Odyssea 630W 36" Review

[SK8URDEAD]

Well on about 4 days ago on 2/28/09 i bought my self a brand new odyssea fixture. only costed me $356 from my lfs. aquatraders site is back up again and now my fixture is on sale there for $289.00 and they alos now have other fixtures with T5HO/mh but i only lost about $60 so its cool with me. in my lfs for evey single person that buys a fixture they open it and make sure the light is working perfectly before letting you have it and take it home. i have to say this is a great light for being nice and cheap compared to the prices of others. this baby comes with 2x250 15k mh, 2x96w Actinic pcs, and 6 led moon lights.

 

 

 

in total 6 switches but only 5 plugs:

2 ballast plugs

1 plug for fan

1 plug for actinic(but has to componets to use either 1 or both on the light fixture

1 plug for leds

 

not sure on the stories of other odyssea fixtures but this one the mh bulbs dont give out a yellow hue. its more of a white with a tint of blue, nor do the ballast heat up like crazy i can have the ballast on for 5 hours and leave my hand on there for 5 minutes with out being burnt.

 

the only trouble i had with this fixture so far is putting the legs on it lol 2 went on perfeclty the other 2 theres a metal piece you have to slide in through the fixture well last too were a little bit spread out so hammered them down 1 time to get them to slide in perfectly.

 

also when ontop of my tank very sturdy does not move at all or jiggle make noises from the fixture of ballast, only thing i would say i can hear is the water moving and just the fans but its a nice quite hum not a huge buzzing sound.

 

 

 

I will now show you some pictures of the fixture its self using a 5.1 mega pixel camera and you can tell me what you think.

 

Fixture its self:

(actinic and mh powering up just on bed )

 

Night Lights Only:

 

Actinic Only:

 

Metal Halides only:

 

Metal Halides and Actinic:

 

now heres a simple video but all the noise you will hear i have the window open, baby crying but cant really hear that, and just water going into sump when i open that door

 

 

sooo tell me what do you think so far? i think its pretty great for being cheap and if ever feel like upgrading just goign to change out the ballast and bulbs really.

[05XRunner]

looks like they either fixed their ballst or you got a much bluer bulbs..cause when i had my old 48" 760w odyssea light the MH made the water yellow because of the under powered ballast

I think they are good fixture for the money. The ballast are ehhhh..I replaced mine with oralvue ones when I had it. but if I had another one and wanted to get better ballast and keep it cheap I would get ballast wise ones.

I am sure others will say blah blah odyssea is junk. I will bet 95% of the ones spitting out that never even had one...For teh money it is a nice fixture. Just replace the ballast and its a great fixture and still WAY cheaper then anything else with the same configuration.

[SK8URDEAD]

looks like they either fixed their ballst or you got a much bluer bulbs..cause when i had my old 48" 760w odyssea light the MH made the water yellow because of the under powered ballast

I think they are good fixture for the money. The ballast are ehhhh..I replaced mine with oralvue ones when I had it. but if I had another one and wanted to get better ballast and keep it cheap I would get ballast wise ones.

I am sure others will say blah blah odyssea is junk. I will bet 95% of the ones spitting out that never even had one...For teh money it is a nice fixture. Just replace the ballast and its a great fixture and still WAY cheaper then anything else with the same configuration.

 

lol very well said and i plan on having this fixture for a long time and is badass lol. also agree that most people probley will have some bad say about it but hey thats life ballast doesnt get hot and my bulbs look sexy so im happy. just will probley upgrade the bubls and ballast in 6months-1year. but for now im good to goo

[evilc66]

That would be awesome if they fixed the ballasts. I had heard rumor that it was happening, but no solid evidence.

 

SK8URDEAD, an easy way to check is to measure the wattage draw of the ballast with a Kill-a-Watt meter. You can get them from Radioshack now for about $20. It's a neat tool to have around the house. Typically the stock ballasts ran at about 160-170W. If see 200W+ you are doing alright. 250W+ would be fantastic.

[SK8URDEAD]

That would be awesome if they fixed the ballasts. I had heard rumor that it was happening, but no solid evidence.

 

SK8URDEAD, an easy way to check is to measure the wattage draw of the ballast with a Kill-a-Watt meter. You can get them from Radioshack now for about $20. It's a neat tool to have around the house. Typically the stock ballasts ran at about 160-170W. If see 200W+ you are doing alright. 250W+ would be fantastic.

 

well i get paid tomorrow soo tomorrow ill run by and grab one and there site has been updated with new fixtures aswell so who knows hopefully they did fix them a little before i got mine lol because. mine has been on hold for about a month because they didnt have any so when they got them new before they updated the site my lfs was able to get them brand new made. hmm i hope because i dont feel like upgrading the ballast later on. but then again my father is an electriction so i can have him run up the wattage since he probley has more high tek gadgets lol. but how fast does it take for these bulbs to full light? mine takes only about 2 minutes and boom its lit all the way.

 

evil you just got me excited then when i test the wattage im going to be disappointed maybe lol.

[05XRunner]

if you do replace the ballast and want to save oney

http://ballastwise.com/item.asp?PID=128&am...=17&level=1

[Grendel0501]

I always choose to buy something , 2-3 months before the company does some kind of upgrade.

 

*mumbles to self*

[SK8URDEAD]

if you do replace the ballast and want to save oney

http://ballastwise.com/item.asp?PID=128&am...=17&level=1

hey man thanks for this link i can totaly do this if i need to upgrade thanks alot man. but yeah so far light is good its in my room and when im not at work or with gf im in here just watching shows and inspecting this light making sure nothing goes wrong. max tempature my tank is getting is 80 degress and i live in texas with no fan/ac on right now my tank atm is at 78 degress but at night it hits about 76, would this be ok for my fishes later on when i get some?

[05XRunner]

curious what do the ballast look like..I wonder if they look the same but maybe changed them to with all the new design it seems they are taking.

The old ones where silver ribbed with vent hole on the one side.

[SK8URDEAD]

curious what do the ballast look like..I wonder if they look the same but maybe changed them to with all the new design it seems they are taking.

The old ones where silver ribbed with vent hole on the one side.

 

well they do look what you said so im thinking the ballast i have might not have been upgraded if they some how were in the website. but yes they are silver rectangular long. have a hole on one end with a black covered vent that are does pass though not sure if it has a mini fan lol let me check(nope) and does have a switch on other side connects to addapter to plug. i beleive they are the same ballast. they also dont make noise of anykind. also both arent that hot. when you first touch them they feel like it but dont burn my hand. cant smell a burning smell from them either.

only picture i have of them at the moment.

[05XRunner]

well it looks like the casing hasnt changed..but that doesnt matter. wonder if they made any changes inside

[SK8URDEAD]

well it looks like the casing hasnt changed..but that doesnt matter. wonder if they made any changes inside

 

true but i probley wont end up taking it apart till it/if it bugs out on me but so far so good.

[SK8URDEAD]

anyone else ever had one of these fixtures? i know i hear about the rumors lol but just wondering if some people other then myself own/have owned one of these.

[evilc66]

A friend of mine has teh 48" version. He like it stock, but loves it with new Icecap ballasts and Phoenix bulbs.

[ssirishpride]

Would that exact fixture fit over a 40B? That little setup would be great for a tank idea I have. I'll be following along to see the killawatt testing.

[05XRunner]

Would that exact fixture fit over a 40B? That little setup would be great for a tank idea I have. I'll be following along to see the killawatt testing.

yea 40B is 36"

[ssirishpride]

Okay then I'll be following along to see if you mod this bad boy in any way.

[khinsanmu1]

I am planning to get one from aquatraders.If your is doing fine I might order one next week when I get my pay check. How is the heat problem?

[05XRunner]

I am planning to get one from aquatraders.If your is doing fine I might order one next week when I get my pay check. How is the heat problem?

when I had the 48" version of the 760w 2x250 on my 75g..I never had a heat problem..the fan in the unit works pretty well at pulling the heat away. Even in the summer I think it only went up 1 or 2 degrees

 

to bad they dont offer 150w versions. I think 2x150 would be much better on the 40B then 2x250. save on power and still be plenty of light

[colgan10]

Yea i just got a 24" one for my tank and i have loved it so far! My ballast had no heat issue's as well but i had a 150w phoenix on the tank before i moved to the 250 and i don't think it's as blue, more of a white light, which has been fine fore me, but i do plan of getting a different bulb. I also heard rumors about the bulb not firing right away, but mine fires right up! I think they must have improved these fixtures after seeing your good luck as well!

[SK8URDEAD]

I am planning to get one from aquatraders.If your is doing fine I might order one next week when I get my pay check. How is the heat problem?

 

yeah this fixture would go good over a 40b might be a lot of light lol i have same specs but its 22 inch high.

 

also heat really isnt a issue you put your hand under the light lol yeah it will feel like your being burned after about 30-1 minute lol but usually my tank stays at 78deg but durring the hot part of the day goes up to 80 and i dont run a chiller and live in TX soo i say pretty good. fans are nice and quite.

 

yeah evil im probley going to do the same set up as your friend with the bulbs and ballast but only when its time to change the bulbs

 

i learned today how to make my sump quite!! lol fill the bottom intake with filterfloss so it kills the air going all the way up to the overflow and i hear no noise from overflow yes!!! only spot i here noise is in my trickle filter which i will mod and add more filter flose to shut that up lol and then i will have a perfectly quite fishtank is my bedroom

[SK8URDEAD]

well on day 5 now and i see no problems still. mh turn on fast as hell lol to full power. only thing that bugs me is evap getting on the glass shield so every night i windex it clean lol because the evap spots i dont like just my thing lol either going to make a hanging kit for it for it to be higher or put on my glass top, but if i do that i think it will go higher then my max 80degrees and will need a chiller which i dont want..... hmmmmm still runing good though.

[Brian Crook]

Does Odyssea have a manufacturer's website?

[Brian Crook]

I'm looking at this new 2009 model on eBay from them, here...

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ODYSSEA-48-760W-METAL-...%3A1%7C294%3A50

 

But at one point it says it's got power compact bulbs, and another point it says T5 bulbs (four of them).

 

It's rather confusing and I'd like to check it out on the manufacturer's website but I have no idea what that is. lol

 

Any thoughts?

[evilc66]

Very curious. That picture sure does show T5s, but the fixtures have always had PCs. I would contact a seller on ebay named Hombby. He has a really good reputation for selling these, and actual custer service, unlike Aquatraders.