Melonbob
Reef enthusiast
I bought a catalina 8x80w t5 fixture about a month ago. When the fixture is shown on the website, it has nice looking plastic endcaps with fan mounts, and a nice thick plexiglass splashguard. When mine arrived, the endcaps were flat tin, cut with a bandsaw, and not even repainted where they were cut. One end was bent already. There were no splashguards, and no way to mount one as the bulbs sat lower than the fixture. You can check out pics below. I contacted Catalina, they said they do not make plastic endcaps. I asked why there were pictures of them everywhere on the site, I got no answer. Two of the 8 bulbs were broken. They sent three replacements, and only one survived the trip.
About a week after all this, I am working on the tank and touch the light, and I get zapped. I touch it again to make sure! POW! Again. So I start troubleshooting and notice it doesn't do anything when plugged into another socket. So I tear apart the recepticle and find there is no ground. This fixes the problem of me getting zapped, but does not fix the fact that there is a problem with the light. There should be no voltage leak at all. I contact Catalina and they say that I have to send it back to Cali, and they will be happy to refund me. Of course at my expense. SOOOO I shell out 100 dollars I'm never getting back and off it goes.
Four days later I notice they received the light, so I email. No response. again. No response. I finally call and when she answers she tells me light has been looked over and they can find nothing wrong with it even though they are able to duplicate the problem without a ground. I tell her that a ground is a safety for a faulty product, and just because its keeping someone from getting electrocuted doesn't mean that there is nothing wrong. She tells me fine, she will refund my money, but she has to charge me 15% restocking fee as the light is not resellable. I hang up. She also sends me pics of the light taken apart by email
I email back and say I do not find this an acceptable solution. They refund me anyways, minus the 15%, which adds up to another 90 dollars. I email again and tell her that I feel the product was falsely advertised (endcaps, fans, splashguard) I also mention that I noticed in the pictures she sent that the ballasts were NOT Fullam Workhorse 5 as they advertise several times on their site, rather some Advance ballasts that I've never heard of.
I get an email saying they are tired of me harassing them and I could do whatever I wanted. They said they sold me a good light that is still working in their shop. They also said that the light has better venting than one with fans and there is no need for a splashguard or fans. I am also told that these new advance ballasts are more expensive and therefore better than fullam workhorse, and that is what is in all their lights now. I finally gave up trying.
Anyways, so far, my BIGGEST mistake in reefing to date!
About a week after all this, I am working on the tank and touch the light, and I get zapped. I touch it again to make sure! POW! Again. So I start troubleshooting and notice it doesn't do anything when plugged into another socket. So I tear apart the recepticle and find there is no ground. This fixes the problem of me getting zapped, but does not fix the fact that there is a problem with the light. There should be no voltage leak at all. I contact Catalina and they say that I have to send it back to Cali, and they will be happy to refund me. Of course at my expense. SOOOO I shell out 100 dollars I'm never getting back and off it goes.
Four days later I notice they received the light, so I email. No response. again. No response. I finally call and when she answers she tells me light has been looked over and they can find nothing wrong with it even though they are able to duplicate the problem without a ground. I tell her that a ground is a safety for a faulty product, and just because its keeping someone from getting electrocuted doesn't mean that there is nothing wrong. She tells me fine, she will refund my money, but she has to charge me 15% restocking fee as the light is not resellable. I hang up. She also sends me pics of the light taken apart by email
I email back and say I do not find this an acceptable solution. They refund me anyways, minus the 15%, which adds up to another 90 dollars. I email again and tell her that I feel the product was falsely advertised (endcaps, fans, splashguard) I also mention that I noticed in the pictures she sent that the ballasts were NOT Fullam Workhorse 5 as they advertise several times on their site, rather some Advance ballasts that I've never heard of.
I get an email saying they are tired of me harassing them and I could do whatever I wanted. They said they sold me a good light that is still working in their shop. They also said that the light has better venting than one with fans and there is no need for a splashguard or fans. I am also told that these new advance ballasts are more expensive and therefore better than fullam workhorse, and that is what is in all their lights now. I finally gave up trying.
Anyways, so far, my BIGGEST mistake in reefing to date!
