Cheap site for Lighting!!!

[tropicana]

http://www.aquatraders.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=333

To me, that seems like a KILLER deal!

[Mr Cob]

http://www.aquatraders.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=333

To me, that seems like a KILLER deal!

I'd have to agree.

[BigKGlen]

Check this (http://www.aquariumhardware.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=418) out!

[caferacermike]

Odyssea is junk. Do an online search and you'll read many stories of their lighting products bursting into flames. I had a friend that sold the junk. The products are not UL listed or certified in any way BUT the manufacturer would send rolls of stickers that looked like UL stickers for him to wrap around the cords.

Best of luck.

[Mr Cob]

Check this (http://www.aquariumhardware.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=418) out!

Remote control is pretty cool!

[tropicana]

I had an Odyssea light and it worked pretty good... I guess maybe it has happened before though, I was unaware of it.

[alton]

FYI any body can add "UL" stickers to electric items. You must read the words "Listed" written around the "UL" Label. Listed means tested as a full product if not it might just be parts and pieces of the unit that have been UL Listed.

[Kyle46N]

It's a great deal, especially if you can't afford the higher end stuff. I've had the 48 inch 2x250 watt combo for two years now and its been excellent. There is a HUGE thread on reefcentral.com that has a ton of feedback on these lights and modifications people are doing to them. The ballasts that aquatraders sends with the 250 watt MH setups are not 250 watt ballasts, so people have been bying Icecaps or Coralvue's, etc and replacing the stock ballasts. You still come out way under what you would pay with any other brand. And as far as the fire rumor......I have yet to see someone post a report of THEIR OWN unit catching fire....its always someone they knew, or someone they heard of. And I've been following that reefcentral thread for over a year now. Check it out.

[rz1a]

theyre good fixtures once you replace the stock mh ballasts. i replaced the one on my 24" with an icecap and its nice. fans are really loud though

[RayAllen]

IMO, not a good product. That price for a reason. Icecap, Geisman, Hamilton are a few better products that you may pay a little more but wont have to alter. Im new to MH but have kept Icecap and Coralife products and were happy with them.

[BigKGlen]

Odyssea is Jebo after they were forced to close. I actually read the court transcripts on the Class Action Suit against Jebo for...starting fires because of their substandard wiring in lights, motors & pumps, and falsifying safety documentation. They were fined $6,250,000 to settle the suit, and promptly filed for bankruptcy. 5 months later 'Odyssea' products began showing up that greatly resembled the Jebo line.

[Jonthefishguy]

I have contacted that company by phone and asked them for the brand name of the MH units. The gentleman on the phone said, 'it doesnt have a name. No brand name!" They list now that the units are ELECTRONIC VERSION as the magnetic ones tended to cause fires. I am on the fence on this since I have never had experience with this brand.

[LoneStar]

Don't even bother...

save up for a better brand.

[BigKGlen]

Ditto!

[Kyle46N]

Yes, the lights are not as high quality as some of the more expensive brands....but make no mistake, the difference in price is huge. Its not paying a little more, its paying hundreds of dollars more. For some here, that may not be a problem. For others it is. Its a great product for someone who wants the benefit of metal halides but can't afford to drop a grand on them. Especially if you are looking at a unit for a larger tank. I went to reefcentral.com and read up on them and took note of all the people's comments who had bought the lights. The overwhelming majority of comments by people who owned these lights were positive comments. The majority of the negative comments were from people who do not own them and owned the more expensive products. For anyone reading this and deciding whether or not to go with the product, I say if you can't afford the more expensive lights, you can feel comfortable going with Odyssea at aquatraders.

[rz1a]

im currently growing SPS and have a plta, under this light. i like the light, i dont think its horrible. maybe the fans are loud and the ballast needs to be replaced, but you stil end up saving yourself a lot of money instead of dropping down 1,100 or whatever for a fixture that only has 150w MH, you know?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v603/rubensaurus/triColorSMpic.jpg
V same frag as above ^ and this and other SPS frags are at the bottom of my tank.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v603/rubensaurus/FragTRI.jpg
LTA
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v603/rubensaurus/PLTA1.jpg

had clams as well, but lost them because i got some oil from equipment in the tank. this is one of my clams that i had:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v603/rubensaurus/1026071339.jpg

[RayAllen]

Were not saying it wont grow corals, we are saying its a product that can fail or have to have parts replaced with better parts. Im not one who want to have to fix something because its made with cheap parts. Its better to watch the for sale forum on Maast, ARC, Marsh or reefcentral to buy a better used product at a good price. Ive seen some amazing quality lights on sale here at rock bottom prices.

[rz1a]

when the 24" version came out it cost me 159 with free shipping. i went and bought the ballast from marine depot and the day after the ballast came it was already wired up running. i never wired anything in my life before but took me 10 minutes to have it wired. just match the colors and use heat shrink, nothing to it. if people want to spend 800 to 1,500 for something like that, then go for it. but for those of us going to school or whatever, then its a good alternative. i agree that you can spend hrs everyday loading a page and looking for a light and trying to haggle with the person, but i dont like to do that. i did buy most of my equipment like that for my 75 but it took me several months to gather all the things i needed, and i still need another month or more until i pick up my final pieces of equipment--- heck, i got a 1/4 hp chiller only used for a year or so that cost me 280 and brand new theyre worth over 500, but it took me a long time to find a deal like that

ive had this fixture for a year already and would buy it again if i were starting up my 28 all over

[BigKGlen]

I've never understood buying anything brand new, and the first thing you have to do to make it work right is to spend more money on it.

Make sure you put the money from the price difference into savings. You may need it for your deductable when your house burns down.

[tropicana]

Instead of bagging on burning houses down. Show the proof versus ragging it down with opinions.

[Mr Cob]

Odyssea is Jebo after they were forced to close. I actually read the court transcripts on the Class Action Suit against Jebo for...starting fires because of their substandard wiring in lights, motors & pumps, and falsifying safety documentation. They were fined $6,250,000 to settle the suit, and promptly filed for bankruptcy. 5 months later 'Odyssea' products began showing up that greatly resembled the Jebo line.

Well,... anyone looking for proof...read up on the info BigK posted about.

Pretty crazy.....

[rz1a]

see thats the thing. theres a huge thread about this on RC that been going on for i dont know how long. you always get those people who pop in and tell everyone their house will burn down but these people have never owned the fixture nor have they even tried the new fixture. like i said, ive already had this for a year

and as for the quote:

"I've never understood buying anything brand new, and the first thing you have to do to make it work right is to spend more money on it"

you've never understood buying anything brand new? so you buy old stuff and use it for you aquarium? a lot of this stuff can be said about buying things old. you never know how old and out dated the technology is or you can always take a chance burning your house tank with buying old junk or whatever-- so whats the difference between buying old junk and buying a new fixture that's been tested by hundreds of people who have posted their experience on a huge thread on RC?

i myself am an owner of the new fixture, i speak from experience, not from "he said she said."

[caferacermike]

My friend owned a wholesale type shop in Austin, he sold tons of the crap. I would visit him about once a week. He had pallets of bad lights. Stuff he sent out 2 weeks before that were returned do to not working or worse yet BURNED UP BALLASTS. I refuse to name his shop here because he was once a sponsor of the site. I asked him what he did with the stuff, he said it all went to the dump. It was cheaper for him to toss it then ask for a refund. We used to have a laugh about how many of the switches were not wired correctly or ballasts that would not fire from day one. I would go there from time to time to collect burned out units to replace with proper ballasts.

I have an Oddysea fixture that I got from him for the sole purpose of gutting and rebuilding, thankfully I did not need to pay for it. Upon adding Icecap ballasts and Fulham ballasts I noticed one thing right off the bat, the reflectors are about 6"x6" and can not light up a tank. I used new reflectors from Hellolights. The entire conversion set me back $500. Not bad considering it was a completely new set up I didn't any money for in the beginning.

RZ1A , reread the quote you posted from another member

"I've never understood buying anything brand new, and the first thing you have to do to make it work right is to spend more money on it"

and actually understand it without your predisposed bias, you'd see that you misread the statement. In no way is it said that the poster only buys used. No you see he is saying that he cannot justify buying a new product with the intent of spending hundreds of dollars on it to make it as good as another product. Why buy a Kia with the intent of spending thousands of dollars extra to make it ride like a BMW if you could just skip all the crap and buy a BMW?

Buying crap will always bite you in the end. Buy quality and it will pay for itself.

[Kristy]

Okay, the last time there was a thread on this subject:

http://www.maast.org/forums/showthread.php?t=41588

a charter member named "ifIknewthen" shared his experience of coming home to his house on fire. If you are looking for real life examples to make sure the fire concerns are not some sort of myth, you might want to contact that guy. Glad you haven't had any trouble with yours, but it's certainly okay for others to let people know that the potential for this problem is there, especially while in the midst of deciding what fixture to buy.

[BigKGlen]

I posted my knowledge on the subject for consideration in making your decision. I'm not telling anyone what to do.
FIRES from this company's product is FACT. It is in court documents, and a member had an unfortunate personal experience on the subject.
Cautioning members of fires was my OPINION.
Thanks Mike for pointing out that taking PART of a quote and misrepresenting it's meaning is wrong. Your clarifycation was right on target.
And thanks to Kristy for finding the thread I was trying to find as a reference to a personal experience from within our own.

[rz1a]

i sat back for a long time reading up on boards about the fixture, im not ignoring that peoples houses burned down in the past because of an old fixture, but when you have hundreds of people testing things and still own them thats what i based my decision to buy something

[ErikH]

come on y'all....

[MissT]

This has gotten way off track, let's keep this civil, and watch the language, guys.

There will be a debate of "generic vs. brand name" and "price vs. quality" until the end of time... let's move on

[coraline79]

jebo, odyssea, coralife.........same people, making the same stuff. that was posted on the last million page thread about this exact same website aquatraders. I am a cheapo guy, and most of the time you will find that you are getting the same stuff with different names/finish on it. Just look at the Apple Mac's. Foxxcon motherboards, intel processors, hitachi harddrives, dell subcontractor RAM, and a $2000 different for the OS and shiny white flimsy plastic. What a deal.

[aedile]

Greetings,

Mostly a lurker, but thought I'd chime in. I live in an older house and the electrical system is kind of wonky. I had a 20h with the Jebo 150w MH fixture over it. Also on my system was a CPR refugium/skimmer. At one point I had so much Chaeto in my fuge that it clogged the intake of the fuge and it started it spill over a little (not talking flood, just a few drops). Anyways, long story short, salt-water + Jebo ballast, + crummy electrical system DOES equal fires starting. I lost my ballast and my surge protector and would have lost my whole ****ed house had I not been there with a fire extinguisher and my wife hadn't tossed the breaker (a thought that kept me up for several nights, let me tell you). I cannot say whether it was the crappy ballast, the crappy electrical system, or the surge protector, but suffice it to say, I don't use Jebo lights anymore. You are much better off biding your time and looking in the for sale section here on MAAST. I see good deals on Metal Halides all the time (there are several right now).

I honestly can't say the same wouldn't happen with a better lighting system as electrical stuff doesn't get along with salt water at all, but do you REALLY want to have the lives of you wife/husband/kids/dogs (not to mention your tank) riding on a bargain-basement high-wattage electrical system? If you want to save money, make some agro-rocks, don't skimp on lighting. FWIW, I eventually replaced this with an Odyssea light setup that had it's own fuse, and it hasn't given me any issues. But still....

As for me, I am waiting til I am in a house with wiring up to code before I go with anything more intense than my 12g nanocube.

HTH,
-aedile-

[tropicana]

Most of the time how it works is this... You are a ROAB (reefer on a budget), so you cant buy Geisman, Coralife lights are great to them because they can afford to have decent lighting and great looking reef for a great price. First off, if you dont have Insurance on your home in the first place, and have fire extinguishers around, I think you should second guess yourself even with Geisman lighting. Now I dont own this lighting I still stand for it because I was there once. Now I just have Dual 400w PFO MH ballast with Reeflux bulbs. It wasnt the fact that I could finally afford it, I sold a Very nice system in my car to buy all this stuff. I am sure this could happen even with a Higher Quality Brand. Its like Motorolla in Seguin, Tx, they made engine controllers for the Ford Aerostar back in 1988, they had to recall the controllers. They caused fires in the dash, which in field testing this never happened. The company released the controllers yet to recall them due to several fires caused from them. Marketing allowed Jebo to sell millions before this happened, how do you recall all of them? Its pretty difficult.

BTW, its quite possible in the MH applications that caught on fire, wasnt the manufacturer of the unit, it could have possibly been the choice of MH Bulbs!!! See below:

https://www.uos.harvard.edu/ehs/ih/metal_halide_lamps.pdf