Is this fixture any good?

[mennazeher04]

Hey there everyone i was reading one of my fish magazines and came across this ad for aquatraders.com. The site seems pretty good and they have awesome prices on light setups. I found this setup for my tank because i would like to upgrade to metal halides but they are so expensive intil i found this one...........Odyssea Metal Halide System...............Basically what i want to know is if anyone has had any experience with using these lights from them?.....Do you think they are good lights? Any suggestions or comments..........please thanks alot.:mrgreen:

 

[mennazeher04]

hey also check this light setup out too.........Odyssea T5 High Output Lighting.............these are T5's. Another one of my questions is, is it worth switching out my 4 - 96W PC for these T5's?

 

[Ted]

Makes you wonder huh? I have been thinking the same thing and have done alot of research on them. In 06 there was alot of problems the posts from this year seem pretty positive. So kinda a crap shoot. I am doing a little test with this company. I have the hob fuge with the pump and light ordered from them. Should be here thursday. I will post in reviews my opion of it. If all is good I am planning on purchasing a mh setup. Guess its the river boat gambler in me or the fact that im flat broke lol, but seemed worth a try. :D

 

[ndepratt]

you get what you pay for, the fixtures are not good. side by side comparisons are ridiculous, they really show how the cheap chinese ballasts and bulbs (not to mention reflectors) are terrible.

in the long run i guarantee that fixture will cost you more money in replaced bulbs, repairing and replacing the ballasts that die after only a few months, and not to mention rebuilding your house after the cheap ballasts short out and burn it down.

You are far better off paying a bit more and putting together your own retrofit, or saving up to buy a name brand fixture.

 

[Ted]

Im not going to argue with ndepratt. :bowdown: It is a risk however like I have said before It makes you wonder. Yes it is a chinese nock off and the quality might suck. Also in 06 there where reports of ballasts burning up. Those fixtures only had a single power plug running mh, atinics and the fan. Now they have three power plugs and a different balast. I know that if money wasnt a problem I would pay 1000 to 1500 on the best system out there. However thats not my real world. So in my opion if i spend $99 on this fixture and it goes out in a year then fine I will be in a a better place to gut the thing and retro fit it or buy a new unit. :D

 

[Hornet]

I think there are some members on the site that have purchased some lower priced units that are working out well for them. If your willing to take the gamble on buying one of the cheaper units you might want to find somebody that has been using a unit you like and buy it from the same dealer they got theirs.

If you go with T5's and you have hopes of keeping corals that require high light you want to look for something with individual reflectors for each bulb. If it were my choice I'd probably just enjoy the fish and other stuff I already have in the tank and save up for a good dependable fixture. I agree with ndepratt's comment "you get what you pay for".

 

[daugherty]

i almost bought one a couple years ago but last year i bought a catalina 8 54w t5 fixture and like it alot the bulbs it comes with are not very good but after getting some ati and a couple other bulbs it is great and good color from the lights.

 

[ndepratt]

sorry i just hate them because i purchased one when i started out and it did nothing but break down over only a few weeks.... then wound up in the trash

 

[project5k]

actually i had one of the odesea fixtures, and it wasnt actually the ballast that crapped out, but the insulation on the wires inside the fixture.. the whole thing was so hot after it was on for a couple hours that after enough time, it cooked the insulation on the wires, and when one of the 2 ballasts quit working, and i opened the thing up to investigate, i found that every time i touched a wire, the insulation would just crumble and fall off, weather it was the HV lines going to the bulbs, the 12v going to the fans, or the 110 wires comming in from the wall plugs.

thats when i gutted the whole thing, replaced anything i wasnt happy with, and put it all in a custom (and very cheaply made) sheet metal housing that i threw together one evening.

the way it looked inside there, I'm sure that if i hadnt fixed everything, then that thing woulda started a fire sooner or later.. now, it cant.

 

[Bifferwine]

A couple years ago, they got into a lot of trouble with their fixtures catching on fire... Supposedly, they fixed that problem, and in the last couple years people have been much happier with the Odyssea lights.

But would I trust one in my house? Nope.