Current USA Orbit Marine Aquarium LED Light

reefer gladness

Well-Known Member
This unit uses low-wattage LED's that we normally warn reefers to stay away from but it's okay for zoas and shrooms in a small tank. I remember one user having some issues trying to program a custom sunrise/sunset routine and was locked into the pre-programmed routines. Not sure if that was the user or the unit at fault there to be honest.

If I were you, I'd check out the owners manual before purchase (something I do for a LOT of purchases) and if you have any questions about the programming get them answered before you make the purchase. There's a link to the user manual at the bottom of this product page: http://www.marinedepot.com/Current_USA_Orbit_Marine_LED_Aquarium_Light_20_Inch_LED_Light_Fixtures-Current_USA-CU04100-FILTFILDTN-vi.html
 

jeffecito

New Member
Thanks reefer; I'll be browsing around for another month I guess - still think this one suit my needs; it gets loads of good reviews on several sites.

Do you know if any1 here on RS has got one?


Phiu
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
If your going to be content with very modest and limited lighting, this will work, and you'll be able to keep mushrooms and zoas. The LEDs used are about 1/4w. Compare that to something like the AI Hydra52 or the EcoTech Radion Gen3 and you'll see that these others are using 3w and 5w LEDs and put out a lot more light. Of course, you don't get something for nothing and these other fixtures are about 4 to 6 times the price.

Just be aware of what your getting and what it's limitations are.
 

Snid

Active Member
I currently (no pun intended) have the Current Orbit LEDs on my system. As others are warning, they are only bright enough for certain corals. You'd have to do research on what corals you want to have and work backwards from there to determine if the lights will be enough for you.

That being said...

Mine work great! I love the way they ramp up and down. Easy to program and easy to use. They make the colors pop on everything. The fish and other livestock have a gorgeous shimmer to them. Algae grows just fine under them, as I have been fighting New Tank GHA outbreaks. Coraline Algae is growing very well, and I have at least 4 colors of it growing (dark purple, light purple, red and green). I just recently was given some zoas, and they are quite happy with the lights at all levels of the tank (they keep getting knocked down because I haven't glued them yet, but they keep opening up).

I don't plan on changing mine out, if I decide to get other corals that need brighter, more penetrating light, I'll supplement it in somehow.
 

jeffecito

New Member
Thanx Snid, I took a peek at your chronicle and it looks great to me; my tank is obviously more shallow so this will fly. I fully realize that I have limitations, but it's anyway all about compromises.

Amazon is on the way with my lights :D
 

brad65ford

New Member
Running 2 24-36" units on a 20g long bb setup with mostly sps's. Originally as running a radion pro at first then 350 kessiles didn't like both setups for a small tank, these have 120 degree lens which spread light everywhere. Honestly these lights are pretty impressive and the blue channel seem to make most of my corals happy. Also running the smallest unit (18-24") on a 6g top removed fluval edge mostly lps and some sps's running at 55 percent both channels. These lights are very nice and come very complete easy to use and setup up the times etc... I really like the separate channel timer also moonlight / sunset changeability.

I've par tested these lights and IMO are more then enough for most all corals include most sps's mind you it depends on your setup also height of coral placement. Running BB my systems are very ULNS so to much light is a bad thing. My green slimmer is about 6-7" inches from the light about 5-6 under the water line and its seeing 160 par. both fixtures are set at 60 percent on all 4 channels. Not sure how much pur is being given off but both tanks / corals like these lights. Everyone thinks you need to have so much par for corals/sps's but that not 100 percent true. For you 20g h, you might be ok depending on what corals you are keeping etc... I would run at least 2 units on yours.

:Edit just re-read your post, i see you want to grow softies and mushrooms for sure these is all you need and more. Your should be able to run one unit easy, some softies can grow amazing at 20-60 par which you can get achieve higher with this light unit.
 

brad65ford

New Member
Green slimmer at 160 par under the Orbit Marine LED's. About two months ago it was not doing so well from the lfs i purchased its now doing much better now.
Before

After
 

Snid

Active Member
Yeah... I'm not experienced enough with lights to say that these are great, good, bad, or awful. It just happens to be the purchase I made and I am now living with myself. I have accepted the fact that I may need to supplement at some point, but as for now, I love them. I can't tell people that they should or shouldn't get them, but I can say that I am happy with mine. Right now all my new Zoas have been knocked down to the sand bed and until I glue them in place I'm going to leave them there because each time I replace them, someone knocks them down, heheh... It's 18" deep, well 14" if you subtract the sand bed, and they are all open fully and happy. But they are Zoas, some of the easiest corals to keep.
 

jeffecito

New Member
Greatly appreciate your comments and pictures, :> I placed the order yesterday and they are due to show up in my PO box in Miami tomorrow, I reckon I'll see them here in the Dominican republic during the week-end. I originally planned on getting my lights in August, but after seeing Snids tank I made up my mind. Happy to see Brads slimmer doing this great with these lights; I'm a total noob when it comes to Corals, I've keept FOWLR for 4 years when I lived in Japan (my old fish are still swimming btw)

I do like the concept that this fixture is pretty much all in one and the programming options seem to suit my needs.

They wont be during much more than growing algae as we are soon off for vacation, my first corals will prolly go in sometime in August/September.
 

brad65ford

New Member
All good Snid, no worries I follow you. I'm still learning about LED's and what they can grow successfully, its strange its like the more par the more I bleach things.

When I read about people stating things like "you'll need" better lights I always cringe since it may not be true depending on the application. Really have to wondering how much the whole marketing side of the hobby is really to push customers to purchasing things they don't really need. In all my years of traveling and learning some of my own tanks and others with success to much light can really be a bad thing especially with LED's. Don't get me wrong there are some awesome successful tanks running the high end units but it doesn't mean you can't have the same success with lower cost fixtures, but again depending on the setup/tank size etc...

Normally i'm the guy willing to spend the bucks for these higher end units and did so twice! I ordered the most expensive Radion Pro Gen 3 and bleached the hell of of tons of frags even at 20 percent output! Then decided to run Kessils which are great lights but caused to much shadows for a small tank no matter how i positioned them. Anyway I'm not hear to bash or state these Orbits are the best since they are not they are just good lights for smaller Reefers imo. By all means i know my tank and corals are very young and only started to grow off their plugs but I can tell you that these lights will surely grown SPS's. My tank is only 5 months old and the dry rock is still curing which IMO is hindering some better growth.

Here are some pictures I took today from the top of the tank, most of these frags are seeing 70-140 par max, again both lights are running about 60 percent on both channels 8 hours a day :)











 
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jpond210

New Member
I use 2 fixtures over my 20g long. I keep my softies and LPs down low and sps up high. I have got growth in all my coral. It started to bleach some ZOA's I had up high.
 
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nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
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to ReefSanctuary, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members
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Start a tank thread & share your tank with us so we can follow along, we love pics :dance:
 

yellowmoose

New Member
I too am currently awaiting my current USA led lights! For the cost of what id like them to do for me, they sound more than capable and wallet friendly. Best of luck with them!
 

jpond210

New Member
I too am currently awaiting my current USA led lights! For the cost of what id like them to do for me, they sound more than capable and wallet friendly. Best of luck with them!
They work good. Just keep them cranked all the way up. I keep sps at the top. You might want some supplemental lighting. I wired 5 Crees and use aluminum tubing for heat disperse. I just zip tied it between the 2 current fixtures.
 
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kwroberto

New Member
I have a current orbit marine over a fluval spec v and it's good to keep zoas and shrooms I even have some LPS that are doing fine
 

Snid

Active Member
I've started to notice new growth with some Zoas I have with mine, and they are sitting in the furthest spot they can be from the light (on the sand in a corner). I need to glue those suckers in place on some rocks tonight if I can find the time. ;)
 

joanthan

New Member
I have 2 48 LED Current USA and have great growth with LPS and Softies. New polyp growths on my Palys
 

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