Fishman?

[Justinthereefer]

Has anyone heard of "the fishman" on ebay, there are some lights pretty cheap i was thinking might be good starter lights. Odyssey is the light manufacturer and it is a 48" fixture with a ho ballast and four T5 lights. Two 12000k and two actinic. What do you think?

 

[yote]

Theres a couple of members that had good luck with Odyssea lights.But I dont think that a 4 bulb T-5 will be enough for a 55 gallon tank.You really need at least a 6 bulb T-5 light to get cover the entire depth of the tank.

 

[Justinthereefer]

How deep do you think it would go? I looked at the six bulb but it is almost wider than my tank. It wouldnt work with my canopy.

 

[yote]

This is just my opinion,But I think that the 4 bulbs will just be for about 1/2 the tank depth,maybe a little more,but not much more.
At one time,I had an 8 bulb T-5 fixture over my 55 :D But I didnt have a canopy over the tank either.

 

[Bifferwine]

I respectfully disagree with Yote on this one. I ran a 4-bulb T5 fixture over my old 55 gallon tank for years and was able to keep all the animals I tried, including SPS, anemones and clams.

Right now I am kind of running an "experiment" by using those exact same lights over my 90 gallon tank, and so far so good (with only LPS and softies though).

 

[EliWhitney314]

I know John Fishman

 

[messiah023]

Odyssea lights are from CHINA.
I heard may stories of ballast fires over tanks with them a few years ago.

My buddy bought one on EBAY and the fixture was "cheap" but OK.
The bulbs were junk....had to replace immediately as they were off-color and barely powerful enough to put out any light volume....
Fixture is still working though....6 months later.

 

[dcantucson]

I would go with a reputable brand of lighting. JMO
MH/T5 combo