aquatraders.com

[nyfishguy]

you know that old saying if it sounds or looks too good to be true it probably is??

 

well, what does everyone here think of aqua-traders.com?

 

i've heard a lot of mixed reviews about there products and in the spirit of doing as much research as possible before making a purchase.

 

 

is there MH lights any good? Or should i not waste my money??

 

opinions of ppl that have been doing this longer than I are always welcome

 

thanks everyone

[Grendel0501]

There's alot of threads about this. SEARCH

 

Aquatraders has crappy customer service , what they sell is Odyssea equipment , and you can find that on ebay from other sellers who are easier to get intouch with than Aquatraders.

I ordered mine from Hombby , bc he responds to emails

 

Works rather well , it's very bright , though the MH ballast only pulls 186w the cfs only pull 68w.

 

 

 

 

I plan on doing Evil's mod to get more wattage from the MH ballast. If that's not enough I'll replace the ballast , cf+mh , one day. Also going to replace the bulbs but for now the stock bulbs are plenty.

 

 

But for $250 it's a good deal.

[BKtomodachi]

IMO, fishneedit.com has decent items, within the same budget price range but without the huge quality issues.

[nyfishguy]

There's alot of threads about this. SEARCH

 

Aquatraders has crappy customer service , what they sell is Odyssea equipment , and you can find that on ebay from other sellers who are easier to get intouch with than Aquatraders.

I ordered mine from Hombby , bc he responds to emails

 

Works rather well , it's very bright , though the MH ballast only pulls 186w the cfs only pull 68w.

 

 

 

 

I plan on doing Evil's mod to get more wattage from the MH ballast. If that's not enough I'll replace the ballast , cf+mh , one day. Also going to replace the bulbs but for now the stock bulbs are plenty.

 

 

But for $250 it's a good deal.

 

 

what did you use to make your stand to hang it on? looks good

[Grendel0501]

Bent EMT pipeing , I didn't have the money or tools to make a elaborate shelf to mount the light from , and I couldn't run it from the ceiling bc of my apartment.

So I tried something that I found here on NR.

 

 

 

 

And when I need to get to the tank , I just pivot the bar out of the way.

[nyfishguy]

Bent EMT pipeing , I didn't have the money or tools to make a elaborate shelf to mount the light from , and I couldn't run it from the ceiling bc of my apartment.

So I tried something that I found here on NR.

 

 

 

 

And when I need to get to the tank , I just pivot the bar out of the way.

 

very nice....attached to the wall or back of stand?

[Grendel0501]

Back of the stand.

[JBM]

OoOoOoOo...... bent emt pipe! never thought of that.

 

YAY!

 

 

OP:

fwiw, i also have the same fixture, however i do not have the original ballast & mine is in the 250w flavor.

 

works well, just havent hung the fixture yet.

[Grendel0501]

If you do intend to get one of the units , remember than the ballast are underwattaged , sometimes so much that they won't fire other brand 250w bulbs. I don't know how mine will do , bc I only have the stock bulb. It maxes out around 186w. Evil66 has a mod to get more wattage out of the stock ballast. I plan on doing that , whenever my buddy with a soldering iron has time to help out.

 

For now the current stock config is plenty , but later I will probablly replace the ballasts (mh $120 , cf $50) and also the bulbs (mh $70 , cf $30/each).

 

That's alot of money , but in the end it still ends up being less than any known brands 250w + 2x96w compact fixtures. And with the modded Odyssea , you pick the ballasts and bulbs.

[nyfishguy]

i think the stock unit is plenty for my 34 gallon RSM..

[Grendel0501]

Should be plenty , I think it is overkill for my 45 , the 45 only being 12in wide. This fixture could probably light a tank twice that wide. Instead it lights up my living room.

 

 

There's a HUGE thread on rc forum , doesn't look huge bc they split a topic after 50 replies , but it has like 200+ pages , it's all about these odyssea units. Some ppl replaced the cf's with t5's. Some ppl run it stock , some ppl replaced everything inside the day they got it. Lots of comparison pics on there , before and afters.

[Deleted User 6]

Where'd you get the bent pipe?

[Grendel0501]

You'll have to buy a tool from HD or Lowes called a EMT bender.

 

 

The price depends on what size pipe you want to work with. There are 3 thicknesses to choose from 1/2 , 3/4 or 1" . A bender for 1/2 or 3/4 is ~$30-40 and a bender for 1" is $70. The pipe itself is cheap it comes in 10' lengths and is $3 for 1/2 , $5 for 3/4 and $8 for 1". So restarting is cheap.

 

Oh and if you are cheap , like me , you can return the bender after using it , only costing you the price of the pipe and mounting hardware. I had figured out how to use it by the second peice.

 

 

There are acouple of problems with using the pipes.

 

One problem with the emt piping is , the thicker the pipe , the further away bends have to be from each other. This is kind of hard to explain , but see the way I hung it from the back of the tank.

 

 

I only had a small amount of space to get the two bends that I would need for the bar to go across the center of the length of the tank.

After putting two bends as close as I could , the bar was far from center , it was almost inline with the front pane of glass. To remedy that I bent the leg of the pipe away from the tank , pulling the bar back to the center of the tank.

 

 

Another problem is , the way I did it , with only only pipe. The weight of the fixture pulls down on the unsupported end making it noticably bend , I do measurements occasionally and the bend isn't getting any greater so I'm not that worried about it , but if you are mounting anything longer than a 36" fixture I suggest 2 pipes , bent in simple L shapes going towards the front of the tank.

 

 

 

I got the idea from this thread.

[nckwrn]

IMO, fishneedit.com has decent items, within the same budget price range but without the huge quality issues.

Im gonna buy their 250 watt MH fixture, I'll kepp everybody updated.

[Grendel0501]

Im gonna buy their 250 watt MH fixture, I'll kepp everybody updated.

Fishneedit , recently upgraded all the MH units to Electronic ballasts , should perform better than the old magnetic ballasts they use to sell.

[SK8URDEAD]

Fishneedit , recently upgraded all the MH units to Electronic ballasts , should perform better than the old magnetic ballasts they use to sell.

 

i think the fixture is great looking and nice. my lfs has one stock over there sps tank and it looks nice. im getting one too 2x250w with 6 led and 2x96w floresents. you know what the great thing is. my dad is an electriction so he can get me the ballast for free lol or i can just buy them. income tax will do that for me lol get me the bulbs and the ballast

[nckwrn]

Fishneedit , recently upgraded all the MH units to Electronic ballasts , should perform better than the old magnetic ballasts they use to sell.

Yea i just noticed that, at first I was pretty hesitant about buying one with the magnetic ballast. Now that they have electronic I'll definately be picking one up!

[nckwrn]

Fishneedit.com Metal Halides