Light Question

[ffm]

Hey everyone, I am looking for a new light and come across this on e-bay. What do you think?

48" 4 ft Metal Halide HQI T5 HO Marine Reef Light 716W - eBay (item 290407826426 end time Mar-29-10 11:17:27 PDT)

 

[PRC]

It looks like an Odyssea unit to me. And I may be wrong but I beleive they're kind of a "Chinese Knock off" unit. I'm not saying it won't work. I've seen plenty of people talk about them on forums and are perfectly happy with them. I just don't know anything about them.

I also bought lights a week or so ago..I have basically the same unit as you do except my HQI's are only 150W each. So the ones you're looking at gives off more light than mine, and retail on my lights was $700. I got mine used off Craigslist for much less.

I also ran across some posts on ebay in my search and I found this guy they call the "fishman" I just looked on Ebay for you, he doesn't have the same light on Ebay but I bet if you call, they can provide it for you, and I think he's as cheap as I've ever seen. He generally sells the Odyssea brand. Here's a link for his phone number. Hope this helps.

Again, this is NOT the light, just the contact information. I don't know anything about the Fishman except what I saw on Ebay.
AQUARIUM LIGHT 36" REEF ODYSSEA 192WT POWER COMPACT #U4 - eBay (item 260557795737 end time Mar-24-10 11:26:55 PDT)

Yep, just checked http://www.aquatraders.com . They're definitely Odyssea lights.
http://shop.aquatraders.com/Metal-Halide-System-s/10.htm

 

[Bifferwine]

A lot of people are happy with Odyssea lights. They got a bad reputation a few years ago, because their lights were catching fire and uhhhh that's kinda bad ;) Apparently they fixed the problem and have been doing better since.

 

[ffm]

Thanks for the input, I am still looking. I thought that might be too good to be true. I just want to get the best light I can so that I will not be limited with my coral selection. If anyone has a suggestion on a brand to look at that would be great.

 

[PRC]

I don't think it's too good to be true...It's just not a name brand. But I don't know. You can buy the same light directly from aquatraders.com for $20 less than what it is on Ebay.

I have a Coralife... I don't know if it's better or worse than anything else out there. All I know is it works.

Here's what I found out recently...you may want to find something with blue actinic bulbs in it 10k-14k. 14k will be more blue light than 10k. The MH bulbs are very good for growing corals, but they put off heat, some people don't like the added heat when they're trying to maintain a steady temp in the tank. And I think MH lights tend to use more electricity for some reason.

The T5 lights are very popular. You want to have about 4watts per gallon.