Odyssea Light or ???

[cwarmouth]

In the next week or so I am going to set up a 29 gallon tank in my classroom where I teach. The plan is to slowly add live rock up to 1.5 lbs per gallon and then a few coral frags near the end of May. No fish or new additions after that until next August. Then sometime next fall I will shoot for a bigger tank and use the 29 as a sump. So here is my question...

Should I buy an Odyssea 30" 130 watt compact fluorescent for $79. I am on a strict budget and need to keep costs low, but I don't want to waste what money I have. I figure that if I could use this for 6 months then use it for a refugium light it might be OK. I don't know anything about this company. Is this light inexpensive</em> or cheap</em>?

 

[lilrobb]

Cheap!
So cheap, you might wanna invest all savings into a good fire insurance...

 

[cwarmouth]

Wow.
Replies come quickly here.
Are you serious? Is there really an issue w/ heat or fire or are you being facetious?

 

[insane_reef_keeper]

They are complete crap, I agree with Robb.

Edit: The ballast are cheap, they have been known to catch fire and in some cases caused serious house fires.

 

[cwarmouth]

OK, somewhat related question. How many watts do I need to look for given the size of the tank and what I want to keep? Would a T5 HO 3 X 24 watt fixture work? The one I'm looking at comes with two 10K daylight and a 420 actinic. Is there a better spectrum for this setup?

 

[KrisDeitz]

T5s should be fine. If your only going with basic you can get away with quite a few corals

 

[cwarmouth]

What type of wattage should I be looking for?

 

[brian carter]

so far mine is doing ok just replace bulbs

 

[ichthyoid]

CWarmouth;628701 wrote: In the next week or so I am going to set up a 29 gallon tank in my classroom where I teach. The plan is to slowly add live rock up to 1.5 lbs per gallon and then a few coral frags near the end of May. No fish or new additions after that until next August. Then sometime next fall I will shoot for a bigger tank and use the 29 as a sump. So here is my question...

Should I buy an Odyssea 30" 130 watt compact fluorescent for $79. I am on a strict budget and need to keep costs low, but I don't want to waste what money I have. I figure that if I could use this for 6 months then use it for a refugium light it might be OK. I don't know anything about this company. Is this light inexpensive</em> or cheap</em>?

Odyssea and Aquatraders (Aquatraders dot com) have been reported to be the same, which I do not know. I do know that Aquatraders did have problems and have upgraded their ballasts (guess they got the memo). There is still debate about whether or not they are on par with Coralvue, Lumatec and ARO from what I have read, but who really knows?

I bought an old Aquatraders fixture for cheap and am in the proces of retrofitting with new ballasts. I have fired the old MH ballasts as well as inspected the inside. I can tell you that those old (silver) one's ARE cheap! They have tiny muffin fans on the end to cool them, and they are electronic ballasts!

The new one's from Aquatraders look amazingly similar to a similar main stream ballast. My money says they are, just re-labeled. Everything these days is 'hecho en china'. That's spanish for 'made in china', seen on many items, and it makes me laugh at the irony!

 

[cwarmouth]

Hecho en China. That's funny in a sad way...

 

[ichthyoid]

CWarmouth;628772 wrote: Hecho en China. That's funny in a sad way...

Exactly!

 

[1percula]

you can get a aquaticlife 24wx2 t5 for 100. No need to spend 79 for a lesser light.

 

[cwarmouth]

1PERCULA;628793 wrote: you can get a aquaticlife 24wx2 t5 for 100. No need to spend 79 for a lesser light.

Is that enough light for my proposed setup?

What about this light? http://cgi.ebay.com/4-Bulb-24-T5-T-5-HO-Aquarium-Lighting-System-96-watt_W0QQitemZ290549004346QQcategoryZ46314QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3286.m7QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D3%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D7976411733966490701#ht_1081wt_907">http://cgi.ebay.com/4-Bulb-24-T5-T-5-HO-Aquarium-Lighting-System-96-watt_W0QQitemZ290549004346QQcategoryZ46314QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3286.m7QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D3%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D7976411733966490701#ht_1081wt_907</a>

If you read through the description it [I]sounds</em> good. I assume this is some independent company (?). The first downside I see to this light is there is no fan and only one cord.

BTW, I appreciate everyone's responses to my many questions. Hopefully one day I'll have something helpful to contribute back.

 

[ichthyoid]

CWarmouth;628804 wrote: Is that enough light for my proposed setup?

What about this light? http://cgi.ebay.com/4-Bulb-24-T5-T-5-HO-Aquarium-Lighting-System-96-watt_W0QQitemZ290549004346QQcategoryZ46314QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3286.m7QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D3%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D7976411733966490701#ht_1081wt_907">http://cgi.ebay.com/4-Bulb-24-T5-T-5-HO-Aquarium-Lighting-System-96-watt_W0QQitemZ290549004346QQcategoryZ46314QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3286.m7QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D3%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D7976411733966490701#ht_1081wt_907</a>

If you read through the description it [I]sounds</em> good. I assume this is some independent company (?). The first downside I see to this light is there is no fan and only one cord.

BTW, I appreciate everyone's responses to my many questions. Hopefully [B]one day I'll have something helpful to contribute back[/B].[/QUOTE]

Pictures!
(You can email them to a member and they can post.)

As for the light, maybe we can get someone (caugh) here to (caugh) donate one (caugh, caugh!) The one you linked is likely Hecho en China2.

 

[smoothie]

Keep your eye open on here as well. If it is something you can take your time with you are golden. Great deals and products pop up on here all the time

 

[1percula]

That looks like a good one, however, you don't know anything about the bulbs and you will spend more than the cost of the whole thing if the bulbs need replacing. And I would bet that they do need replacing.

You need to decide what you want to do before investing in a light. If you are fish only you can get by with 2 bulbs. I would suggest you go with a new 4 bulbs setup. That should keep all of you options open on what you might decide to do with the tank. Buy new if you can.