Anyone using different brand MH bulbs for Odyssea fixture

[m3fan8ic]

Hi,
I am trying to see if I can get different brand (XM, Hamilton etc) bulbs for Odyssea fixture. It has 2x250w HM DE and 4x65 PC. I believe it's the new improved ballasts. I purchased this used and don't have much info. Aquatrader only sells Odyssea brand lamps. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sid

[charlie]

I don't have any experience with that particular fixture, but I would think that as long as you get the right wattage, any double ended bulb would work. JMHO

[Ninong]

As long as it's a 250w double-ended lamp and it fits in the socket, then you should be good to go. I'm not familiar with that fixture or the lamps it came with but I can't see any problem as long as the 250w lamp you choose fits in the socket. The ballast should run any 250w lamp. As with all ballasts, some are better than others, so I have no idea how good your particular ballast might be.

Dr. Sanjay Joshi's testing show that some lamps run better on a particular ballast than on others. Click on search performance data at the top of the page.

[m3fan8ic]

Thanks guys, I'll go with the XM bulbs 15000ks.
Sid

[charlie]

Sounds good!!! Why don't you get us a before and after pic when you change them out?

[m3fan8ic]

Sounds good!!! Why don't you get us a before and after pic when you change them out?

You got it

[asimp43]

I purchased an odyssea fixture myself and one of the ballast messed up after about 3 days of use. the seller replaced it but I purchased an Aquamedic ocean ballast to run the lights. I love it! (and I still don't have as much $$ in it as a name brand comparable system) I also changed the bulbs too. Haven't had any problems with the new bulbs either. I tried to research the fixture as much as possible before I purchased it. My only regret is I did not get the one with the PC's in it, just the 2 MH's. How do you like your fixture?

[Ninong]

I purchased an odyssea fixture myself and one of the ballast messed up after about 3 days of use. the seller replaced it but I purchased an Aquamedic ocean ballast to run the lights. I love it! (and I still don't have as much $$ in it as a name brand comparable system) I also changed the bulbs too. Haven't had any problems with the new bulbs either. I tried to research the fixture as much as possible before I purchased it. My only regret is I did not get the one with the PC's in it, just the 2 MH's. How do you like your fixture?

If the ballast messed up after only three days, what does that say about the overall quality of the fixture? Apparently you didn't think much of the ballast if you decided to buy a better ballast instead of using the replacement provided by the vendor.

How do you know the wiring on this fixture isn't as faulty as the ballast? If you saved money on the fixture but it causes a fire that burns your house down, then the savings aren't really worth it.

Some of the products offered for sale in this hobby are cheap for a reason. They're cheaply made with cheap labor. They're sold based on price alone, not quality or reliability.

Just something to think about.

[Tens]

theres a thread on the reef central forum of people who bought this odyssea fixture and there reviews on it. seems like the popular thing to do is upgrade the ballast and bulbs and still save money on a name brand fixture that works just as good. i am very tempted in giving it a try

[asimp43]

Ninong you have a really good point. I did some homework before I purchased this light and a bunch of it. I was already running an odyssea fixture at the time. I was using their 260w PC fixture for about 3 years and never had a minutes trouble. The only thing I did was change the bulbs. The bulbs that came with the fixture new I used for about two weeks and my corals didn't seem to like it so I put coralife bulbs in and my corals went crazy. Not sure of the specrum was bad or what. As for the reliablity of the fixture itself....no problems. When I purchased the MH system the only info that I found was that the ballast were having some problems and they were not UL listed. When I purchsed the system, I did so with the intent of not ever using their ballast anyway. I ended up hooking them up because the Aquamedic ballast was not in when the lights first arrived. I checked over the fixture (inside and out) when it arrived. I'm an electrician by trade and I didn't see anything to throw up any flags with the wiring. I've been running this fixture now for about four months without any problems. I originally looked at the aquamedic retro kit but wanted the versatillity and convience of a fixture. Plus I was not sure if I was going to be able to use my canopy with MH's or not b/c of heat concerns so I wanted something a little neater looking than a retro fit kit hanging from my ceiling. Trust me, I considered EVERY and ALL options before I purchased this "cheaper" fixture. I I could do it all over again I would do the exact same thing with the exception of getting the fixture with the PC's included so I would not have had to add anything to get the actinic blue spectrum also.

[Ninong]

I guess I just have a tendency to shy away from anything that is not UL listed. It sort of scares me, but I'm not an electrician. Not by a long shot. I would always wonder why it wasn't UL listed. Did they cut corners and leave something important out that is required by UL specs? Maybe it's because I have seen too many threads on the boards about multi-thousand dollar tanks crashing due to the failure of some cheap powerhead that wasn't UL listed but cost maybe five bucks less.

And, as I said already, I would worry about any product that required "changes" after you bought it to "fix" it, or improve it. Manufacturer's warranty might also be something to consider. And I guess I attach a lot of importance to brand recognition -- reputation.

I tend to prefer Giesemann and Aqua-Medic but I'm sure there are other nice fixtures out there that I just haven't really considered.

[asimp43]

After doing some research I wasn't going to spend that kind of money and take the chance on burning down my new house but to purchase the equivalant fixture from Aquamedics would have cost me double what I have into this one and Im running an aquamedic ballast. I just didn't have the money so I came up with what I called a safe but affordable solution. The fixture itself on contains the bulbs, cooling fan and wiring. I figure that most of the problems are going to be with the ballast anyway so that's why I upgraded the ballast. Besides even the name brand products have issues too...my LFS runs a 72" coralife aqualight (3X150 MH and PC's) He was telling me that one of his ballast caught fire one day. Was a ballast problem that caused it. With transformers (basically what a ballast is) you never know so all in all we all are taking chances. by having these things in our homes.