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CoralCare Chronicles, Part 1: Tired of T5's Shortcomings, Philips Engineer Luc Vogels Has a Bright Idea for a New Reef Aquarium Light

CoralCare Chronicles, Part 1: Tired of T5's Shortcomings, Philips Engineer Luc Vogels Has a Bright Idea for a New Reef Aquarium Light

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Luc Vogels' Reef Aquarium with Philips CoralCare Gen1 Lighting — Luc Vogels, an electronic engineer and reef hobbyist in the Netherlands, came up with concept for the Philips CoralCare.

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The Philips CoralCare Project, like many reef aquarium breakthroughs, began in the mind of a hobbyist.

Luc Vogels had been keeping reef aquariums since 2007. But Luc is not your typical aquarist. He’s an Electronic Engineer at Philips Lighting, a 129-year-old multinational conglomerate that is world-renown for pioneering new lighting technology.

Luc was using T5 lighting on his reef tank and was happy with his coral’s growth and color. But the heat produced by the T5s and the frequent need to replace the bulbs led Luc to look for a better way.

Philips CoralCare Engineer Luc Vogels' Reef Aquarium — Luc started this aquarium on August 30, 2013. Pretty sweet build if you ask us!

He was familiar with LED reef lighting, but wasn’t convinced the current technology produced the same quality light as conventional T5s. Working for Philips, Luc felt the company could use its LED lighting know-how to develop a better LED reef lighting system. He pitched the idea to the company management and received approval to start what became the CoralCare Project.

Philips CoralCare Engineer Luc Vogel's Aquarium When it Was Still Illuminated by T5 — Luc's tank was originally illuminated by 16 x 54 Watt T5 Bulbs.

From Bright Idea to Working Prototype

After considerable research and engineering with experimental LED systems, two prototype designs were ready for real-world testing. In April of 2014, Luc replaced the sixteen 54-watt T5 bulbs over his 275-gallon reef with the new Philips prototype LED fixtures. The only difference in the prototypes was the lighting distribution system. The spectral output was the same.

Philips Engineer Luc Vogels Progress Shots During CoralCare Gen1 Testing — If you look closely at the 7 month progress picture, you can see two lighting distribution techniques Luc was experimenting with between the left and right side of his reef.

This gave Luc a chance to compare the performance of the new LED designs on a reef aquarium he built and managed himself. The benefit was Luc knew every coral in his tank and had complete control of all possible variables in the test. It took confidence in the new technology to swap out the T5s for experimental LED prototypes. Over an eight-month period, Luc saw that the corals were responding positively to the new fixtures. In December 2014, he settled on a single prototype design to continue using on his reef.

Luv Vogel of Philips Experienced Abundant Coral Growth Under the CoralCare Gen1 Prototype Lights — The Gen1 CoralCare was designed to achieve an optimal balance between coral growth and a natural appearance of the reef.

As you can see from the progress pictures accompanying this post, the project was a success!

"I am very satisfied with the progress and growth results of my reef," Luc said at the time. "The corals grow healthy, have a natural shape, and show vivid colors. The natural appearance and color rendering of the daytime setting is very pleasing and I enjoy the fluorescent effect of the corals during the saturated bluish evening setting."

But wait! There's more...

This was the birth of the first generation of the Philips CoralCare LED fixtures back in 2016. But the story doesn’t end here. In our next installment, we’ll tell you how the CoralCare fixtures were improved based on feedback from reef hobbyist's and Luc's research.

by James Layton

Posted in: News

89 comments

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dave phillips

awsome !!

Angel

Great information on the light ????

Momo

Love the idea of designed lights from ground up form a leading electronics manufacturer. Would love to try them some day.

Frank

I agree, great I want this.

beau jordan

I agree

Chuck Israel

Great work Luc!

Anthony Wong

Interested to give these a try, my tank needs a light upgrade!!

Ray Waldrop

Love the options

Jordn

Super interested... looked for an hour and can’t find a price. What are they running for?

kingFishy

Amazing article. I now know how to start a reef tank.

Amy H.

Wow.. that is so beautiful!. I don't know much about coral but it looks very cool. Do the lights adjust to the time of day?

James Hatcher

Beautiful!

Shawn vest

Excellent article, especially for beginners!

Dan

Great looking product!

Dan

Great looking product!

ken

wow amazing , the tanks are absoluty beautiful , ive always loved fish and tanks and the coral is so beautiful

Michael w botzenmayer

Awesome presentation

Sam

It just keeps looking more and more vibrant with time

Gregory Vest

Just getting started

Alissa Root

great content

Paula Hayn

I love all the color. it is so beautiful.

Ed slane

what a beautiful setup

NIck Haven

Stoked????????????

Steven Dick

Very nice

Alicia Buckingham

Coral is so beautiful, and there's so many different types. This was an interesting, and informative, article. Thank you for sharing.

Ismael Ortiz

Big Difference on the lighting! Great Job!

Christopher Segraves

Cool article. Love to see the hobbyist being at the forefront of change in the aquarium industry.

Vickie L Couturier

the colors of that coral is stunning,,the lighting is so good

Bob & Brenda Gardner

This is awesome. I love learning more about our wonderful hobby! Thank you.

Terry Poage

A lot of great information, thanks.

Dongyu

Wow so coool!

Paul Walz

SWEET

Gabriela

I would love for my tank to look as great as these. Wish me luck.

Ivette Chiong

Necessity is the mother of invention! Very cool!

Samantha Martin

Being an electrician this was an awesome read!

Mark G.

absolutely love it!!!!

Jeanette Denning

Wish. We could do more everyday to save the coral reefs

Rebecca Brown

I never thought about having coral in my tank before. What a great idea and beautiful as well!!

Sean s

Looking to ditching my t5 and possibly upgrade to these

zadok jollie

Great information. I love learning by reading articles like this.

Tina M. Counterman

beautiful I would love to have a saltwater tank but I think it would be so expensive

Kathy Miller

Very interesting read and info on lighting!

Matthew Hansin

Sweet!

Michael Mooney

Yeah buddy

Steven Flores

Nice to have choices and coming from a company with many years of innovations

Jaycfh

Nice!!!!

Ronnie’sReef

Awesome ty

Michelle Gioppo

if you have been in the lighting game for that many years you should be expected to make a functional and quality reef light.

Neill Jones

Good article.

bob

This is good info. I have been thinking of upgrading my lights. You may have changed my direction to these.

Wetside Reefer

Not sure why the second photo of every pair is darkened. I can see how the LED fixture would create that effect but I don't see the need for the computer aid on those photos. The reef is amazing and I would seriously consider using this fixture. I just don't think that editing the photos is beneficial to selling a product like that.

David Heath

All this looks nice!

Gabriel Tackitt

I wish I had a tank big enough for a few of these lights. The Gen2 looks amazing.

Preston Lam

Wish I had a big enough tank for the Philips CoralCare!

James Martin

learned a lot here thanks

Mike Kearns

Neat

Bill Gray

Great article!

Mackenzie Hayes

Love this post! Been looking for more lighting for my tank

Jose

Great article!

Ernest Gray

That's cool

Joe car

Great info!

Brenda

Good job!

Shawn Ross

Very good info.

Tyler powell

amazing

Paul

Sick light!

Michael Turner

Great read! Thanks for posting!

Macco

That is awesome

Alec Ugol

Very, very cool. Hope to one day have a great setup as well.

Jonathan Smith

I need coral care

Ryan

Working on your reef at your place of employment! Sweet!!!

Russell

Awesome knowledge

Matt

Great info

Abdiel Nieves

So much good information and innovation

Shaun

I definitely need to up my game in lights

John Gabriel

Interested in seeing the long term affects of these lights!

Chris Thacker

Just absolutely stunning

Teri Embum

Interesting to see the Coral Care lights and hear about their development.

Shawn L

Awesome info can't wait to hear about the gen2 upgrades

Cole pierce

Awesome

Christina Wahrmund

Great Information

Preston Shadle

I love this content!

Tempestreef

seems like a great light I would like yo try it out

Aaron

cool

David Benayoun

Nice

Felix

When I eventually get another tank, I’ll definitely try one of these!

Nomer

Looking forward to this and upgrading

Josh Harbin

Looks like some great results for these lights.

Patrick Miksa

You need lights for corals, just like most of life on this earth they need lights of some sort, and we must provide what they need if we plan to keep them and keep them healthy and happy.