Maxspect Ethereal beta testing ICV6 controller

[Emac909]

First off I'd really like to thank Maxspect for offering me the pleasure to beta test the ICV6 wireless controller system in the US market on my 300 gallon peninsula.
Here's a little background on my tank. I've had it up for 2 years and recently had to start over because of a bad magnet that leached into the tank. I decided to start the whole system over starting fresh because I kept losing fish for weeks after finding the magnet
Here are a few shoot of the tank towards the end of last year.

I was also a beta tester for the Maxspect gyres. I was asked by a sales rep of coralvue if I could beta test these new initiative pumps Maxspect created at that time they were going with the name riptide. The sales rep knew how big of a ecotech fan boy I was and wanted me to try something new. I was like sure I'll give the pump a try, but told her repeatedly there no way that pump could compete with the vortech mp60's I was running on the 300.
Well I was wrong as soon as I put the gyre in my tank I knew Maxspect had a winner. I instantly fell in love with the gyre. The only down fall with the beta was the controller. But the production model had the current controller. I ended up buying 2 production models and switching out the vortechs for 2 150 gyres and have never looked back. Here's a video of the beta gyre going against vortechs


This tank has always been lite by 5 gen1 radions. Here are a few pics of side by side pics to show coral growth under the radion

Just look at the dates stamps.
Well today I received my beta text kit and I just want to say wow thanks Maxspect. This weekend I will be swapping out the radions for the ethereal's and documenting the proses.

 

[915MANG]

Following along

 

[Emac909]

Well I got up fairly early this morning and begun the process of switching out the radions for the ethereal's.
So after getting the radions out I played with the idea of mounting the lights from the canopy. I really didn't want to have the lights mounted on my euro brace. Being that the tank is peninsula I do use both sides for maintenance. I didn't want anything that would maybe get in the way of my doing maintenance. Only because I know if something makes one thing harder more likely it won't get done.
So I thought what if I flipped the mounting bracket around could I mount the lights from the canopy. Well it worked and I fell in love with it. Looks clean.

I just need to zip tie the wires up and it will look pretty slick to me.

Now for the ICV6 controller and app. It's a breeze. I do recommend the use first download the app and read the help section first before setting up. It's the ( ? ) symbol on the top of the screen

This will tell the user how to link the ICV6 router to your wireless device so the app can find the ICV6.
I will say the ICV6 is basically plug and play. It literally took me less then a minute to start controlling the lights after plugging in the ICV6. Then less then ten minutes to have them on a program schedule. The app never crashed on me once while linking up and programming the ethereal's

Here's a few shoots of what the app looks like
Linking the lights up

Creating a group

Having a group

Selecting a mode after setting up a group

Manual mode

Auto mode

RGB mood light mode

I still have one more light to unbox but I'm waiting for a friend that can come over a video the unboxing and setting up. So I can show how easy the whole process is.

 

[Emac909]

Also I would like to share this with you guys/gals
I know there people that hate the gyres and won't give them a try or they got one and tried it for a few weeks. Then thought there nothing to rave about. Then I know there's the gyre fans too
I will say I was a total fan boy of the vortechs and all ecotech products.
Until and a big until I got my second gyre. Yes the gyre pushes a lot of water. But I love the alternating gyre mode and have been running them in this mode sense I got the retail model. I was a beta for the gyre too and the beta gyre came with a simple controller that only pulsed.
Now flash forward to today. I running 2 xf150's on my 300 and a return pump that is it
Here's a video of the flow I'm getting with the gyres.

Pay attention to the 1:25 mark. This is when the flow changes direction.
So I'm running a xf150 on either side of the overflow box. They are mounted vertically. Both pumps are running in alternating gyre mode, but instead of swapping out the sides and putting a like side on them. I left them both with an A and B side on each pump. Now the controllers are time perfectly so when one pump is running in forward the other is running in reverse.
So let's call one pump G1 and the other G2. So when G1 is in forward mode it's pushing water at 70% and G2 is in reverse at 10% and is not pushing any water at all. Then after 2 minutes they switch and now G1 is in reverse at 10% and G2 is at 70% pushing water down the other side of the tank.
So every 2 minutes the water in my tank switch current 360*.
I have zero to none dead spots in this tank
I'm not saying this is best for all tanks but in a peninsula this is probably the best flow you can get.
I love this setup cause I don't have any pumps at the peninsula end of the tank and really u don't notice any pumps in the tank at all. The gyres blend in to the overflow box so well they disappear.
Before I got the gyres a ran 2 mp60's and a mp40. I could never find a flow pattern I was happy with. I thought about getting 2 more mp60s but come on like how really wants to drop over 2k in just flow for a tank. For the price of one mp60 I got 2 xf150 and have been really happy with them.
These 2 gyres are from the first retail batch that come to the states. I did have to upgrade the mounts and one of the motor blocks got replaced do to a split cord. They are still running strong and quite.

 

[Emac909]

Well I finally got all 4 lights up and I will say I'm pretty impressed with the coverage

 

[Master Shake]

i too am part of the beta, unfortunately i have the old oceanic tek tank and the lights will not mount to the plastic rim so they are sending me the hanging kits, looks good and looking forward to what others have to say about them

 

[Emac909]

 

[Greenstreet.1]

Nice to see how far maxspect has come I still run one of there first lights over my 20g about to give the tank an upgrade will take a look at these

 

[Emac909]

Well I'm bored so I decided to take some pics of the tank and the different spectrums.
So full spectrum all channels at 100%

Then channel A (6500k+460nm)

Channel B (4500k+2700k)

Channel C (445nm+460nm)

Channel D (465nm+480nm)

Channel E (405uv+425nm)

 

[Greenstreet.1]

Love the look of A&C

 

[PinHeadBunny]

I am really interested in these lights, wondering now that you have been running hem for a while what your thoughts are and if you would recommend them?

 

[eg8r210]

Just wondering if you have added any more corals and how are they doing under the ethereal?

 

[SeeFil]

I was looking at these. Hydra HD less expensive and now wireless phone app. Radeon.. too much $$. These may have a better spread with the design.. What is your opinion so far?

 

[Water Dog]

Yeah, also curious about the spread of the lights with the multiple mini pucks nestled onto reflector cups. Do they help reduce shadowing? How do these compare coverage wise to the dual puck Radions you had on before?

 

[cpschult]

Yeah, also curious about the spread of the lights with the multiple mini pucks nestled onto reflector cups. Do they help reduce shadowing? How do these compare coverage wise to the dual puck Radions you had on before?

Looks like he's getting out of hobby. I looked at his posts to see if I could find where he got that nem, had a sale thread for fish.

 

[Reef man 89]

So I am a complete noob to the hobby and have been looking at this light for my frist build witch will be a Nuvo 40. What I would like to know is who'd you recommend this led for a complete noob? Is it easy to program? Would one cover a 24x20 tank? The biggest reason why I like the light is the price but wanted to see what someone that has the light would say. Thank you for your input

 

[BaneZ32]

Just picked up these lights. And got everything all up and running. Just ran into one issue. I'm connected to the icv6 but when I go to add it in the app its not able to find it. Seems like I'm not the only one with that issue seeing the reviews on the app. Anyone have any advice?