Maxspect Ethereal Review

[mch1984]

I had mine on my 90 for a year and loved them, but the 90 is no more for various reasons. I'm now setting up a 40 gallon cube and will be using both of them on it. Way over kill but I have them so I'm going to use them.

 

[ApoIsland]

Seriously looking at getting these lights, how are people still feeling about them?

I have this light brand new unopened. You can have it for $400 plus shipping. I would seriously consider another light if you have a deeper tank though. I tried one of these over a 24'' deep tank before moving it to a sump. Unfortunately I liked the color in my corals so much that I bought a 2nd fixture after 3 days before realizing how weak they are. All corals were starving for light after 1-2 weeks. I think max dept is probably 15-16 inches if you want any growth on SPS/LPS.

Took a week or two but you could eventually tell almost all corals weren't getting nearly as much light as they needed. Polys/zoas went from laying flat about 2/3 down the tank to standing straight up stretching for light. All Sps lost the white tips/outer growth layer and just stopped growing. Same with LPS. Could practically see the chalice and favias growing day by day but that all stopped for the month I had this light over them.

 

[GaryM1966]

I have this light brand new unopened. You can have it for $400 plus shipping. I would seriously consider another light if you have a deeper tank though. I tried one of these over a 24'' deep tank before moving it to a sump. Unfortunately I liked the color in my corals so much that I bought a 2nd fixture after 3 days before realizing how weak they are. All corals were starving for light after 1-2 weeks. I think max dept is probably 15-16 inches if you want any growth on SPS/LPS.

Took a week or two but you could eventually tell almost all corals weren't getting nearly as much light as they needed. Polys/zoas went from laying flat about 2/3 down the tank to standing straight up stretching for light. All Sps lost the white tips/outer growth layer and just stopped growing. Same with LPS. Could practically see the chalice and favias growing day by day but that all stopped for the month I had this light over them.

Thanks very much, but I ended up getting 2 of the Redsea Reefled 90 and a reefwave on a deal with my lfs and I'm pretty happy with them

 

[Reef man 89]

Thanks very much, but I ended up getting 2 of the Redsea Reefled 90 and a reefwave on a deal with my lfs and I'm pretty happy with them

How do you like the reef wave? I have been looking at them for my reefer 250. How’s the app? Noise level? Water flow? Would you recommend them?

 

[GaryM1966]

How do you like the reef wave? I have been looking at them for my reefer 250. How’s the app? Noise level? Water flow? Would you recommend them?

I love the reefwave, the movement in my tank is really nice and controllable now, my tank is an aqua 180 so measurements would be similar to yours I think, I have a 90cm x 45 x45 display.
I got the ReefWave45 for the price of the 25 but I was also buying the redsea leds and also new skimmer redsea a rsk300

The 45 is prob on the big side for my size tank, so intensity of movement is down to 20% and the Random mode is great, it just fluctuates all the time but within the intensity set. And the 45 means that I can use if I ever upgrade tank, which I would love to do when the time is right.

The app works well, a little getting used to at first but that was prob more me than the app, but a good sign for all these apps and programable equipment is that when you play around in them you learn and become comfortable with it and thats where I'm at with it after a week so its good in my opinion.

No noise as far as i'm concerned, now I'm not going around with a gadget to measure noise but to me I can't notice the reefwave, oh only when it changes direction and causes a rippling effect on the top of the water I can hear the water ripple but thats by design from me, I love to hear that every now and then.

Hope this helps, I really do recommend it and if theres anything else you need to know just ask,
I'll see if I can put up a video to show you the movement.

 

[GaryM1966]

Sorry about the reflection not often we get bright weather in Ireland

 

[pfoxgrover]

I have this light brand new unopened. You can have it for $400 plus shipping. I would seriously consider another light if you have a deeper tank though. I tried one of these over a 24'' deep tank before moving it to a sump. Unfortunately I liked the color in my corals so much that I bought a 2nd fixture after 3 days before realizing how weak they are. All corals were starving for light after 1-2 weeks. I think max dept is probably 15-16 inches if you want any growth on SPS/LPS.

Took a week or two but you could eventually tell almost all corals weren't getting nearly as much light as they needed. Polys/zoas went from laying flat about 2/3 down the tank to standing straight up stretching for light. All Sps lost the white tips/outer growth layer and just stopped growing. Same with LPS. Could practically see the chalice and favias growing day by day but that all stopped for the month I had this light over them.

I have 4 over a 30 inch tall 240gallon tank and I can grow SPS at the bottom of the tank. I dont think wht was he problem. Perhaps you should have acclimated the corals to the lights slower (just a guess) . I used a PAR meter and mapped out reading from my old lights and then I started out with about half that par to be safe. Rampled them up slowly over about two moths or more. Somewhere in the last 10 or 20 percent of the sliders (from 80%ish to 100%) for the channels in the app there is a huge par jump.

 

[Happyreefer789]

I have 4 over a 30 inch tall 240gallon tank and I can grow SPS at the bottom of the tank. I dont think wht was he problem. Perhaps you should have acclimated the corals to the lights slower (just a guess) . I used a PAR meter and mapped out reading from my old lights and then I started out with about half that par to be safe. Rampled them up slowly over about two moths or more. Somewhere in the last 10 or 20 percent of the sliders (from 80%ish to 100%) for the channels in the app there is a huge par jump.

Hey I have just bought two of these lights for my 48"x24" x 20" tank. May I know what setting are you running with? what intensity for each color spectrums. Thanks!

 

[Levinson]

Hi, I know this is an old thread but I've got some questions for does who've used Maxpect Ethereal (130w).
I'm currently in the process of building a new one sump + 2 shallow tanks setup (Link to my build thread), 2 shallow tanks (350*450*900mm) sharing one sump (also a shallow 350*450*900mm). Roughly about 14*18*36 in inches for each tank.

The tanks are intended for shrimps and other inverts (no corals) so any cheap LEDs would do as long as it is bright enough for 'me' to see most areas of the tank but I thought I might as well consider paying a little extra to get some cheap reef light since I'm spending money on it. You know, just in case.
I've already had some vague plans for which lights to get but today I found some secondhand deals on 2 x Maxpect Ethereal (130w) + ICV6 control unit that's pretty dang cheap. Cheaper than what I had prepared to spend on the lights. In case you are wondering, I'm in Korea so I doubt most of you'll be able to buy them.
Now the lights are many many times more powerful than what I had plans for but it is quite tempting. My concerns are....

1. Can one of them cover the 90cm long (35inch), 35cm deep (14inch) shallow tank? (without ramping the intensity up like crazy high). By cover, I mean bright enough for my eyes to see most areas of the tank (not for the coral growth or PAR rating). I can try to make a custom mount to raise it higher if I need to.

2. Would I need to use significantly more power to light up the tank in comparison to having 2 smaller lights per tank due to having just one point of illumination? (again, this is for my human eyes)
Initially, I was thinking of the likes of 20~40w light per tank so 130w is way too high. It's mainly for my eyes so I don't want to be wasting too much on electricity (until I need to). If anything, I want to lower the power usage to the minimum.

The lights may or may not have been sold by now but any input is much appreciated. Cheers.

 

[Reef man 89]

Hi, I know this is an old thread but I've got some questions for does who've used Maxpect Ethereal (130w).
I'm currently in the process of building a new one sump + 2 shallow tanks setup (Link to my build thread), 2 shallow tanks (350*450*900mm) sharing one sump (also a shallow 350*450*900mm). Roughly about 14*18*36 in inches for each tank.

The tanks are intended for shrimps and other inverts (no corals) so any cheap LEDs would do as long as it is bright enough for 'me' to see most areas of the tank but I thought I might as well consider paying a little extra to get some cheap reef light since I'm spending money on it. You know, just in case.
I've already had some vague plans for which lights to get but today I found some secondhand deals on 2 x Maxpect Ethereal (130w) + ICV6 control unit that's pretty dang cheap. Cheaper than what I had prepared to spend on the lights. In case you are wondering, I'm in Korea so I doubt most of you'll be able to buy them.
Now the lights are many many times more powerful than what I had plans for but it is quite tempting. My concerns are....

1. Can one of them cover the 90cm long (35inch), 35cm deep (14inch) shallow tank? (without ramping the intensity up like crazy high). By cover, I mean bright enough for my eyes to see most areas of the tank (not for the coral growth or PAR rating). I can try to make a custom mount to raise it higher if I need to.

2. Would I need to use significantly more power to light up the tank in comparison to having 2 smaller lights per tank due to having just one point of illumination? (again, this is for my human eyes)
Initially, I was thinking of the likes of 20~40w light per tank so 130w is way too high. It's mainly for my eyes so I don't want to be wasting too much on electricity (until I need to). If anything, I want to lower the power usage to the minimum.

The lights may or may not have been sold by now but any input is much appreciated. Cheers.

I used a ethereal for my NUVO 40. It definitely was a great light never had any problems with light or the app. Now when I upgraded my tank to a RS250 I didn’t have the extra money for anther LED. I only used 1 ethereal on the tank and it was fine. I did have to raise it up to cover the tank. The sides of the tank were a little bit darker then the middle which is to be expected. If you can get 2 for cheap I definitely would grab them.

 

[Levinson]

Thanks @Reef man 89, thanks to you I've gone ahead and pulled the trigger. Got 2 units + ICV6 for about US$167.

I've factory reset the lights and they lid up. Haven't tried the ICV6 controller yet (having wifi issues with my phone and waiting on the new one). I'm trying to work out if the units are alright and not faulty but can't seem to work out how to adjust the channels manually with the knob, even after reading the manual (not very detailed instruction).
Assuming they light up as 100% after the factory reset (dunno if they are), they didn't seem 130w bright to my eyes but the only reef light I've ever owned is my current 30w Aqua knight v2 so I don't know how bright they should look. Maybe I was expecting them to blind me for a week or something. Didn't look like any of the diodes were dead but again I'm no expert.
I'm guessing they are in working order and not faulty since both units were about the same brightness and I can't figure out how to adjust them manually for both of the units.
I actually don't need to hook up the controller if I can figure out how to adjust the brightness manually. I will try out the ICV6 controller when my new phone arrives.

 

[pfoxgrover]

I have one on a 24 x24 x 21 inch tank and it covers well 8 inches above the tank using the standard hanging kit. You could go much higher in your case to get more spread along as they aren't shinning right in your face when your viewing the tank.
If you want to see what 12 of them look like in a custom light rack, check out my video.

 

[Levinson]

I have one on a 24 x24 x 21 inch tank and it covers well 8 inches above the tank using the standard hanging kit. You could go much higher in your case to get more spread along as they aren't shinning right in your face when your viewing the tank.
If you want to see what 12 of them look like in a custom light rack, check out my video.

Thanks! My new phone arrived today and I've confirmed the wifi control unit's working.
But the thing is when I was testing each channel by ramping them up one by one, the 5th Super attinic, the UV channel didn't light up at all in the dark (when put at 100% and the rest of the channels at 0%). This was the case for both units too. Reckon they could be faulty? Or am I missing something here?

 

[pfoxgrover]

Each channel will put out light. I recall the uv or violet led mostly just glows but it is in a channel with some other diodes if I recall right. Hope that helps.

 

[Levinson]

Each channel will put out light. I recall the uv or violet led mostly just glows but it is in a channel with some other diodes if I recall right. Hope that helps.

Thanx, I guess they are likely faulty then :-(

 

[pfoxgrover]

Thanx, I guess they are likely faulty then :-(

That sucks. I know that coralvue sells a lot of the replacement parts at reasonable prices.
Also I think I had a similar problem that was just a wire connector that had backed off a little from the connector. I would open it up and look for loose connector.
Hope that helps.

 

[Levinson]

Does anyone know how the max wattage is distributed for each of the 5 channels?
(Example: channel 1: xx watt, channel 2: xx watt, and so on..)
I tried to search for this information but just couldn't find it. I did open a new ticket at the Maxspect support page asking this question but I've read from some posts that they sometimes don't respond.

 

[edvar]

That sucks. I know that coralvue sells a lot of the replacement parts at reasonable prices.
Also I think I had a similar problem that was just a wire connector that had backed off a little from the connector. I would open it up and look for loose connector.
Hope that helps.

I saw your video on youtube, It's a wonderful tank, I bought two ethereal for my mixed reef but I still couldn't get the best channel setup, could you let me know what settings you use?

My nem reef tank has 1m x 55cm x 55 cm (glass).

 

[pfoxgrover]

Thanks! Here is what I'm using at the moment. I've also tried other combinations where the whites are cut down at the beginning and ending of the photo period and liked that as well.
I would start with all channels the same and tweak it to your personal preference.
Also if you like the bluer look BRS has a video where they try to set up the ethereal like the AB+ spectrum.
Hope that helps!

 

[Doom]

Is it possible you could display your total lighting schedule (start to finish) by any chance. Have 2 of these over my 4ft and find it more valuable info from actual users of these lights. Also how have you found coral growth under your settings to date pls.