I got my Current-USA lighthood

[Boxster]

Received my 36" Orbit last night. Here are just my mini-reviews.

1. It is bigger than I thought, and the packaging is very good. They had secure the bulb very well.
2. The acrylic splash shield can be easily slide from the side which I think is good design.
3. The fan is pretty quiet.
4. 2 side switches. One for the dual daylight and the other for the Actinics. The fan on/off is tie to the Daylight switch.
5. There is another power adapter for the Moonlights but no switch.
6. The 3 leds light IMO is too bright for lunar purpose in my 46g bowfront. And it is white, not blue. I thought is blue. I ended up turning it off. I am going to attached my own DIY 2 blue leds moonlight to the hood.
7. The legs I think is okay but can be made more solid and it is not adjustable.
8. The Actinics look good to me.

All in all, pretty happy, but have to wait for few more days to see how it operate.

 

[reefrunner69]

Pics?????

 

[captivereefs]

Glad to hear it made to you it OK!

 

[HotSauce]

Boxster, where did you get it??? and for how much??

thanks.....

 

[Boxster]

I got it from Captivereefs. And thanks for the service. Will post pic soon.

 

[captivereefs]

 

[Boxster]

I want to let you guys know that if you are trying to buy the new Current-USA light hood. Put it on hold first.
I received my light hood on Tuesday. It is working fine for the first 2 day and last night half of the bulb is not working. There is 2 tube on each bulb. Only one tube is lighted up for the daylight bulb and the same goes for the Actinic. So essentially, only 2 tube of the 4 tubes is working. I am suspecting one ballast got burned, but not sure.
On top of that, I could not contact them. Their email is not working, no tel # either. But I like to praise Captivereef for doing his best to go through this situation.

Should I change out this light hood for the Coralife Aqualight series? Can someone with this Aqualight hood comments about their quality? Or should I change out for another Orbit hood?

 

[pecan2phat]

Sounds more like maybe the power compact bulbs got damaged rather than the ballast. You have two separate ballast to control the daylights & actinics, the PC bulbs are very fragile on the end where they are attached. Check with another PC bulb first.

 

[Boxster]

I don't think is the PC bulb. Because both bulb is working except that only half is working. That means one tube of the Daylight bulb is lighted up, and one tube of the Actinic is lighted up. Each bulb has 2 tube.

 

[WarOrks15]

and also you might want to switch the daylight bulb with the 03 to have the 03 come on first and have the fan running. and did you give the daylight bulb time to warm up? On my PC unit the daylight has to warm up before all of it is light up. it takes like 30 min to 60 i think. i am never home when the lights turn on in the morning.

 

[reefrunner69]

I don't think is the PC bulb. Because both bulb is working except that only half is working. That means one tube of the Daylight bulb is lighted up, and one tube of the Actinic is lighted up. Each bulb has 2 tube.

That definitely sounds like a bulb issue to my. If it were the ballast, it wouldn't light at all.

 

[captivereefs]

Who knows what it was bottom line is that that it went bad in two days and this is the first one i sold! The thing that made me angry that as a retailer there was absolutely zero support from the factory for me. In fact they do not have a phone number and there E-mail address is not set up! My supplier did not even know how they will handle warranty issues! I am staying very far from these hoods for now and would advise anyone to do the same. I had to send Boxster i new hood at a loss; this hits me hard as a small business and i cannot take the chance on these hoods again. What kind of business starts with no way to contact them? Sorry for the rant!

 

[WarOrks15]

WOW captive reef i have to say you have some of the best customer service i have seen. i have talk to you and you were vary helpful. i will be doing a lot more business with you in the near futrue.

 

[captivereefs]

Thanks! I try; may not always succed but i try!

 

[Oafboy182]

Boxster this may sound stupid but isn't the moon white (atleast as we see it). You said the moon lights were white instead of blue. That sounds right to me. Unless the light turns a blue color as it passes through the water in the ocean. I've seen both and thought the white was more accurate but I'm not an expert. Sorry to hear about the bulbs not working.

 

[Boxster]

Oafboy, yes the Moonlight is white. No iisue there except that I prefer it to be blue. I had my own DIY blue moonlight and it is more pleasing looking to me at night than the bright white LEDs. Too bright in my opinion for the tank of my size - 46g.

Ok, why I said it is probably not the bulb is that there are 4 wires on each 4-square pin bulb. Blue&black wires and Red&black wires. I believe the black is ground. The same goes to the Actinic bulb. What I did was to unconnect the 4pins connector, flip the bulb so that I hooked my 4 pins connector the other way. The pin that is used to connect the Red wire is connected to the blue wire now. The tube that is on the right is now on the left. So when I turned on the power, the tube that is on the right is always lighted up. No matter how I flip it, the left tube is always lighted up. That seem to correspond to the Blue/Black wires. So it make sense to me that one tube of both bulb is not working because the red wire is connected to one of the 2 pins at both bulbs.

Anyway, not sure their configuration is, just thinking that they may have 2 ballast. But not sure, that why I am so eager to talk to them to try to figure out what is wwrong. The bulb or anything else, but how????? Every electrical wire is hide behing the reflector so unless I dismantle the hood, I can't see the wiring.

 

[reefrunner69]

Sounds like CurrentUSA has some work to do to get their act together!!!