I bought the same but with WiFi app (original app). Actual schedule works fine but randomly turn on at night. So I have an auto timer set to keep them off during the night.
1. They grew everything fine stock. However, they were a little to 10k for me with 100% blue 50 white channel.
2. Might be.. but you could have just bought sblights with a better warranty for that price. but you can DIY with some soldering skills for much less. FYI unlike other companies black boxes. Each LED is soldered to the board. Not just the contacts but the actual LED heat spreader is soldered to the aluminum. Makes changing them very time consuming. In addition you need to hunt down the 45mil chips. A lot of the cheap ones on eBay are as small as 27mil. makes a HUGE difference. Hunt around and spend a few more dollars for actual epistar/bridgelux 45mil LEDs
3. You can grow everything
Personally I have switched out so many LEDs on my unit it is nothing like before. Added lower end UV, more royal blue, replaced some 14k white with 20k, removed 2 red, added cyan, removed some 2700k. I tried to mimic Orphek to my best ability. But it was still very white/yellow for me. I also noticed that anything close to the AB+ was mostly blue and UV with 10%ish red/white/green. So I changed enough LEDs that I can run both channels at The same percentage and get a AB+ look.
I modded one light at a time so I could monitor any changes. Each time I have modded I have noticed better colors and growth on the mods. In addition, 2 lights do not fully cover a 4ft tank at 12” off the surface. I believe I’d have to go 18+ and lose par. My new task is to figure out how to balance the hotspot in the middle and get better spread with adequate par. Hence color mod to run both channels at 100%. Started removing lenses and sanding the acrylic. Will be renting a par meter soon to finish mods.
After all this fun. I wish I just had money to buy some ReeFi lights. They look amazing.
www.aquariumcomputer.com
