odyssea lights?

[little fishes]

Looking for opinions on Odyssea lighting fixtures. Recently found them while looking for inexpensive halide options but have never heard of them before. Specifically I was looking at the 60" fixture with 2X175w 20,000K halides, 4X 65w power compacts, and 8 moon leds. any info is appreciated

little fishes

 

[fishcrazee]

I have the flourescents and think they are great, and the nice thing was, they were pretty cheap! Make sure you're buying from a good seller, I have a link to the place where I bought mine around here somewhere..........

http://stores.ebay.com/TFJ-PET-CENTER

Good honest place to do business with, lights were extremely well packaged, communication good She came down in shipping when I told her I could get it shipped for less too!

 

[JasonD]

They sell them with 175W DE bulb. I could not find anybody selling 175W DE bulbs (besides Odyssea). They are usually 150W DE. Not sure if you can use the 150W when it comes time to replace the bulbs.

I have a 260 watt odyssea PC fixture. I like it. My only complaint was the little internal fans. They are extremely loud for their size and don't work very well. I paid $100 for my Odyssea and $230 for my Coralife PC. My Coralife blew a ballast and half the bulbs don't work now. My Odyssea is still running. Go figure.

IMO, their 65Watt PC bulbs are not bad. They have a 12k White and an O3 actinic. Their 65Watt O3 actinic is great, avoid their 55Watt blue bulb (sold with their older Jebo Model)

Anybody have experience with their T5 setups? I have seen an 108Watt 48" unit for around $50 (with free bulbs). How is their blue T5 bulb?

 

[beaker77]

I would stay away form Odyssea lights like that plague. I read all the horror stories on other reef forums and yet I still bought two for my tanks 6 months back. Two weeks ago I woke up one morning and one of the ballast had caught fire luckily I was able to pull the plug and extinguish the fire before there was any damage to my home or tank.

It just goes to show you get what you paid for.

The problem with Odyssea is that they are made in China so they have little or no quality control, they have absolutely no warranty.

 

[beaker77]

Also, their MH bulbs are junk. They fixture I had came with two 175w 15,000k DE bulbs. The bulbs looked like one was a 6,700k bulb and the other looked like a 20,000k bulb. So one side of my tank was way too white and the other side is way too blue. I ended up buying 4 bulb before I got two that matched color.

 

[little fishes]

thanks for the input, some very different opinions !
Beaker77- do you know what caused the fire, wires, fan failure, etc. if they have a specific problem that is workable I may still be able to save some$$$.

what does anyone think of 20000K V.S. 10000K. I am used to the 10000K and was just wondering if coral growth is as good with 20000K bulbs

thanks again

 

[loohunter]

coral growth tends to be slower with 20k but they color up nicer

 

[beaker77]

A capacitor inside the ballast box was the culprit.
10,000k will give you better coral growth.
20,000k will give, IMO, better colors.
I usually try to go somewhere in-between 10000k and 15000k

 

[dapperdan]

No such thing as 175 DE lamps, they must be calling 150s 175s. Very lame.

DD

 

[FishinInTheDark]

According to Oddysea, you CAN buy competitors' 250W DE lamps to run in their fixtures. The ballast will only fire 175 watts, but you do have the option of better quality bulbs.

 

[dapperdan]

I think that's big time BS, what are they making up their own rules for MH. Everyone knows MH bulb wattage must match ballast wattage. I would stay away from a company that makes idiotic claims like that.

DD

 

[little fishes]

OK so I did a bit of searching and found that people using the odysea PCs were generally very happy with the setup. However the only good comments I could find about the Halides was from people who said they had only been running for a few months. lots of complaints of receiving non working balasts, broken bulbs that aquatrades would not replace, and burning smells, even other people who had them start on fire. Also found alot of other complaits about aquatraders as a company. So I guess from what I have read- you do get what you pay for- cheap new equipment is just cheap.