 watt leds at 1.8 watts per led. Most other inexpensive Chinese led fixtures run 3 watt leds at 2.2 watts per led.

The difference is in how well the light penetrates the water. Here is the Current website's graph of PAR for their fixture.



At just 12" deep they show the PAR is only 40 to 50 and then say it will keep lps and softies. That is mostly true, but 40 to 50 PAR is pretty low even for those corals. At 24" deep they say the PAR is 5. Seriously... 5? And I don't care what they say, you can't keep photosynthetic corals healthy, let alone grow them, at a PAR of 5. At 24" deep in my tank with EverGrow IT2080 fixtures that are 3 years old I get a PAR of 150 with the blue channel at 90% and the white channel at 40%. That's a HUGE difference.

Actually you are giving too much credit. Each bulb is 0.25 watt.

I also run mine at 100%. As stated my RBTA looks good but if it didn't Id move him to my 80g with 2 Radion xr30 pros. My 40 is pretty much fish only and the RBTA.

 

[chimmike]

so....OP, don't limit yourself to these two fixtures.

Do some research on here. Plenty of good fixtures out there.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of current lighting as a whole.

 

[jd371]

I have the 48" on my 75g. In a shallow tank it will be okay, but if you have a tank over 18" you'll need more light if you want to get into LPS's. I just bought 2 Kessil 160's for that reason.