News

Orphek OR2 reef bar LED as an alternative to T5

July 10, 2019

LED vs T5

T5 technology has been a trusted source of lighting for marine aquarists for many years. Relatively inexpensive to buy and replace T5 florescent tubes have provided a uniform tank wide light source, which has enabled reefers to grow corals successfully.

LED marine lighting technology has evolved and is becoming increasingly popular due to its efficiency and controllability, however it has limitations due to some cluster or puck style designs, that can often lead to beams of focused light that create hotspots, shadowing and require the need for multiple light fixtures for full tank coverage and light diffusion.

Orphek has been offering panel style LED lighting solutions for the last 10 years, providing a highly diffused light source and delivering the perfect intensity and spectrum to the reef aquarium in the form of the Atlantik series.

Orphek introduced the OR bar reef aquarium LED range of products which have been designed to offer an alternative to T5 lighting and for 2020 Orphek will launched the new OR2 150 /120 /90 /60 LED bar system series.

Developed from the ground up, the OR2 series come with wider selection of chip LED technology and has improved from the previous OR model in terms of the heat sink, power output and spectrum that now is wider, coming in 4 different lengths.

Before With T5
After with Orphek LED bar

The idea was to develop an affordable LED, offering a T5 – like coverage length of the tank, but has all the efficiency, spectrum choice and power associated with LED technology with the following benefits:

OR2 bar LEDs typically use 50% less power consumption than T5.
Unlike T5 bulbs, which need to be replaced very 6-12 months, LEDs require no maintenance.
There is no new acclimation period required for corals – there is with T5 replacement for new bulbs.
OR2 bar LEDs have an output of around 2 x that of a comparable T5 bulb – meaning less units are required to fully illuminate the aquarium.
OR2 heat sink is around 41C and the heat is dispersed upwards rather than heating the aquarium water.
Each OR2 bar has multiple LED color chips providing a balanced spectrum for each bar.
OR2 LEDs penetrate the water column giving better performance at depth, providing a shimmer effect to give the aquarium a sharper, colorful visual appearance.
OR2 bar LEDs come as standard in 2 spectrum choices with customized options available for special order.
Just 2 x OR2 bars, a combination of 1 x Reef Day Plus and 1 x Blue Plus will deliver PAR of ~400 at the surface and ~250 + mid aquarium mounted 20cm above the water level.

Check the photo gallery below for ideas of installing and mixing your OR bar LED lights over your tank!

PLUS
Low energy consumption with more energy channelled to performance rather than heat as seen bellow:

OR 120 – 120cm /48 Inch /36 LEDs (3Watt) – 63W
OR 90 – 90 cm/ 35 Inch /24 LEDs (3Watt) – 42W
OR 60 – 60 cm/24 Inch /18 LEDs (3Watt)- 32W

OR2 bar LEDs are now in stock in the UK and can be purchased locally at www.coralcompass.co.uk

Understanding Your LED Lighting System for Reef Aquarium

June 30, 2019

By Dana Riddle / part 11

How photosynthesis works and the effects of variously colored Light-emitting Diodes ?

This article will be the first of several that will examine how photosynthesis works and the effects of variously colored Light-emitting Diodes.

Almost all ecosystems are dependent upon photosynthesis (exceptions being chemosynthesis around cold seeps and hydrothermal events.) Generally, life as we know it would grind to a halt if photosynthesis – the link between the inorganic and organic worlds – were to stop.

As we learned early in our schooling, plants are able to use inorganic carbon (such as carbon dioxide and carbonates) and produce organic carbon (such as simple sugars and others) and oxygen. This process is dependent upon collection of energy in the form of light (photons) to power this process. Some plants, algae, and dinoflagellates (such as Symbiodinium species/clades) are tolerant of low light, while others require ‘bright’ light. A trip to a plant nursey will reveal that some plants are best adapted to shady environments, while others require full sunlight. Although the ‘shade’ plants might survive in sunny spots, they might not thrive. Even the color of light (especially in marine environments) can play a role in rates of photosynthesis.

This is a basic explanation of how photosynthesis works. It will explain how light energy is collected and how it flows. These are terms that will be used through this series.

Photosystem: Structural units composed of photopigments (such as chlorophylls) that collect light energy. There are two – Photosystem I and Photosystem II. In a quirk of nomenclature, light is collected first by Photosystem II and then flows to Photosystem I (Photosystem I was discovered first hence its name.) Photosystem II acts as the donor of electrons while Photosystem I is the receiver. There must be a balance between the two – electrons must not accumulate in Photosystem II or there will be problems. See Figure 1.

Reaction Centers: The core of the photosynthetic apparatus (a specialized form of chlorophyll a) where photons are captured or received from antennae (or accessory) photosystems and powers photosynthesis. Reaction Centers in Photosystem I collect red light at a maximum of 700nm by a photopigment called P-700. In Photosystem II, the photopigment collects light at 680nm and is called P-680. There aren’t many reactions centers, so light is first collected by the antennae pigments. In zooxanthellae, antennae pigments include chlorophylls a and c2, peridinin and others to lesser degrees.

Next time, we’ll examine the ‘pressure relief valve’ for photosynthesis – the Xanthophyll Cycle.

Read More:

Lighting the Aquarium Part 8- Orphek’s Atlantik V4 LED Luminaire PAR and PUR

Lighting the Aquarium Part 7-Photosynthetically Usable Radiation

Lighting the Reef Aquarium Part 6 – Coral Coloration – A Primer

Lighting the Reef Aquarium Part 5 -Tridacna Clams

Lighting the Reef Aquarium Part 4

Lighting the Reef Aquarium Part 3- The Myth of Corals Requiring Unlimited Amounts of Light

Lighting the Reef Aquarium Part 2-Measuring Light Intensity

Lighting the Reef Aquarium – Part 1

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Orphek OR2 Bar LED spectral data by Dana Riddle

June 21, 2019

Orphek made all of you wait just a little bit longer to present our new OR2 120/90/60 to be officially announced soon, but you will learn today why it is totally worth it!!!

The affordable choice the OR2 LED Bar impresses by offering most of the Atlantik spectrum for a lot less money.

At this time we are taking pre-orders only. This will ensure guaranteed delivery from our next production run.

We are very excited to share with you at first hand exclusive information about our newest OR2 LED!

We have already sold some units that you can check pics displayed here in our photo gallery, including to Dana Riddle who did a terrific job by testing our new OR2 spectrum. So stick with us here and check these results!

OR2 120 reef day plus and OR2 120 blue plus LED reef bar spectrum test

OR2 120 Reef day plus – Spectrum test by Dana Riddle

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/orphek-reef-daylight-plus-data.583473/

“Here’s some spectral data on a 120cm (48″) Reef Daylight Plus LED luminaire. Shown are overall output (taken at 30″ from light), UV output, and infrared out (this is of particular interest since radiation at 740nm can be absorbed by Photosystem I’s Pigment 700, thus preventing possible electron bottlenecks and damage to Photosystem II.)”

OR2 120 blue plus – Spectrum test by Dana Riddle

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/analyses-orphek-blue-plus-led-strip-light.617341/

“This is one o the lamps I’m using on the newly set up 120-gallon reef.
The Blue Plus has LEDs peaking at 420, 450, and 495 nm. The 420nm produces some UV radiation which can excite some fluorescent pigments and of course is absorbed by chlorophylls. Light at 450nm is also utilized in photosynthesis. Peridinin absorbs the aqua radiation and channels it to chlorophylls.
The Seneye device reports Photosynthetically Usable Radiation at 83%.”

UV-A 1.6% / Violet 31.0% / Blue 46.0% / Green-Blue 6.2% /Blue-Green 10.3%
Green 2.8% / Yellow-Green 1.0% / Yellow 0.1% / Orange 0.2% / Red 0.9%

How can I Order Orphek LED lights ?

E-mail us and get a free consultancy from our sales representative near your location.

We will send you a PayPal invoice and you can pay with your PayPal account or credit card.

Free shipping – With our Door to Door Worldwide Express Delivery, your Orphek solution(s) will arrive any place in the world!

E-mail us to contact@orphek.com or fill this quick form (all fields required) and will contact you as soon as possible.

How Coral React to Climate Change

June 21, 2019

Pantone New Campaign

The colors of coral’s in its final call to thrive

Each year Pantone releases its Color of The Year which involves a selection process requires thoughtful consideration and trend analysis. To arrive at the selection each year, Pantone’s color experts at the Pantone Color Institute comb the world looking for new color influences.

2019 Color of The Year is called Living Coral. PANTONE 16-1546 Living Coral emits the desired, familiar, and energizing aspects of color found in nature. In its glorious, yet unfortunately more elusive, display beneath the sea, this vivifying and effervescent color mesmerizes the eye and mind. Lying at the center of our naturally vivid and chromatic ecosystem, PANTONE Living Coral is evocative of how coral reefs provide shelter to a diverse kaleidoscope of color.

For us hobbyist, the interest in corals and its complex natural habitat and our passion for these marine creatures is what moves us to worry about Global Warming and the thrive of these delicate creatures.

Gladly, companies like Pantone, Adobe and The Ocean Agency decided to spotlight the problem and draw and expand the attention to a wider public:

Glowing Glowing Gone

When Pantone announced Living Coral as the 2019 Color of the Year, many were quick to point out the irony given the dire situation of our oceans. Over the last 30 years, 50% of the world’s coral reefs have been lost, stripping us of a valuable ecosystem. Now, Pantone, Adobe Stock, and non-profit The Ocean Agency have come together to draw attention to this plight with Glowing Glowing Gone. For this campaign, a set of three colors matching the fluorescent tones coral give off just prior to death have been released to the public.

This phenomenon, known as coral fluorescence, is the species’ “last line of defense” before succumbing to bleaching and was captured in vivid detail by The Ocean Agency when filming their award-winning 2016 documentary Chasing Coral. “Only a handful of people have ever witnessed the highly visual spectacle of corals ‘glowing’ in vibrant colors in a desperate bid to survive underwater heat waves,” says Richard Vevers, founder of The Ocean Agency. “Yet this phenomenon is arguably the ultimate indicator of one of our greatest environmental challenges—ocean warming and the loss of coral reefs.”

Glowing yellow, Blue and Purple

The incredible blue, purple, and yellow tones radiate color, but while beautiful to look at, they’re also a striking reminder of what’s at stake. In curating a collection based around Glowing Blue, Glowing Purple, and Glowing Yellow, Adobe Stock is once again reminding the public of how great design can also have a social impact.

“Living Coral is naturally exquisite, but ironically, it is the illuminating glow radiating from the dying coral that is demanding our attention,” says Laurie Pressman, VP of the Pantone Color Institute. “It is as if the corals are sending a color-coded SOS that says, ‘Please look at me; I need you to notice before I slip away.’ In that sense, these incredibly vibrant colors could be considered the colors of the climate crisis.”

Glowing Glowing Gone’s challenge to creatives is to use these colors, as well as Adobe Stock Images by The Ocean Agency, as a call to arms. By subtly reminding the public of what we risk losing, the hope is that this heightened awareness will provoke change. To that end, they’re asking creators to share their work using the hashtag #GlowingGone.

Orphek Led Lighting and the Environment

Why we started Orphek

Lightning, water temperature, feeding strategies and water chemistry, all affect the growth of living creatures and the general appearance of an aquarium.

Proper lighting is one of the most important aspects of any aquarium, and one of the biggest challenges to aquarists. It used to be for us as aquarist for many years, especially when growing corals.

Many hobbyists like us are responsible today for the preservation of this ecosystem, these creatures and the others living around them by reproducing parts of the ocean in our own homes and public venues.

In fact we are the ones preserving them for generations to come!

While trying to simulate nature in a captive environment as closely as possible, and considering efficiency, Orphek was not satisfied with the light solutions on the market at the time.

So we decided to use our experience as hobbyists, and team up with marine biologists and engineers to develop a product of our own.

From the beginning our main concern was to find a solution that would not only answer to aquarists’ needs, but would also have an exquisite design, an outstanding performance and high quality components.

Commitment to the environment

Since then, all our products have proven themselves to be very successful over planted, SPS reef and public aquariums, and quickly gained respect and recognition as a leader in LED lighting technology and innovation.

Loving Nature as we do and being conscious about the environment, we only develop products with significant positive impact in everyone’s life.

By simply producing an efficient LED lighting solution Orphek is helping to reduce a great excess carbon dioxide, sulfur oxide and nuclear waste emissions that are currently being released into the atmosphere every day, leading to a cleaner world and one that will last much longer.

Our environmentally friendly lighting solutions produce no radiant heat, and they will not raise the aquarium temperature more than two degrees Celsius above the room temperature! Soon you will find out that by using Orphek LED lighting products, you will achieve more color and growth, with less cooling and electricity than metal halides or any other traditional form of lighting.

Learn how Orphek makes your corals pop using Light!

Orphek has made a lot of gorgeous LED lights over the years.
While the Atlantik has evolved plenty over the years, particularly with regards to functionality, we thought it’d be good idea to just focus on how the blue/Violet Channel would make your coral pop.

Please go to: POP CORALS to learn all about it!!

If you are in any country around the globe and you are also wishing to:

Improve the quality of life of your plants and fresh water species
Install a neat and easy to clean fixture
Own not only a conceptual design LED light solution, but a true color & growth technology

We will be very happy to find the best Orphek LED Lights for your tank.

Email us to contact@orphek.com and we will help get you started! You can also reach us by filling our form

Orphek LED Aquarium Light product range are available in the UK

June 15, 2019

Orphek LED Lighting appoints Coral Compass as exclusive distribution partner for UK & ROI

Orphek LED Lighting have appointed Coral Compass Ltd as the official exclusive distribution partner for the UK & ROI.

Located in South Yorkshire, Coral Compass will supply the trade and public aquariums across the territory in addition to retailing a range of products through the company’s website. www.coralcompass.co.uk

Orphek LED lighting products have previously only been available in the UK supplied direct from the manufacturer. Coral Compass will supply the product range locally and provide after sales support, service and spare parts for the region.

Coral Compass stocks the highly acclaimed Atlantik v4 Gen2 series, the newly launched OR2 bar LEDs, a range of accessories and spare parts to service the UK market. Products are supplied next day delivery to the majority of the locations in the UK.

The-Best-Reef-aquarium-LED-lights-2019-Orphek-130

A dedicated team is in place to support customers locally, answering queries and questions and assisting in the selection of the best Orphek LED lighting solution for their reef aquariums.

Our objective is to work with a select group of retailers that will showcase the product range and allow the customers to view the Orphek product range in the UK.

The-Best-Reef-aquarium-LED-lights-2019-Orphek-159

In addition to the retail arm, Coral Compass will be working with Public Aquariums across the UK and assisting with their lighting needs and providing the best LED lighting solutions in the UK.

As a company, Orphek has been chosen to illuminate many of the Public Aquariums across the globe and can now be found in public Aquaria in the UK, France, Spain, Denmark, China, Australia, Canada and the Middle East to name a few.

Understanding the challenges a contemporary Public Aquarium faces today, ORPHEK LED LIGHTING has researched and developed customised products to meet the needs of Public Aquariums.

Whether lighting large lagoons or a 15-meter-deep coral reef tanks, Oprhek’s Amazonas delivers results. The Amazonas has the capability to penetrate and deliver sufficient light for viewing at depths over 15 meters.

Oprhek’s Public Aquaria lighting provides a healthier and more attractive display. Allows for greater control and reduces energy consumption and cost, whilst providing a more environmentally friendly solution.

Orphek is a company that provides lighting solutions for any kind of project. From nano sized aquariums to spectacular public displays across the globe, Orphek has produced a range of LED lighting solutions capable of delivering the perfect intensity, spectrum and efficiency to all shapes and sizes of aquaria.

By launching ground-breaking technologies, Orphek has gained respect and recognition as a leader and innovator in Aquarium Lighting technology.

Orphek are proud sponsors of the Ultimate Reef forum and are actively engaging with consumers in relation to their reef aquaria needs and offering support and advice. Our dedicated forum can be found here: https://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/orphek.857/

We are very excited by the UK launch this summer and we are looking forward to bringing other new products to market that are in development. We are gearing up for 2020 and supplying the best reef aquarium led lighting range in the UK.

The Orphek product range is available in the UK from 13^th June 2019.

For further information please get in touch

Website: www.coralcompass.co.uk

Email: : info@coralcompass.co.uk or Tony@Orphek.com

Orphek LED Lighting product range first shipments arrive in the UK!

Orphek LED Lighting will be available in the UK from 13^th June and product has begun arriving in preparation for launch. Now you are able to receive your Orphek LED light the very next day!

call: 0114 235 9242

email: info@coralcompass.co.uk

website: www.coralcompass.co.uk

registered address: Unit 5, Westbrook Court, Sharrow Vale Road, Sheffield, S11 8YZ, UK

registration number: 11510368 |VAT registration number: 320094053

E-mail us to contact@orphek.com or fill this quick form (all fields required) and will contact you as soon as possible.

Best LED Light that make Coral Pop

April 29, 2019

Amazing coral pop under LED Light

Orphek has made a lot of gorgeous LED lights over the years.

While the Atlantik has evolved plenty over the years, particularly with regards to functionality, we thought it’d be good idea to just focus on how the blue/Violet Channel would make your coral pop.

People has been asking us about coral pop and which program to use to make their corals pop in their tanks.

In this video and this article you will find a lot of information about this subject.

Check out also the nice photos of coral pop.

If you still have questions about it after this article we will be here to help you achieve your goals with your Orphek!

Best LED Light that make Coral Pop

best reef aquarium LED lighting — Orphek Atlantik V4 Gen 2

Atlantik V4 LEDs: contained a 78 customized high efficiency 5w Dual-Chip power LEDs in total of 156 individual LEDs.

The Atlantik Channel 2 and 3 contained 9 LEDs types that made your corals pop up. Check the photos below of corals poping under the Atlantik V4:

Orphek Atlantik V4 Gen2 2019: It is the best light for coral pop

You can read about coral pop with the following Dana Riddle’s explanation:

Coral Coloration – A Primer by Dana Riddle

“There are at least two types of color compounds seen in some corals and anemones – fluorescent and non-fluorescent. Fluorescence is when a compound absorbs light and emits (fluoresces) it at a longer wavelength, hence fluorescent compounds glow (or ‘pop’) under UV/violet/blue light, while the non-fluorescent types do not (they appear dull under those wavelengths and are called chromoproteins.). All are proteins and are manufactured by the coral or anemone. There are hundreds of proteins described but there are likely to be thousands. ”

The following video will show how our Atlantik V4 Gen 2 makes corals pop:

“UPDATE on Alan & Bros Reef Tank with the Blue Lights on! This is an awesome reef tank that I have been following for some time now. I think the colors are AMAZING” 915Mang

Check out the photo gallery made from the video!

But coral pop is not the only thing that matters! They need good care!

CORAL COLOR AND WHAT IS REQUIRED TO MAINTAIN IT

The Zooxanthellae are what determine more than 90% of a coral’s color. Without Zooxanthellae, the coral’s tissue would appear white or translucent. For a coral to maintain its colorful hues, correct lighting intensity and spectrum must be given to them. In addition to lighting, different colored corals use different major and minor trace elements to maintain their coloration and these elements must be provided in our closed systems if we wish to continue to observe their colorful beauty.

Here you will find amazing pictures showing beautiful healthy coloring of corals under Orphek Atlantik Led Lighting:

amazing reef tank coral color — red / green/ blue /violet color under the Atlantik V4 LED light

amazing reef coral color under blue leds