Odyssea 20" T5HO fixture

[evilc66]

Well, seeing as Aquatraders is selling the 20" 4x18W T5HO fixture for the low price of $50, I had to see what the unit was all about.

 

Initial impressions were mixed. Obviously, I was liking the price. The unit was packaged well, safely double boxed, and wrapped in bubble wrap. I didn't take any pictures of the packaging.

 

So here is the general fixture

 

 

 

 

The housing is built well, much like many Odyssea products. The reflector is flat as a pancake, and not all that shiny. The fixture came with two "daylight" bulbs and two actinics, and two 2x18W ballasts to drive them.

 

I'm not liking the bent wire mounting legs. It puts the fixture way too close to the tank for comfort. With a vice, or a good set of pliers, the mount could be bent to make the fixture higher off the tank, at the expense of adjustment range. It works though, and fits a wide range of tanks. Now, they say it's a 20" fixture, but you will have a hard time fitting this fixture on a 20" tank without resting the fixture right on the rim of the tank. 21" is about the practical minimum if you want to use the legs. Not the end of the world.

 

The moonlights are one of the high points in the fixture. The color is decent, and pretty consistant between each LED, which is a first for Odyssea. Fluorescence is good, and the overall brightness is just enough, and not too overpowering.

 

So far so good, until I started to look closer.

 

 

This isn't that bad, but it certainly makes me nervous. The end caps are polystyrene, and not ceramic, polycarbonate, or any other material that is commonly used in the lighting industry. If everything runs the way it's supposed to, they will be fine. If they overheat, or short, they will catch fire, as they aren't self extinguishing.

 

My next issue is the ballasts. The first thing you notice as you pick them up is that they weigh nothing. Anyone who is into PC building knows that the first sign of a good quality power supply is it's weight.

 

 

Not much in there huh? This is not a smart ballast. It's little more than a very basic switching power supply, which isn't that good. First, it's voltage driven, not current driven like it should be. The ballast is designed to output a fixed voltage, regardless of the bulb connected to it. Much like LEDs, fluorescents should be current driven to get the most out of them. Second, there is no protection from shorts (other than a fuse on the input side), over current, or end of life failure, which is standard on most ballasts. Third, it's not particularly efficient. Fourth, there is no programmed start feature, meaning it takes an age for the bulbs to warm up.

 

Wattage draw on each ballast was about 30W on a Kill-a-Watt. Now, that's two bulbs connected to it. I'd be willing to bet that each bulb is drawing no more than 13W after you factor in "ballast" losses. Somewhat expected based on Odyssea's track record.

 

Ok, on to performance...

 

I ended up taking measurements at 18" from the fixture. PAR wasn't too bad actually. I ended up getting a peak PAR reading of 50 once everything was warmed up. Now, that doesn't sound like much, but considering the ballast issues, it's not bad. I even compared them to our 18" UVL T5s, and only managed to score another 10 PAR.

 

 

Here is the breakdown, with spectral plots!

 

 

This is 50 PAR at 18". Color isn't that great overall. It's quite green/cyan, and is due to the daylight bulb.

 

 

This is the daylight bulb. You can see the typical green spike, but there is a big fat cyan bubble that is really killing the color. Only 20 PAR out of these guys (two bulbs).

 

 

The blues look a lot better. The color is actually pretty decent, with a nice rich blue. PAR is on par with the UVL 454's at 30. The UVL's do much better as the wattage increases.

 

Here are the UVL graphs. I used Actinic Whites and 454's. If I had Indigo Suns, the PAR would have been higher.

 

All on (60 PAR)

 

Actinic White (30 PAR)

 

454 (30 PAR)

 

I want to do some followup PAR measurements that use the spectrometer to get some comparisons that are a little more accurate than the Apogee meter I was using. I'll post them up soon when I get a chance to take them.

 

So, what's the moral of the story? You get what you pay for. The fixture is ok. The reflector is crap. The ballasts are questionable, but the bulbs aren't too bad, especially the actinic blue. I'm sure it will be fine for a shallow tank for someone on a budget, but if your tank is any deeper than 12" and you want to keep more than softies, you may want to look elsewhere.

[plantman1028]

I actually just got this fixture and was going to take it apart and put all actinic bulbs in and mount them in a 175 20k MH. It looks like an easy mod, but now I'll just replace the end caps with some ceramic ones. Do you think they would be good for this kind of application? I'm going to be putting it over a 20x20 cube. Or...would 2 fixtures be ok over the tank?

[OneTrickPony]

Looks like a great shell for an LED build

[evilc66]

I actually just got this fixture and was going to take it apart and put all actinic bulbs in and mount them in a 175 20k MH. It looks like an easy mod, but now I'll just replace the end caps with some ceramic ones. Do you think they would be good for this kind of application? I'm going to be putting it over a 20x20 cube. Or...would 2 fixtures be ok over the tank?

If you are going to stick a MH in there, one would be more than enough for a tank that size. Careful with ventilation though. Stock, it has virtually nothing, so you will need to add in some vents and a fan.

 

Looks like a great shell for an LED build

Could be. Just make sure you follow the same ventilation recommendation.

[theheaddon910]

I have this fixture on my 10g nano and imo if you have a small nano tank either 15g or smaller, I would buy this light because its well worth the price.

[Klink67]

Yeah this fixture is definitely well worth the price. My plant have been growing like crazy under it.

[Braxis]

Two questions for you. First is there a reference guide to par? Second has this been done on a similar set up with the same bulbs like the FNI or TEK? Thanks.

[Deano]

Thanks for the comprehensive review. It is good to know the good the bad and the ugly without a bunch of crap others say about these fixtures. I didn't expect to hear much positive on the ballasts. Reflector is not very good. I totally agree the mounting legs need a manufacture review.

 

I have a X4 24" fixture and recently gutted it to put into a wood hood I built with individual GLO reflectors. I found that you can take apart the end caps, trash them and then just put some heat shrink over the individual connectors. I did this because I was concerned about the heat generated at the ends. I figured without the caps there would be less heat generated. I just ordered some fans and a dual fan controller with dual temp gage so I can fine tune the bulb temp to assure I get the most from the sub-par ballast.

 

I agree there are much better fixtures but for the price there is plenty of potential for these fixtures. Would I recommend Odyssea? Yes but as said with a caution about the quality. The thing is I think you can buy a Workhorse ballast to replace the Odyssea ballast, still save some money and have pretty good fixture.

[evilc66]

Yeah this fixture is definitely well worth the price. My plant have been growing like crazy under it.

Well, that's subjective. Is it a good fixture for a planted tank? Absolutely. Is it good for reefs? Somewhat. Depending on what you want to keep, I wouldn't recommend it for many tanks over 18".

 

Two questions for you. First is there a reference guide to par? Second has this been done on a similar set up with the same bulbs like the FNI or TEK? Thanks.

Well, PAR is a bit of a disputed measurement, because it measures all wavelengths of visible light to show growth potential. Reef inhabitants don't use red light much, so that can sway things artificially if the bulb has a lot of red. It's still the most usefull, readilly accessible measurement we have, so we keep using it for comparison purposes.

 

You can't really do similar comparisons on FNI or Tek fixtures, as neither company has fixtures running 18" bulbs at this time. Current USA, Odyssea, and Aquatic Life are the only ones with fixtures of this size.

[nething]

So without reading this or any other review had purchased this setup for my 10G 20" nano as a replacement to my Current CF system. Three questions;

 

Should I go back to the CF setup, should I replace the Odyssea with something else or should I leave it be?

 

I keep a lot of zoas, clam, frogspawn, mushrooms, dun cans.. thoughts? I have noticed that the zoas have not been taking off like they did under the CF. That said the Odyssea is only 45 days old.

 

Id like something on there that is going to do well not just be a cheap alternative.

 

Thanks!

[evilc66]

Just stick with it. Don't sweat it. It's enough to keep what you have. If you start getting into higher light corals, then you may want to look into either modifying this fixture, or getting something different.

[nething]

Just stick with it. Don't sweat it. It's enough to keep what you have. If you start getting into higher light corals, then you may want to look into either modifying this fixture, or getting something different.

 

Thanks for the reply!

[nething]

I want to replace the stock 10000k bulbs in this unit with higher quality bulbs. Corals are just not responding well and I wonder if the stock bulbs are to blame. It looks like the most typical replacement is the Philips TrueLumen 12000k... Thoughts?

[evilc66]

Define "not repsonding well"?

[Weetabix7]

Excellent, excellent review, thanks for this.

[evilc66]

You're welcome. Just wish I could do more of them.

[Weetabix7]

You're welcome. Just wish I could do more of them.

 

Me too!

Reviews like this would be an enormous benefit to the Forum.

[dday80]

Great review. I've been considering this light for a 10 gallon "leader" QT tank. I'm in the market for a budget fixture while in QT before my 28nano LED.

[porksoda]

Awesome info here!

Thanks!

[adinsxq]

What are you doing with it now? Send it to me!

[evilc66]

I might consider it.

[Dromiidae]

I'm finding the whites to be too yellow in my tank. Can anyone chime in and tell me if these truelumen 12000k's would be any better looking? I'm also wondering if it would promote less algae than the stock whites (phosphates are already being taken care of). Thanks

[evilc66]

The 12K True Lumen bulbs will be "whiter" than stock. Don't think it's going to help your algae issue at all though.

[Dromiidae]

The 12K True Lumen bulbs will be "whiter" than stock. Don't think it's going to help your algae issue at all though.

Thanks for the reply and the initial review Evil!

[Dr.eclipse]

great review!

 

ill give ya 25 for the fixture