by AquaNerd | Jun 24, 2014 | Science
It’s unboxing time once again, with our newest toy to play with being the Atlatik Compact WiFi LED fixture from Orphek. This compact light is essentially a shorter version of the popular Orphek Atlantik, offering the same spectrum and efficience but packaged in a smaller light. It sports a whopping 42 emitters broken down into 8 different colors and spread across four channels of control. It has wireless capabilities built-in, allowing users to control each of those color channels via any Android powered device running the Orphek app. As for the colors offered in the fixture, Orphek uses 18000K white, 450nm blue, 470nm blue, 420nm – 6000K dual chip, 410nm – 18000K dual chip, 395nm – 6000K dual chip, and wide spectrum red. Of this offering a total of twelve LEDs are of the dual chip variety, a not too common feature of aquaruim LED lighting but one that opens up all sorts of color blending possibilites. Speaking of all the possibilities, with the use of the Orphek app and an Android device (tablet or phone), each of the channels on the Atlantik Compact can be individually controlled. The light features eight pre-installed programs, full dimmin capacity on all channels, the ability to create and store custom lighting programs, elaborate dawn-to-dusk programs, cloud simulator programs, and the ability to control up to 252 Atlantik fixtures simultaneously. Other benefits associated with the fixture and its software are the face that each light fixture is assigned its own IP address, aquariums can be located in different areas as long as they are in the range of the wireless router, and a built-in calendar lets users store up to eight programs per month by AquaNerd | Dec 5, 2013 | Equipment, Science, Tanks
By: Joe Savoy At the last Reef-a-Palooza show in Costa Mesa, California, I had the absolute pleasure of bringing home the recently debuted Orphek Helix 3000 cone skimmer. If you’re anything like me, you get excited when it comes to brand new equipment, and needless to say, I was excited for this one. When you first lay eyes on the Helix, it looks like your typical cone skimmer but with a few subtle yet significant differences. Everything about it is sleek, from the white DC pump to the collection cup cover and everything in between. Rated at around 400 gallons, this skimmer has the potential of skimming a wide variety of tanks due to the controllable pump. One of first things you see notice on this skimmer is the high RPM controllable DC pump. This 3000 l/h (792gph) needle-wheel pump, at full power, draws 25 watts and has a pause mode with an automatic timer for 10 minutes. The pump basically forces bubble-enriched water through what is called the helix disk, Orphek’s take on the bubble plate. This disk directs the movement of the water in a 360 degree spiral motion up the cone to increase contact time and produce a more efficient skim by AquaNerd | Sep 9, 2013 | Equipment
Our first sneak preview on the chopping block this morning is the new Orphek Helix protein skimmer. Approximately two years in the making, this skimmer puts a new spin on the art of bubble making, quite literally. While many of the features on the Helix are already standard issue in this crowded segment of the hobby, Orphek strove to do something better. Through the help of their unique bubble plate, which has an extra pair of ported chambers, the bubbles will not only drift upwards toward the collection cup, but the entire water column will rotate. In addition to that, they have big plans for the controllable DC pump. The two radially ported chambers sit on top of the bubble chamber, but do not cover the entire thing. Bubbles can still escape the bubble trap as they would in any other protein skimmer, but the ported chambers push water in a rotating horizontal direction out of curved ports by Michael Rice | Jul 26, 2011 | Equipment, Industry, Opinion
I recently saw a post in response to news of a new LED light on Reef Builders in which someone was complaining about the wattage of... by Michael Rice | Jul 10, 2011 | Equipment
Orphek announced today that their brand new Slimline, formerly called, T5 LED tubes are ready and shipping to dealers. If you’ve been watching and waiting for these sweet T5 replacements to hit the market, watch for them at your local Orphek...
