Odyssea MH lights

[Third Coast Tropical]

Has anyone had experience with this brand? Pros and cons?


Thanks

[rockmp]

I had the same question. I saw a MH light on aquatraders.com for pretty cheap. Do you get what you pay for? Be intrested to see what people have to say, good or bad.

http://shop.aquatraders.com/Metal-Halide-System-s/10.htm

[cowboy572]

I have there 48" MH/PC combo, and yes what you see is what you get. After reading on different forums by the time you are done replacing parts the only thing left that is Odysessa is the housing. The MH ballasts are junk and dont produce the full 250 watts they advertise. Also the bulbs are not color correct. I have had mine up and running since Mar. and I have had to replace one bulb and two ballasts. When the second went out I decided to use a Coralvue ballast. You can see difference of the two ballasts. By the way Aquatrader customer is like there product, junk. There is no warranty.

[Shu]

There are alot of mixed reviews about these. I have heard of horrible customer support and also the ballast catching fire. They have since release a new version that is supposidly better but I don't know. My freind in this hobby reccomends them.

[cowboy572]

I have heard the same thing about there ballasts. "Supposedly" that issue has been taken care of. What I did, just to be sure the don't over heat, I bought a 8 dollar fan from Wally World and it blows driectly on them.

[justahobby]

I might get bashed for this BUT :bigsmile:, Mine experience has been great. The bulb is worth complaining about and you need the 20K to get a brilliant 12K look, but unless you pay thousands for the in fad "best brand" fixture (IMO ridiculous) you will want to replace the bulbs. My odyssea ballast was great. It never got past room temp. I bought an ice cap ballast because of everything I read claiming how much difference i would see in a new ballast. The results aren't worth mentioning. There was the slightest difference in brightness and the ice cap ballast gets MUCH hotter! The fan is a beast. I would purchase from odyssea again if needed. As far as fires, you can google all day long and you will not find one person stating THEIR OWN fixture/ ballast caught fire. And with the metal powder coating/ and cool running ballast I find it even harder to believe. I have seen first hand that their customer service has lots of room for improvement. JMO's. :)

[aggman]

i also have an oddysea unit, two in fact. a 150w version and a 250w version. and both work great. and before anyone asks, i am selling the 150w fixture because i am consolidating tanks. it comes with its own fan and it keeps the fixture running cool enough for me not to worry. i will admit the stock bulb is not very good color wise, but it does work. my sps grew crazy in my biocube, just didn't have good color. after i finally changed to a new bulb i got the color i wanted but growth slowed.

so yeah be weary of anyone saying a product is crap without firsthand knowledge. oh and also, i have never had to replace any part of my units. well, except for bulbs.

~alex

[aggman]

oh and i know a company that sells them from texas and customer service is excellent. let me know if you want their info and i can send it asap.

~alex

[Shu]

aggman I am interested.

[corruption]

Personally, I've had nothing but good luck with Odyssea lights -- I've had 2 sets of the 2x39w T5 fixtures, and a 13" PC fixture -- both have worked flawlessly as long as I've had em... Can't argue on the cheap bulbs, and also can't speak to the MH's, but for the price they're quite acceptable in my personal opine.

-Corruption

[Third Coast Tropical]

Alex, Do you have the 250 W over the 29 cube?....That wasn't too much light for it?...Is your Texas company cheaper than E-bay?....They are pretty cheap on E-Bay!....


Thanks everyone for providing your POV.

[aggman]

no sorry i wasn't clear. i have the 150w over the biocube. the 250 is on a larger cube-like tank.

and the texas company is an ebay company. lol. topdogsellers. they are based out of pasadena.

~alex

[danny]

I'm selling the 48" fixture in the for sale forum. It's a great light with NO problems and I'm selling it for $300 with only 3 months usage. Buy it from me and pay no shipping! ;)

[corkyGramma]

I have one over the b-friends tank- he had enough of a sticker shock as it was<dont even tell him what an ice cap or giesemann costs>. I had an initial ballast go out on me, but ever since then I havent had a problem in the two yrs that ive had it. Apparently theres a chance of getting a bad ballast. Agree on replacing mh and atinic bulbs.

[Darth-Tater]

I too have had nothig but good luck. I have had the 48" light on my tank at scchol for several years no trouble. I have a 150 MH over my nano and it works great. the bulb is yellow so I am replacing that bulb. They are not 350.00 lights for a nano or 75 gallon tank but I have had no problems. In fact I just ordered another one for my house nano

David

[Kyle46N]

I've had a 48 inch 2x 250 watt MH fixture running for close to 4 years now. It still runs great. I did switch out the electronic ballasts with Icecaps, but that was when they did in fact send you 175 watt ballasts for 250 watt lights. I've read that has been fixed. The stock ballasts ran very cool. For the price, you can't beat odyssea.

[JoshOdphi]

i have a 250w MH (Odyssea) and well havent had any problems with it......actually i know a lot of people might disagree but i've had great growth with it and using supplements....so it was worth the buy...the older fixtures were the ones that would be faulty....oh and the built in fans work great...very little heat given off...

[Roo&Lis]

Just received my 48" 2-250w MH/4-52w T5 combo in the mail today. Everything seems to check out great. I barely had it on because it was laying on the floor and blinded the heck out of me. So I definitely know the MHs work. :) Once I get the tank up and running I'll give yall my 2 cents.

[corruption]

I just ordered a replacement 36" 4x39w T5 fixture for my 40 gallon tank -- it'll be my 4th Oddysea fixture... can't wait to hear your opinions of the 48" MH fixture -- we've been thinking about that exact one for our upgrade to the 75 Gallon :)

-Corruption

[Roo&Lis]

That's what the light is currently awaiting. Most claim it runs really cool so hopefully I shouldn't have a problem with heat. Can't beat a solar flare of lighting for a $330 bucks. I haven't seen the light over water but the MHs don't look too bad in color. The T5 bulbs are a little lame but luckly those are the cheaper of the bunch to replace.

[rockmp]

I purchased the 24" version that has a single 250w MH, two PC and 4 blue led's. I will post some pictures once my tank is up and running.

[corruption]

Just got my new 36" 4x39w T5 fixture up on the old 40 gallon tank -- I'll get some pics this weekend (likely after changing the bulbs with something quality ;) but I must say, I'm quite impressed... the build quality of the Odyssea hardware has massively improved since I purchased my 2x 39w fixtures 3 years ago... Fans are quiet, its running very cool, and the ballasts are internal -- no more bulky external blocks to deal with :bigsmile:

Hoping the MH fixtures are of this caliber improvement -- cuz after seeing this I'm pretty sure I'll go that route for my 75gal :)

-Corruption

[Third Coast Tropical]

I bought the 150 W MH w/ 15000K bulb...and 2 14 W actinics...First one I received, the actinics did not work....Contacted the ebay company i purchased the from and had no issue getting a new one sent a couple of days later...The second was missing a couple of screws and one of the metal bars that assist with the leg extensions, but all the lights work and that is what was really important....And I made the rest work....love the light....tank looks great...and i am only out 100$....so, while I wish all the pieces were there and that the first one would have worked properly...I am still satisfied with the light overall

[rockmp]

well the light is nice. good color for the stock bulbs but definatly need to change them out eventually. Also the fan crapped out on me. Took it back to LFS and they put a new one in for me but it is LOUD. Will call them later today to see if there is a different fan we can put in.