Your opinion on this fixture?

I have that exact one except 48 inches... two 250 watt halides... it buzzes like crazy and heats the water up a good 3 degrees each day... touch even the t5 part and you could get a burn... touch the halide glass directly and your in for it... pain in the butt to change the lights out. I wouldn't bother... just buy a reliable one (even if you do have to take out a loan) and save yourself an immense headache and hours of trying to fix it...
 
oh and I forgot to mention:

the moonlights and t5s are on the same chord so you can't put a timer on the t5s, you have to turn them on and off manually if you want the moonlights on at night. just another pain in the butt feature of this no-name light.
 
Thank you, I re-read the item description and I realize it doesn´t even have fans, so obviously it is going to heat up.

But I came across this one, some people told me it works good, I would just modify it and take away the PCs and replace them with T5s which I belive wouldn´t be that hard to do, I already have the bulbs and ballasts:

http://cgi.ebay.com/72-Aquarium-Met...66:2|39:1|72:1240|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50
 
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The discontinued aqua medic unit is more expensive and it comes with 150 watt mhs.

So are the Odyssea lamps considered a good choice?
 
i dunno if they are considered a good choice they are only $10 a peice but it's better then nothing. my brother hasn't said anything bad about it.
 
I´ve heard they had a lot of issues with the oddyssea in the past, suposedly they burn etc. But I´ve also heard the´ve made improvements, to start with now the unit comes in aluminum housing.

A friend of mine has one and he´s got really good growth and coloration, he says the unit runs pretty cool even with fans off.

If the bulbs are crap can I replace it with a good brand of bulbs?, also if the ballast burn out they can be replaced right?, and if in need to replace burned out ballast it would still be a good deal I think.
 
I owned a newer Oddysea unit 48" 2x250 HQI w/PCs and it's garbage. You have to take the whole unit apart to change the bulbs, then it never goes back together quite the same. It would not fire 14k Current USA bulbs and I question if it was actually putting out the lumens that similar units were. Reason I question that is because just from an appearance standpoint I went to a Current USA 2x250 HQI 4x54 T5 and the tank has MUCH better color.

But I can tell you they are no longer a fire risk. My problem is once you replace everything and go through the hassle you still have a cheap generic light fixture that is a PITA to replace bulbs and you might as well have bought a quality fixture from the start - unless you take some sort of weird pride in tinkering with things constantly the minimal difference in price after replacing all the components does not pay for your time invested.
 
If you are using a canopy, why not consider a retro system. 3 250 watt MH ballasts and reflectors with a 2 bulb T5 retro for $550-600. Check www.hellolights.com I am leaning that direction for my 125. If you don't have a canopy, then it probably wouldn't work.
 
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