I like the color of the tank with 2 160W but the bigger tank with the 230W looks a bit too yellow. I wonder why that is since they both use the same 30W white and similar white to blue ratio.
It may be the difference between having 2 30W LED's on each 160 and having 4 on the 230 maybe? That 93 Cube is 30 inches wide so with the two fixtures about 8.5" apart it puts each pair of 30W LED's about 11 inches apart. On the 230 the 4 30W Chips are a lot closer to each other. I guess it is possible at least??
The other option is that my glass tops on the 150 are a lot less clean than the brand new glass top on the 93 and this is blocking more brightness from the blue 3W LED's. I will be cleaning and using a razor blade on the water side of the tops on the 150 today. The Haitian Rock in that 150 is also a little darker than the Tongan Branch in the 93. The 125 has a little of a mixture temporarily but will be all Fijian as soon as I get the rest of the Branch out of it and then get the rest of the Fijian out of my 3 sumps and back into the tank. We try to have all our tanks look different, and the 30 actually has a large single piece of stone to go into it. I will update the photos, we are supposed to be moving a bunch around tonight!! I can't wait!
I would have liked to buy the American made LED fixtures, but I could not come up with the extra coin as it would have been about 3 times more expensive than this group buy on the MaxSpect.
These MaxSpect Fixtures seem to be good value for the money, the coloration they bring out in my Fish, Zoas, Corals and Mushrooms is awesome. They have their little rough spots like the stands they come with are kinda cheesy and or bent, and I have one ballast with the + button being a little finicky to get to register unless you press it at the right angle, which is not a problem for me. You can see in my photos, I took the racks apart and only used the short end pieces which I then just place on top of glass canopies. You can see the feet are not all square with the fixture, but I have not bothered to bend them as it is not that big of a deal for me. Overall, for what LED fixtures are going for these days, I am happy with this GB. Roy over in China who handles the GB's was very good to deal with and was happy to allow me to upgrade to FedEx shipping and just PP him the $$ difference instead of the standard method. I live in the sticks and the USPS would definitely not be the safest way to get them here without damage. I figured I would share my honest opinion about my first impressions with the fixtures and how it was to deal with Roy. A+ for the whole transaction.
The best part of this upgrade is I just eliminated the need for 2 400W MH, 2 250W MH, 2 150W MH and a bunch of T5 fixtures.
I hope to save about 1/2 what I paid for these fixtures over a single year on my power bill and I can finally get those HOT MH fixtures and ballasts out of my living room. MH's do give GREAT light and can grow amazing coral but they give off a lot of heat. The T5 fixtures also give off a good bit of heat as well. These MaxSpect fixtures run VERY much cooler than MH or T5 either one. We are very happy with them. Thank you ManhattanReefs.com and bigyankfan for running this group buy.