Odyssea Lights

Any HQI 250w bulb will do, assuming that its a HQI. If its Odyssea and you want the same bulb, try Aquatraders

 

Happy with my purchase

I have 250 watt odyssea metal halide fixture on a 34 gallon cube. The Fixture is perfect for the application. well made and easy to replace bulbs in. I had one USHIO bulb I tried in it that would not start may be a ballast issue. but it works fine with the replacement USHIO bulb. I replaced the free bulb that came with the fixture because I didn't like the color, and I don't like the color of the new one any better. the fixture alone is worth the price. Came with an electronic ballast that seems to work fine. for $100 I could throw the bulb and ballast away put an ice cap ballast on and still be ahead of the game. I am happy with the whole deal.

 

Oddsea lights

I ordered an odyssea metal halide light from ebay two days ago. It has two 250watt HQI's with external ballasts and 12 bluemoons, no pc's or t5's I bought a more reliable light for those. I figure that if the ballasts burn up on the metal halides I will have my friend who owns a reef store get me icecap or some kind of upgraded ballast's for the fixture. I only paid $250.00 shipped for the light. I don't think that the color problem with the lights is because of everyones bulbs but more of a ballast problem. If u put a better ballast on the metal halides the color will come out better. Also everyone uses 15k bulbs and says they don't like the color. You cant get thet perfect color out of one light you have to mix lights. Also for a whiter light use a 10k for a blueish white light use 14k-15k and for intense blue use 20k bulbs. I have a 110 gal reef tank and Ihave 6 T5's with 8 blue moons and I am adding the 2 250 watt HQI's and 12 more bluemoons. I am going to use 15K HQI's for a balanced bright light with good shimmering effect. To add a bright white light I have 4 10k T5's and for a little added blue I have only 2 T5's in between the 10K T5's to help wash the blue out

 

What type of corals are you going to keep? I found that the bulbs are not good enough for a SPS tank. They were fine for most other corals.
http://www.3reef.com/forums/reef-lighting/icecap-blue-life-vs-odyssea-61218.html

 

I got the lights

I got the light three days later when the seller said it would take at least six and the bulb color is great and I also took the light completely apart and it is wired pretty good so I am super happy with my purchase but I am still going to get my friends light meter to see if the odyssea bulbs are good enough for sps corals. If not I will just buy better bulbs and still have spent less money than those 500-600 dollar lights. I own my own dart frog breeding company and I use a lot of lights to grow my plants and it is all in the color and wavelength of light you use. I did all my science fair projects in school on the effects of light and light color on different types of plants. People at the fish stores say that using a 6500k bulb might not be right for the plants or the frogs but my frogs are breeding twice as fast and the plants are always outgrowing their tank now instead of dieing with the cheap reptile lights. I am hoping to start reef farming along with the frog breeding and I will fill this new tank with rare acropora's, brain corals and chalice's more highend collecters pieces in this big tank I have a 50 with mushrooms and a loft of soft stuff that is not as expensive.

 

I like Odyssea lights.

The only cheap thing that I found about the wiring of these lights is that they use a tiny little bit of solder when they wire the lights instead of pileing it on like the name brand companies do. But the only way the you are going to break the conections is if you are rough as hell with the light but who is going to be rough with a light that they spent a couple hundred bucks of their hard earned money on. I think that odyssea has some good lights I have four different units from them PC/T5 and now metal halide and I ahve not had any problems I also have a cora life and a catalina light also with no problems but with a lot more money. I don't think that people give odyssea a fair chance. I bet if you ask the people that say their odyssea lights caught on fire probably didn't keep them clean or take care of them cause a super cheap light is not as important as an expensive light that someone will keep in good condition an up keep their investment. If you take care of your odyssea light like you woul a name brand light it will last just as long. My oldest odyssea light is a 3 year old 36" dual PC light the only problem i had is I got one of the moonlights wet (soaked) and it stopped working got an odyssea brand replacement wired it myself with crimpers it took five minutes and it worked perfect again.

 

WOW... I wish I would have found this site a few days ago. I just purchased an Odyssea light on ebay (36" Metal 1x250w Halide Aquarium Reef Light 4x total 442W Power Compact) Now a I am wondering if I should return it ( still have 30 days) Or should I do all of the suggestions to just make it work? BTW.. Can someone put together a list of things that they would recommend you update when you get your fixture? For example, ballast, bulbs, wires, etc...)

Thanks

 

I'm still happy with my Odyssea hood fixture.. I think people just need to keep in mind that the bulbs/ballast may need to be replaced with better depending on what types of corals you're going to keep. I think unless you're going to keep SPS the stock items are just fine. Also from what I understand the power consumption with upgraded ballast is much better but I don't have any specifics.

I have to retract some of my statements about lights being too strong for things like my chalice.. after my faulty thermometer disaster I think that some things were not necessarily getting too much light but may have been the temperature.

 

Before I went with the chinese Odyysea I would go to buildyouraquarium.com - Aquarium Lights, Metal Halides, T5 HO Solar Metal, Halide Retro, Retro Fits, Power Compacts aquarium lighting,aquarium light,aquarium lights reef aquarium lighting,marine aquarium lighting,metal halide aquarium lighting,saltwa
They are american made and have a 5 year warranty I was looking into them but decided to just do it right this time. I am going Tek from reefgeek.com
I have Odysea which are fixing to go into the closet with all the other things I tried to skimp on such as lights and skimmers and just look into the site I listed maybe get a better deal overall...then save and go Tek when ya can....
Danny

 

Just BECAUSE there American made don't make them better I work for CAT and only about 30% of the machines that we have shipped lately have been problem free:-/