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Review on 🐠 Enhanced Orbit Marine IC PRO Dual Light System for Reef Aquariums with Wireless Loop by Popeye Knight

Revainrating 4 out of 5

Fantastic standard depth coral red LED light

TLDR - they seem pretty decent but are a little dimmer than the T5. Especially for deeper pools. My tank is 24 deep and I will be keeping a close eye on it to make sure my corals are doing well. For standard tanks that are 18" deep and smaller this mount will definitely do the trick and I would have no hesitation in buying one. If you use FOWLR (fish only with live rocks) I think this light may be too powerful for your needs I finally made my decision and bought this light after months of comparing several LED lights.I am changing from a 48" 216W WavePoint T5HO 4 bulb to a Current Orbit Marine IC Pro Model 4226 36-48" 72W model That's more than my 65 gallon 36 7/8 x 19 x 24 5/8 tank I've had my reef tank for over ten years, after a few moves, but I wanted a better, more efficient lighting system than hot expensive T5 bulbs I looked at several models - Fluval, Aquatic Life, Marineland, MarsAqua, Kessil, AI Prime and Finnex Also frustrating is that almost all of the LED lights look either very cheap with noisy fans or almost high end and you don't need the bracket and the times r need to buy separately (see Kessil and AI). And very little information on spectra or controls. Or you have to buy multipliers depending on how they are distributed (again with Kessil and the AI). This current LED light seemed to solve this problem. It comes with metal feet (cheap but they work and can be removed if needed) and a separate but on timer. Now they sell a separate Bluetooth module so you can use the cell phone app instead of the timer module, but for now I'm looking at it based on the timer. First impression - this light is incredibly thin and light. It's also decently bright. Since my aquarium is so deep I have 100% light for all wavelengths. At max brightness I would still say this unit is about 80% brighter than my T5 unit. I keep soft and LPS corals (mushrooms, bubble corals, hammerheads, xenias, zoopolyps etc) so I will be fine as their website says this jig is better designed for these types of corals. The unit comes with two 36-inch LED lights (which are perfect for my 65 gallon), two power supplies (similar to laptop power supplies), a loop system for powerheads (I don't use this feature), and a timer. The timer can support up to 3 power heads and 2 LED lights at the same time. If you need more lights, you need to use a separate timer and controller. The power cords are long enough to reach my outlets etc. Also comes with extension cords. When I put this on my tank it started rattling slightly almost immediately. in both lamps. So that. Build quality is not 100%. Is it a hybrid of a glass lid that rattles in the LED light and an LED circuit board I think? They aren't very firmly glued or bolted to the aluminum bracket, so if you have a pump that vibrates in the tank (I have one Coralife Protein Super Skimmer for 65 gallon tanks and it vibrates pretty badly), this jig vibrates. I used these sticky upholstery pads and it seems to have fixed the problem. This has never happened before with a T5 device. I can open them up and see if I can glue/tighten them. Controlling the lighting is very simple. There are three modes: Daylight, Sunrise/Sunset and Moonlight. You can set how long you want daylight to stay on. Also, you cannot control the duration of sunrise/sunset or moonlight. However, the sunrise/sunset is exactly 60 minutes with a 15 minute rise and fall before and after the 60 minute period. The moonlight lasts 6 hours and then disappears completely until the sun rises. Ramp up/down is a very slow gradual color change. You CAN control the brightness of each spectrum for each mode. So if you don't want moonlight, just turn off the LED spectrum completely. I was able to program it fairly easily, although it took me a second to figure out how to save the selected spectrum for each mode. You can see and control the red, green, blue and white LEDs. There are a total of 8 red and 8 green LEDs and one blue LED in each device, making a total of 32 in both devices. I set daylight to 100% for all spectra, then for sunrise/sunset I have more red and blue than other spectra, then for moonlight I set only blue to 10%. It's amazing how much control you have over each spectrum. There are also weather effects but I find them extremely useless and intimidating for my fish so I don't use them. The light distribution is very good. Even in the limited red or green spectrum (which would look great for Halloween or Christmas), there's no spotlight effect. I have the light fitting snugly on my glass lid, again due to the depth of my aquarium. The LEDs have a 90 degree lens and I will say there is a slight shadow on the back of the tank and also near the bottom of my sand tank (probably due to the low PAR at this level). The color spectrum looks fantastic, definitely better than my T5. The addition and control of red and green LEDs, although not as bright, enhanced the colors of the coral and fish. You also get a nice slight flickering effect from the LEDs. I've heard users complain on some other devices that the LEDs are very blind when you're sitting on the nearest couch. I don't understand from this lamp. LED lights get hot, and power supplies get very hot as well. But I would say it's still not as hot as my T5 light. Overall I think this light is excellent for tanks 18" deep and smaller and is definitely one of the best budget LED lights out there. Sorry for the long wording. Review but it was very frustrating to find information about this device! There are almost no reviews, no YouTube videos and almost no websites. I want to make sure someone else who is interested makes a better, more informed purchase. I will try to update my review in a few weeks/months to discuss coral growth. I've attached some pictures of the lights and fixtures so you can get an idea of what it's like. 4 Bulbs - 2 10k and 2 420nm THIS LIGHT: Current Orbit Marine IC Pro 36" Model 4226 - Wavelength - #LEDs445 - 36, 460 - 36, 6700k - 28, 10k - 28, Red/Green (on blue diodes) – 16UPDATE - Been using for a week, corals are looking great, mushrooms are pulling up a bit, otherwise everything looks as great as under HOT5.

Pros
  • Good product for the price
Cons
  • dim