boosted306
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2008
- Messages
- 244
Who here has bought lights from these guys? Are the light quality? Any info appreciated.
Aquatraders MH, T5, or CF lighting?
- Thread starter boosted306
- Start date
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The fixtures are nice.You would have to upgrade the metal halide ballast
noonesname124
Well-known member
alot of people have those the new electronic ones are great.
robert0762
Well-known member
Ive got one but as mentioned earlier you will have to invest in quality bulbs and ballasts
Its worth the fixtures alone there nice and sturdy
jrgilles
Well-known member
Did you end up getting a light from these guys? I just got my tank set up and was looking to get a better fixture.
I was checking out their 48" 4-bulb T5 fixture with digital timer, for only $109? Seems like a great deal.
How does the T5 compare to MH?
If I got this light and needed to replace the ballasts/bulbs, whats the expense/time involved to do that?
rob
jrgilles
Well-known member
OK, I'll go check those out now. I also found a Nova Extreme 324 W (6 bulb) fixture that comes with 6 bulbs and 2 spares on ebay for $199.
The nova extreme looks pretty good, but the digital programing on the aquatraders is pretty nice if I just sub in a new ballast. I'll go to the fishneedit.com site now and check it out.
I'm trying to keep it pretty cheap if possible....
rob
jrgilles
Well-known member
The fishtraders website only has 2-bulb versions on the T5. You can get a MH-T5 combo that has 2 MH and 4 T5's, but its up over 400 bucks then.
What is kind of looking good to me right now is:
Odyssea 48" 216W (4x 54W) T5 HO Light Fixture Professional
from aquatraders, and do a ballast upgrade when I get into corals (will be FOWLR for a bit while the tank stabalizes.) That fixture is $109. Would it be adiquate for a 75 gall on tank?
Or I also see a Nove Extreme 6X54 watts (324 W) on ebay right now for $200 plus 10 buck S&H. This looks like better quality components, but I lose out on the digital programming, moonlight, etc.
What I have right now is a Coralife Aqualife fixture, that is 2X65 W. Each 'bulb' though consists of 2 separate tubes, one actenic 03 blue and one 10,000K Daylight (50%) phosphors. So it has plug-ins for 2 bulbs, but it appears that there are 4 in the fixture (each being 2 foot long and split into half blue, half white.) if that makes any sense.
I'm guessing this light is pretty weak for a 75 gallon tank, what do you guys think?
rob
What is kind of looking good to me right now is:
Odyssea 48" 216W (4x 54W) T5 HO Light Fixture Professional
from aquatraders, and do a ballast upgrade when I get into corals (will be FOWLR for a bit while the tank stabalizes.) That fixture is $109. Would it be adiquate for a 75 gall on tank?
Or I also see a Nove Extreme 6X54 watts (324 W) on ebay right now for $200 plus 10 buck S&H. This looks like better quality components, but I lose out on the digital programming, moonlight, etc.
What I have right now is a Coralife Aqualife fixture, that is 2X65 W. Each 'bulb' though consists of 2 separate tubes, one actenic 03 blue and one 10,000K Daylight (50%) phosphors. So it has plug-ins for 2 bulbs, but it appears that there are 4 in the fixture (each being 2 foot long and split into half blue, half white.) if that makes any sense.
I'm guessing this light is pretty weak for a 75 gallon tank, what do you guys think?
rob
reefjock
Well-known member
I have an Odyssea 48" 216W (4x 54W) T5 HO Light Fixture. Have not upgraded the ballast but did lamps. The only complaint I have is there is only one power cord for 3 switches!...The moonlights are nice and bright, but if you put it on a timer...no moonlights...Grrr.......
jrgilles
Well-known member
Hey reefjock, you have this on a 75 gallon tank? Do the 4 bulbs put out enough light for corals?
rob
reefjock
Well-known member
Yes indeed!...I have it on a 90 and have had no problems keeping lps and sps. I recently replaced a 4bulb PC fixture w/ a 400w MH for 2 reasons, I wanted to have 20K bulb and I love the shimmer I get from MH. Hope that helps....Fred
mc_hong
Member
Wow, that fishneedit.com system is pretty cool! You can add as you grow.
Any experience as to reliability with this?
I'd better stay away from that site!
Any experience as to reliability with this?
I'd better stay away from that site!
reefjock
Well-known member
I have to agree with MC. very nice!
jrgilles
Well-known member
Hmm, didn't think about the build as you grow feature. Does sound pretty nice.
I've been reading a ton of links on different lighting online, I think what I'm leaning towards now is some sort of hybrid system, that uses MH and T5. Odyssea (aquatrader) has one for $329 that has 2-250 W MH and 4-54 W T5's that looks pretty sweet. Maybe I could do the same thing with the fishneedit.com website.
Is 2-250 W MH, and 4-54W T5's too much light for a 75? I don't want to cook the coral. I'm not exactly sure what my coral setup will be, so I'd like to go with something balanced (ie. low light corals, high light corals, etc.)
rob
mc_hong
Member
I have a 55G, started with PC, as my corals grow my taste change, moved to 6x54W-T5's. Now thinking of jumping to either MH+T5 or LED.
Had I known this, I could've gotten T5's first then add MH.
For my 55G, I was thinking 2x150W-MH + 2x or 4x54W-T5.
Your proposed light should be good (I think) for sps.
Anyway, just sharing my short experience...
jrgilles
Well-known member
LED looks cool, but crazy expensive right now. Seems like a good option if the price goes down by 60-70% (which it will probably do someday...)
This is what I have right now and will use until I get a new light, which could be a bit, as the aquarium setup has already eaten a lot of money.
Think this light I have is a total PoS? Will I be able to do much with it? Would love to have an anemone in the short run, but I question this light's ability to perform:
http://www.marinedepot.com/Coralife...s-Coralife-ES53000-FILTFIPCFE-ES53008-vi.html
rob
This is what I have right now and will use until I get a new light, which could be a bit, as the aquarium setup has already eaten a lot of money.
Think this light I have is a total PoS? Will I be able to do much with it? Would love to have an anemone in the short run, but I question this light's ability to perform:
http://www.marinedepot.com/Coralife...s-Coralife-ES53000-FILTFIPCFE-ES53008-vi.html
rob
reefyalvin
Member
WARNING: Be careful with Aqua Trader products. They are based out of San Francisco California. If you do some research they have many complaints with business practice and product quality. They have the lowest record (an "F") on the Better Business Bureau:
http://www.bbb.org/greater-san-fran...t-shopping/aqua-traders-in-san-bruno-ca-62623
A good friend of mine had a bad experience with the store front. They sold him a T5 fixture and upon bringing it home turned it on and his bulb burst. Several trips to the store to get it fixed, conversations with employees and the owner resulted in no refund or credit. The owner knows the products are bad and does not offer support or warranty.
Products are hit and miss. Manufactured in Taiwan with terrible quality on circuitry. There are reports of their products causing fires.
http://www.bbb.org/greater-san-fran...t-shopping/aqua-traders-in-san-bruno-ca-62623
A good friend of mine had a bad experience with the store front. They sold him a T5 fixture and upon bringing it home turned it on and his bulb burst. Several trips to the store to get it fixed, conversations with employees and the owner resulted in no refund or credit. The owner knows the products are bad and does not offer support or warranty.
Products are hit and miss. Manufactured in Taiwan with terrible quality on circuitry. There are reports of their products causing fires.
iroll253
Well-known member
If you change the bulb and ballasts they do ok. You get what you pay for. I wouldn't recommend them but for the price they may not be a bad substitute when awaiting the funds to get a better quality fixture.
Skimmy
SKIM FU
people... most of the low end name brand stuff you buy (coralife, current, finnex, fish need it, etc...) IS cheap Chinese made stuff that has caught on fire, exploded, killed your pregnant mother, and started nuclear holocausts.
as consumers, you were just never told, or distracted away from this information with some fancy advertising.
My point being that there is nothing wrong with oddysea or aquatraders gear that isnt wrong with every chinese manufactured piece of equipment you ever owned. UL listed ??? who cares, they probably bought it anyway,
CL listed??? not even worth my breath...
The new electronic mh ballasts that they use do have the actual output they are suppose to, so they dont need to be replaced, and there has never been issue with the output of the T5HO ballasts. Their free bulbs do suck, but hell, it's free, you didnt pay for them, so again, who cares...
And I think there was only a couple of actual cases of fires caused by malfunctioning ballasts that were greatly overstated, and that was several years ago. These are like gen 6 or 7 for these light fixtures and at this point, IMO, they are as good as any coralife or current fixtures that you would spend double the cost on. China is getting smart about their knock off gear...
no one sells fixtures with say radium 20k bulbs/helios 20k/reeflux 12k and then ATI/KZ or geisemann t5's, so most people are stuck buying new bulbs to get whatever effect they want anyway.
as consumers, you were just never told, or distracted away from this information with some fancy advertising.
My point being that there is nothing wrong with oddysea or aquatraders gear that isnt wrong with every chinese manufactured piece of equipment you ever owned. UL listed ??? who cares, they probably bought it anyway,
CL listed??? not even worth my breath...
The new electronic mh ballasts that they use do have the actual output they are suppose to, so they dont need to be replaced, and there has never been issue with the output of the T5HO ballasts. Their free bulbs do suck, but hell, it's free, you didnt pay for them, so again, who cares...
And I think there was only a couple of actual cases of fires caused by malfunctioning ballasts that were greatly overstated, and that was several years ago. These are like gen 6 or 7 for these light fixtures and at this point, IMO, they are as good as any coralife or current fixtures that you would spend double the cost on. China is getting smart about their knock off gear...
no one sells fixtures with say radium 20k bulbs/helios 20k/reeflux 12k and then ATI/KZ or geisemann t5's, so most people are stuck buying new bulbs to get whatever effect they want anyway.
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