Anyone using these lights?

Has anyone had any troubles with the actinics not working on the 48in unit? On my first unit the actinics stopped working after about 3 weeks of use and aquatraders sent me a replacement ballast which did not fix the problem-so they replaced the unit. Now the 2nd unit has no actinic after about 90 days of use. I turn on the switch and nothing comes on. I have read most of this thread and have not heard of other people having this problem-anyway what should I be looking for in the black box to fix the problem? I tried another ballast with no avail.
Thanks in advance
 
Ebisan said:
It's the other way around. When I bought mine, it was advertised as 150W with an electronic ballast. In fact, after opening up the ballast, it was a 175W magnetic ballast.
Click to expand...

There is a post in one of these threads about the Aquatraders crap from the guy who owns a lighting company (paulerik I think is the screen name) and he had the skinny on these and posted specs. The 175 watt DE ballasts will indeed underdrive the 150 DE according to the specs he posted.
 
The Grim Reefer said:
There is a post in one of these threads about the Aquatraders crap from the guy who owns a lighting company (paulerik I think is the screen name) and he had the skinny on these and posted specs. The 175 watt DE ballasts will indeed underdrive the 150 DE according to the specs he posted.
Click to expand...

wouldnt surprise me, they look pretty dim for halides.

Only thing that quit working for me is the fans in the fixture (should be an easy fix if i ever get new ones). I should probably check the ballast box to make sure they still work.
 
Although I haven't had any problems with the Odyssea (knock on wood) and my corals have been growing pretty well, I will not be using the fixture in my new (used) 55g tank. My corals and fish have already outgrown my current tank. This time I decided to go with a name brand retro kit from hellolights, which in retrospect, should have done in the first place. The Odyssea worked for me but just spend a little more and get a retro and put it in a canopy.
 
DAVER said:
wow, did you see the 48" MH. 2x150 and 4x21w t5 for $329.00. there has to be a catch.
Click to expand...

Yes, there is a catch. They like to sell normal output T5s. Your not getting the full benefit of T5s because they aren't High-Output bulbs. May be hard to find replacement bulbs for them. Secondly, reflectors make a huge difference in the performance of T5s.

Just be careful when looking at Oddysea fixtures that your getting High-output T5s not the normal output versions which is what the 21w 34" long bulbs are......


Can't speak for the overall quality or the MH portion of the unit.
 
bullfish said:
Still looking for some word on the 36". There has to be someone here that has bought it.
Click to expand...


bullfish you are good to go..The 36" does slide from center to the ends of the hood.....I just got mine several days ago
 
96p993 said:
bullfish you are good to go..The 36" does slide from center to the ends of the hood.....I just got mine several days ago
Click to expand...

Thanks for the update. Did you get the new design, or the old one. Any pics?
 
I got the one that is on thier site right now...I can tell you the internals of the ballast look different then the pics above. Im guessing it is the new one since the ballasts looks a bit more organized inside..If you some pics you can email me and I will send them to you..

chrisbby@gmail.com
 
I've read thru this very long thread and it still has left me undecided about the new upgraded 48" 492W Metal Halide Fixture & Ballast System from aquatraders.Little input on the new upgrade.

I'm setting up a 55 gl reef tank and unfortunately it's a narrow 12".I'm not using a canopy so it's left me with few chioces in MH combo fixtures.I'm not hanging anything from the ceiling either so I need something with legs.The Orbit and Corallife fixtures are 14" to 15" wide and I'm thinking that there mounting legs won't fit on my 12" width.Not to mention they probably wouldn't look right over hanging my tank.I've seen here where someone has used the 48" Odyssea on there 55 gl.

Any feed back on what to do with my 55 gl with regard to MH lighting would be appreciated.

Rick
 
Aquactinics has hoods you can sit right on the tank without heating things up. They should have a link on the sponsors page.
 
Supposedly they're newer ones than mine, so I canââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t speak for them, but I would probably get the coralife or a retrofit if I did it over. The bulbs just seem really dim. Then again I donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t really know what to compare them to because I've only seen 250w halides in person before.
 
Thanks... I checked out the fixtures from Aquactinics.At a width of only 8.5" on there 48" MH/HOT5 combo it would seem the way to go.Supposedly little heat from it and from what I read there it can sit right on the tank.

Rick
 
I was going to leave AguaTraders in peace after I got my 48" T5 fixture back repaired, but......

Since I went in another direction for my 55 lighting, I put my repaired and tested striplight away and planned on using it as a backup or a quarrentine tank light. When I went to use it today I got the joy of a nice ozone smell, a warm ballast, and no light.

This stuff is crap, plain and simple!
 
Well if anyone is interested I took a chance and purchased the 305 watt MH fixture from aquatraders and so far so good. The first go around with trying to order on line didnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t work so well for some reason. I couldnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t get a hold of anyone on the phone and when I did they didnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t really speak English. But someone finally got my emails and from there we communicated just fine and I was able to get the fixture shipped out. When I did get it I was pleasantly surprised with it (my first MH fixture so cant really compare). Seemed to be very sturdy, went together straight forward and the design of it allowed for lots of options for mounting. The top hanging brackets slid in a groove allowing for a total of ~24 inched of off set if needed. Same with the option for the legs. One thing I donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t like is that theres only one main power cord for both the MH bulb and LEDs. So when this is on a timer (and not using the independent switches) the LEDs would shut off when the MHs shut off. But I have a drill and extra power cord that will take care of that. I did have to take apart the ballast box to adjust the screws that fasten the fans because the fan was making a clicking noise. Over all im very happy with the purchase (especially for $180 versus $600 else where) and from here only time will tell. But if some thing burns out I can always replace it with quality part as I mainly bought it for the DE fixture its self. Down the line I plan on pulling out the PCs and putting in some T5s. Also replacing the 175 watt bulb and ballast with 250 watters.
 
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