odyssea purchase.

[alextheromanian]

Originally posted by agreeive?fish
Ok iam intrested in following this thread as iam starting a 29g mini reef tank( low to moderate light ) and iam currently researching lights.... my biggest thing about theese lights is they are not UL listed an some insurance companies/polocies will deny payment if a electrical fire is contributed to an electrical product that is not UL listed..I am not saying theese lights will cause a fire because i dont know anything about them other than what i have read today..i actuall stumbled onto the aqutrades web site today...i will be tagging along with great intrest..(oh the mini reef is to get the wife off my back as she wants a reef and iam a FOWLR guy)

oh boy then i dont know what to tell you. i can centrainly keep you update on my experience with it but if UL listing is a big concern with you then im sorry.

thing being you JUST found these lights...and older models have a history of ether smoking or catching fire...altho many will deny it or say its because IMPROPER setup or bypassing the ballast and plugging the light straight into the wall.

the NEWER versions are the electronic balast (as opposed to the old MAGNETIC BALLAST) they have a reputation for not performing as well as other expensive fixtures but they can be UPGRADED with UL listed ballasts...i dont know if this could be a workaround for you.

in ANY case welcome to the thread and as you learn from my experience id like to learn from yours since i plan on making this the first reef tank aswell

[agreeive?fish]

I dont know if the ul is an issue with me or not..i got to pull out my insuranse polocy and read the fine print and research the light it self..and ill willing share any info i learn on my mini reef..what i have learned so far is i know absolutly nothing about it but i have a head full of scrammbled information i have read over the past week i know iam only going to do low to moderate light and low to medium water flow beginer type corals

[CoralCaps]

Not that I know of for the individual reflectors.

I checked the bulbs but didn't see any markings on them as to whether they were T5 or T6. Place said T5 so I just went with what they said.

[MinnFish]

Im only speaking from a engineering standpoint. Putting a UL ballast in a non UL fixture. Will not make it UL approved. The fixture would have to be manufacture with the UL ballast, not retrofitted. Believe me, getting UL approved is not cheap. Aggreeive?fish, T5s will get you going.

[Zestay]

5 pages about a guys order? jebus. i just contribited to this madness

[alextheromanian]

Originally posted by Zestay
5 pages about a guys order? jebus. i just contribited to this madness

lol welcome teehee

its about to get longer since im reciving the light soon

[alextheromanian]

Originally posted by MinnFish
Im only speaking from a engineering standpoint. Putting a UL ballast in a non UL fixture. Will not make it UL approved. The fixture would have to be manufacture with the UL ballast, not retrofitted. Believe me, getting UL approved is not cheap. Aggreeive?fish, T5s will get you going.

i have to agree it wont make it UL listed i was just saying if its a BIG concern with fires etc he could swap that ballast out with a UL listed one that has a MUCH better rep but if he IS going to low moderate lighting i DO agree T5 is the way to go

just make sure they have individual reflectors.

if yout 29g is like mine 30" long you wont find 30' long t5HO bulbs. youll find 24" but i dont belive this to be a HUGE deal seeing as how i had 24" previously on mine and it was doing just fine.


power compacts come in 30" but i keep hearing to either go with T5ho or halides since eventually youll want to either upgrade or youll find them to be old technology

[smoothlarryhughes]

i have the 250 metal halide odyssea fixture...replaced the ballast and i think it works great...just as good as the sunpod

[alextheromanian]

Originally posted by smoothlarryhughes
i have the 250 metal halide odyssea fixture...replaced the ballast and i think it works great...just as good as the sunpod

did you ever run it with the stick ballast? or did you just go straight to replacing it.

[jthao]

wow, this thing is getting long!!!! anyways, I was just droppin' in because I forgot to tell you guys something..... this light isn't odyssea. odyssea is the brand that caused "fires" etc.... this light is (and this is just what I call it) "coralife knockoff". it's like buying the Jordans off the street instead of from champs, looks and performs the same just different price.
anyways, here's a few links in case you guys wanna read it..... I actually read all of it!!!! There's about 4 splits of 40 pages each.... have fun!!!!

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...5&pagenumber=1

[jdmcivicek9]

i ran my stock ballasts for about 6 months until i couldnt take it anymore after reading and seeing pictures of how big the difference was when you upgraded the ballasts...but i was able to start growing sps on my stock ballasts...but i really need to change to phoenix 14k's

[leoslizards]

Nice score on the $5k house alex. That's $265,000.00 less then we paid for ours! How the hell did you get it, auction?

Anyways, have you received it yet? What does the fixture have, 2x 250w HQI MH and 2xt5ho bulbs? I have a 30" 29g FOWLR tank atm. I want to convert it into a reef but have decided to go the DIY route with lighting. Fortunately my brother works at a light bulb distributor from china and gets good employee discounts!

agreeive?fish why so many empty tanks! LOL I wish I had that many tanks. The biggest tank I have ever owned is 30g I got a broken 55g in my backyard that I'm considering fixing or just using it for my corn snake and a bunch of 10g tanks I have full of geckos, a turtle, guppies, and snails.

[alextheromanian]

Originally posted by leoslizards
Nice score on the $5k house alex. That's $265,000.00 less then we paid for ours! How the hell did you get it, auction?

Anyways, have you received it yet? What does the fixture have, 2x 250w HQI MH and 2xt5ho bulbs? I have a 30" 29g FOWLR tank atm. I want to convert it into a reef but have decided to go the DIY route with lighting. Fortunately my brother works at a light bulb distributor from china and gets good employee discounts!

agreeive?fish why so many empty tanks! LOL I wish I had that many tanks. The biggest tank I have ever owned is 30g I got a broken 55g in my backyard that I'm considering fixing or just using it for my corn snake and a bunch of 10g tanks I have full of geckos, a turtle, guppies, and snails.

hahah youll never however compare your house to the 5k house i have. thats one thing you WONT get away with.

in any case they are called HUD houses and are usually reposessed by the back from people who refused to make payments on them or who took out loans without being able to pay them back. OR who simply purchased a 250K house not ebing able to pay it off due to loss of job etc.


there are hud houses worth 100$ and there are some worth 100K
but in both case they are worth about ten times that.

the house we bought for 5 k fixed up and repaired would only be worth around 80K and that being estimated on the prices of houses around it...and they area. if somehting happens there and prices go up so will the house value.

in any case 80K value for 5K isnt that bad id say especially when the house is yours to do whatever you wish with. even rented out it would pay the 5k back in a year...free money if you dont mind picking up a hammer and nail


the light is not here yet its estimated to be here on the 4th as in monday. when i recive it i will take pictures from EVERY angle inside and out so you can see it upclose and in detail.

the light is 30" long it has 1x25W MH 2x65(?)W PC's
as far as im told 100% of the time the bulbs could be replaced making a world of difference even with the stock ballast.

[jdmcivicek9]

so i just ordered my new bulbs...phoenix 14k's from hellolights...i found a coupon code online for the website its for 5%off your entire order!!not much of a discount but i saved $6.00 the code is: rconly5po so instead of them costing $119.90 shipped it was $113.90 shipped!!i will post pictures when they come in and i install them!!

[agreeive?fish]

Originally posted by leoslizards

agreeive?fish why so many empty tanks! LOL I wish I had that many tanks. The biggest tank I have ever owned is 30g I got a broken 55g in my backyard that I'm considering fixing or just using it for my corn snake and a bunch of 10g tanks I have full of geckos, a turtle, guppies, and snails. [/B]

Well my sig line is out of date... the 75g 20g 10g and (1) 29g are qt tanks and sit empty in garage until needed the 55g has been sold and now we have another saltwater fish nut in town... 210g and 200g are homes to fishies, the other 29g is being set up as we speak for a trial mini reef for later transfer to the 175g bow

[alextheromanian]

LIGHT GETS HERE TOMORROW! IM SO EXCITED! i called ups and they said i cant pick it up before it gets delivered to my house. so darn.

TOMMOROW STAY TUNED FOR ALOT OF PICTURES!
hope you find them interesting!

[jherrin215]

Sorry, I'm late on this discussion. I can speak from personal experience on the Odyssea lights. I had one that I was very happy with. I had it about 9 months. The ballast then decided to go out. I tried everywhere to find a replacement ballast to no avail. I finally trached it and got a light from catfishlighting.com. I have had it about a year and a half and love it. Hope you have better luck!!

[alextheromanian]

Originally posted by jherrin215
Sorry, I'm late on this discussion. I can speak from personal experience on the Odyssea lights. I had one that I was very happy with. I had it about 9 months. The ballast then decided to go out. I tried everywhere to find a replacement ballast to no avail. I finally trached it and got a light from catfishlighting.com. I have had it about a year and a half and love it. Hope you have better luck!!

youre not late at all lol
this 5 page discution is a PRE reciving light descution.

they will come in tomorrow and i will post pictures of them.

well what hapenned with your ballast seems to be normal...most people replace the ballasts with icecaps before they even get a chance to burn out and would never think TWICE about replacing them with the same brand ballasts.

im glad you too have found the fixture to be more than sceptical garbadge which what some may think about it.

[leoslizards]

Originally posted by jherrin215
Sorry, I'm late on this discussion. I can speak from personal experience on the Odyssea lights. I had one that I was very happy with. I had it about 9 months. The ballast then decided to go out. I tried everywhere to find a replacement ballast to no avail. I finally trached it and got a light from catfishlighting.com. I have had it about a year and a half and love it. Hope you have better luck!!

You shouldn't have trashed it. You could have replaced the ballast for another brand or sold it. Anyone here would have bought it. I would I have bought it! I'm going to buy another cheap brand fixture and replace the ballast and bulbs. It's a T8 fixture and I'll probably replace it with hoT5's or PC, I just want the fixture housing itself, not the stuff inside.

[abulgin]

Alex hasn't posted pictures yet because he was following the UPS man around the neighborhood in his conversion van with "Free Candy" painted on the side, and the police picked him up on suspicion of attempted kidnapping.

[alextheromanian]

Originally posted by abulgin
Alex hasn't posted pictures yet because he was following the UPS man around the neighborhood in his conversion van with "Free Candy" painted on the side, and the police picked him up on suspicion of attempted kidnapping.

FUNNY!

i wish that were the case...you could see pictures of that too.

IN ANY CASE AS PROMISSED

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v6...rusca/odyssea/

all 4 pages with pictures of the light

[alextheromanian]

sadly way to wide to fin in the canopy...meanning ill have to DIY another canopy and stand for this tank...yes im upset as hell





inside the ballast




ballast firing up took about 5 mins



with PCs turned on

[alextheromanian]

moon lights


i thought it would be much thicker

PC attachment



MH BULB CLOSEUP "15k 250W"

[alextheromanian]

[leoslizards]

Thanks for the pics alex. That's a nice fixture! Wish I could afford something like that. How much was it again? $300ish?