odyssea MH fixture review... new electronic version
- Thread starter JohnL
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miatawnt2b
New member
I bought one but haven't installed it. There is nothing special about it. 2 painted steel brackets (badly painted) and some wire. There are no ceiling covers as with the coralife hanging brackets. My suggestion is get the coralife.
-J
miatawnt2b
New member
They should. I seem to remember someone WAY back in the thread doing that since it was determined the shells of the fixtures are the same.
-J
-J
ransomed4ever
New member
atinic pop
atinic pop
I do not have one of these fixtures yet, but am probably going to get one when the budget permits. I noticed that people are not getting the actinic "pop" they want with the pc bulbs. I currently only have a coralife 4x65 watt pc fixture over my 75gal (only lps and softies). I recently replaced my coralife actinics with the ones from Current. they are a 460nm/430nm 50/50. These bulbs gave me a lot of "pop". I used to think some of my zoa's were just green, but now I see they are neon green centered with yellow tentacles. My blue and purple mushrooms are actually blue and purple now, not brownish purple. Thought these might be something to try before a t5 swap. Got mine from fostersmith for about 17.50 per bulb.
atinic pop
I do not have one of these fixtures yet, but am probably going to get one when the budget permits. I noticed that people are not getting the actinic "pop" they want with the pc bulbs. I currently only have a coralife 4x65 watt pc fixture over my 75gal (only lps and softies). I recently replaced my coralife actinics with the ones from Current. they are a 460nm/430nm 50/50. These bulbs gave me a lot of "pop". I used to think some of my zoa's were just green, but now I see they are neon green centered with yellow tentacles. My blue and purple mushrooms are actually blue and purple now, not brownish purple. Thought these might be something to try before a t5 swap. Got mine from fostersmith for about 17.50 per bulb.
miatawnt2b
New member
You don't need actinics at all with a decent bulb and ballast. I run 14k bulbs on a ballastwise and don't need actinics at all. I use them for dusk/dawn lights only.
-J
-J
SolidDetail808
Unofficial #1 BJ Penn fan
I bought the 72" about 6 months ago. No problems.
Y-DesygnGuy
New member
I read this entire thread during Christmas vacation. I bought the Odyssea off of ebay on a whim never gave it any thought. I thought for $159 bucs (I bought the 24" 380watt MH setup) if it sucks, it sucks. But after reading through the thread and finding out by changing the bulb and ballast it would be a good fixture. I took the advice and did just that, I actually really like the fixture now. Once I got past it being a open top tank now, I really like the fixture. I went from the stock lights on a Red Seamax 34 gallon to the 24" 380 Watt MH Odyssea setup.
Here are some of the pictures I took along the way to show the difference between the stock RSM lights and hood, vrs the Odyssea stock bulb and ballast, vrs 14k Phx bulb and ARO ballast from Hellolights.
Stock RSM hood and lights.
Odyssea fixture with stock bulb and ballast. These are with everything on, moon lights, actinics.
This is with the new Phx 14k bulb and ARO ballast with actinics and moonlights on.
I know these are not in the same location as the other ones. But I wasn't able to get in the same location to take the pictures.
Over all like I said, I am really happy with it. This is my first experience with a MH fixture. I am normally a firm believer of you get what you pay for, so I was very pleased this wasn't a total pi@ce of cr@p.
Here are some of the pictures I took along the way to show the difference between the stock RSM lights and hood, vrs the Odyssea stock bulb and ballast, vrs 14k Phx bulb and ARO ballast from Hellolights.
Stock RSM hood and lights.
Odyssea fixture with stock bulb and ballast. These are with everything on, moon lights, actinics.
This is with the new Phx 14k bulb and ARO ballast with actinics and moonlights on.
I know these are not in the same location as the other ones. But I wasn't able to get in the same location to take the pictures.
Over all like I said, I am really happy with it. This is my first experience with a MH fixture. I am normally a firm believer of you get what you pay for, so I was very pleased this wasn't a total pi@ce of cr@p.
No offense but the stock Odyssea bulb and ballast setup looks brighter than the new bulb and ballast. There are some other pictures in this thread where the new ballast and bulb combination is much brighter than stock. For some reason, yours doesnt look that way. Maybe it's just me or the way the pictures show up.
Y-DesygnGuy
New member
No offense taken, its the picture I took. The bulb and ballast from Odyssea was very yellow in color. Not that it wasn't bright, it was plenty bright. The Phx 14k and the ARO ballast was much brighter and much more blue in real life. That picture wasn't the best I was in a hurry that morning and it was still dark outside.
smoothdog
Active member
lumatek
lumatek
Lumatek 250W/120V Digital Ballast
I picked up 2 of these for my 48" fixture and temporarily hooked one up last night and it was awsome! Fired the bulb fully in like 30-60 seconds and was considerably brighter! Stock ballast took several minutes to fully illuminate. I'm going to see if my stock bulbs re "burn in" or not but they look pretty yellow so I will probably be investing in new ones now.
lumatek
Lumatek 250W/120V Digital Ballast
I picked up 2 of these for my 48" fixture and temporarily hooked one up last night and it was awsome! Fired the bulb fully in like 30-60 seconds and was considerably brighter! Stock ballast took several minutes to fully illuminate. I'm going to see if my stock bulbs re "burn in" or not but they look pretty yellow so I will probably be investing in new ones now.
ransomed4ever
New member
agsansoo, sorry it took a while to reply. been at work all day. here's the link http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3733+13314&pcatid=13314
King Nine
New member
Hey Guys,
It has been so long since I've posted I can't remember what I posted about my new ballast. Back when we were all switching MH ballast I went with the CoralVue 250w from AquaCave. One of them quit working a week or two after installing them (They definately made the bulbs brighter) one quit working correctly (sometimes it would fire and sometimes it would not). Albert at AquaCave got me in touch directly with the CoralVue owner. He told me it could be the length of cord or too much power consumption when they both tried to come on at the same time. My cord length was not longer than he wanted so I used my timer for the LED's for the second MH ballast and staggered the start times to no avail.
The CoralVue guy replaced it and with in a few weeks the new one went out completely. I came home one day to what seemed like a strobe light in my tank and you could here the ballast clicking very rapidly. I don't know how long it had been doing that but it died while I was standing there. This time CoralVue made me send it in to look at it instead of a free replacement which is understandable. It is a good thing I didn't sell my old origninal ballast that came with the fixture as it still fires the bulb fine (hooked back up to the same timer as the good CoralVue ballast)
So... I guess my question is this. Has anyone else had problems with the CoralVue Ballast? Oh yeah, kudo's to Albert at AquaCave. He has been great to deal with over this.
It has been so long since I've posted I can't remember what I posted about my new ballast. Back when we were all switching MH ballast I went with the CoralVue 250w from AquaCave. One of them quit working a week or two after installing them (They definately made the bulbs brighter) one quit working correctly (sometimes it would fire and sometimes it would not). Albert at AquaCave got me in touch directly with the CoralVue owner. He told me it could be the length of cord or too much power consumption when they both tried to come on at the same time. My cord length was not longer than he wanted so I used my timer for the LED's for the second MH ballast and staggered the start times to no avail.
The CoralVue guy replaced it and with in a few weeks the new one went out completely. I came home one day to what seemed like a strobe light in my tank and you could here the ballast clicking very rapidly. I don't know how long it had been doing that but it died while I was standing there. This time CoralVue made me send it in to look at it instead of a free replacement which is understandable. It is a good thing I didn't sell my old origninal ballast that came with the fixture as it still fires the bulb fine (hooked back up to the same timer as the good CoralVue ballast)
So... I guess my question is this. Has anyone else had problems with the CoralVue Ballast? Oh yeah, kudo's to Albert at AquaCave. He has been great to deal with over this.
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