Odyssea Lighting?? Help please

[GrkGumby12]

I have a glass canopy on my tank, just wondering if i can use these light fixtures on my tank with the glass canopy attached. I see many pictured showing multiple mounting legs/brackets and wondering if you guys out there have these... If you do please let me know which one you have and if you have open-air or canopy on top. Thanks

 

[Atxpunx]

I have an odyssea fixture sitting on a large piece of plexiglas cut to the shape of my tank. It still does what it does. The only problems that might arise are light blockage from water spots or not being able to put your fixture right on the middle of the tank because of your hinge for your canopy. Hope this helps.

 

[MDChurch]

I have the 4bulb 72watt fixture on my 10gal. salt tank and I took off the wire supports and made 4legs out of pvc and glued them to all of the corners of the light fixture.. you can make the height of the pvc what ever you want that way. Just make sure you don't glue one to the clear covering for the bulbs. Works great.

 

[MDChurch]

Oh sorry meant to say I have a glass versa top on the tank and the light with the legs sits right on the glass top.

 

[ianeberle]

I almost bought an Odyssea unit, but I heard many bad things about the reflectors and overall build quality of that brand.

I ended up getting a 20 inch Aqueon incandescent strip light from Petco.com and putting in two 14w CFL bulbs that I got from Lowes. All together, that's 28w of light on a 10 gallon tank and my plants are as green as the ones at my LFS where they have T5 lights and CO2 injection in the tank.

 

[Abrams96]

I have the 48 inch dual bulb HO on my 55.
I used the original hood (The black plastic ones) and cut the glass out where the original t8 fixtures would sit. You lose a lot of light penetration when going through glass.
So its covered still, but open top where the light is.
I really like the fixture and think is built well. Reflectors aren't great but for the money, you can't go wrong.

 

[hcourts]

I have a glass canopy on my 55 as well as the odyssea t5 dual fixture. I haven't had any problem with the fixture minus having to change a broken bulb when I got it but I was going to do that anyway mine sits right on my glass canopy and my plants look great are grow very quickly!! For the money I def recommend it! The brackets are alittle strange, but as stated earlier you can make different adjustments to get it where you want it

 

[ianeberle]

How long has everybody had their fixture? I need a T5HO for my 36 gallon.

But as far as my 10 gallon goes, CFL is great.

 

[hcourts]

I have had mine for about six months with no problems.

 

[MDChurch]

I've had mine about 8 months. I found out from researching them that the quality has been upgraded quite alot. No problems so far straight out of the box.

 

[jetajockey]

I've had the three bulb fixture for about a year and it's been OK although it needs new bulbs badly.

 

[ianeberle]

So do you recommend them? I saw a fixture on Drs. Foster and Smith but it's $100 and I think the Odyssea is about half that.

 

[jetajockey]

For the price it's hard to beat, but it just depends. If the goal is to go high tech then I'd go with a better quality fixture. Not that you couldn't do high tech with these fixtures, but they are not nearly as effective. There's some par data on this link comparing fixtures, it's not the be-all but it's better than pure conjecture. Lighting an Aquarium with PAR instead of Watts

 

[ianeberle]

I'm just looking for a light that will supply my 36 gal with high lighting and not break after a year or so.

 

[jetajockey]

Look at the chart I linked for output comparisons based on the height of your fixture over the substrate. No matter which one you choose, most recommend a bulb replacement every 6-12 months.