I am looking at making my spare 55 gallon a reef, it has finished cycling and everything reads zero, I just wanted to know if this light would do the trick and if anyone has experience with Odyssea, if I don't buy this I would buy this light
They dont have parabolic reflectors and the ballasts tend to underdrive bulbs. You can def keep stuff alive under them but save your money and buy a nice fixture that your confident in. I have used the halide t5 combo fixures in the past. I have always had to replace the halide ballasts to get bulbs to fire right consistently. The fixtures themselves seem solid but the componenets suck.
I've used both in the 24" version. The odyssea is a nice light for the price, totally a beginners light. Its a single reflector NOT bent around each bulb. Yes you will keep low light corals alive and many might do well. The current is light years beyond it. It too has a single reflector but is bent around each bulb and puts out some great light. I was able to keep SPS under it and it thrived. You would be wise to spend the extra money and get that one. The problem is you would need bulbs so you would have to put out another $80 or so for that. But you would be better for it. I would like to recommend a TEK fixture also. They are getting hard to find but with the change to LEDs becoming more previlant you might be able to get one used very cheap. That would be a big upgrade over the Current.
I just bought the odyssea 48 inch light used and I didn't know the LEDs did not work. Has anyone else had this problem and if so is that an easy or DIY fix.
They have came along way since the days of fire and undedriven balasts.
With that said it is not any better or worse than the current fixture and probably half the price why not look on aquatraders.com?
I have had the 24" version for my 10G nano and now have the 48" version on my 33L. On my 10G I kept with the stock bulbs and never had a problem growing anything. With the 48" version Im using ATI bulbs and it's keeping SPS just fine. No crazy fast growth like some leds would do but enough to make me happy with them. Plus a $100 for a 48" T5 fixture sounds good to me.
I have read in the past that a few people had problems with the balasts catching on fire but in the 2 1/2 yrs I've been running them, I've had zero issues. (knock on wood) Also on both units the blue leds have been fine no issues there.
