Replacing my hood (again)… **LOTS OF PICS**

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dapellegrini

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Sep 10, 2003
Messages
870
Location
Phoenix, AZ
Ok, as many of you are familiar with my recent posts, I have been contemplating replacing my latest Odyssea 48-inch HO T-5 216-watt hood. You can go to the product review section on this website to read my thought in this product (and why I gave it 3/10):

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/reviewpost/showproduct.php?product=232&limit=recent

I know many have told me that I really didn’t need any better or stronger light, but I have harbored a discontent with what I bought and suspected that the inferior quality of the lights may be one of the reasons that I am having little luck with my foreground plants. Fueling this thought is the fact that I could only use the Odyssea bulbs, as the hood was built too short to fit standard 48” T-5 bulbs, the lights they sell are not labeled full-spectrum and the company would not answer my emails on the topic. Here is all you can find on their bulbs: http://www.aquatraders.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=261

Incidentally, it looks like they have reworked their website and are not selling my hood anymore!!!

When I purchased the hood originally, I also purchased some higher end full spectrum HO T-5 lights from another site – before I learned they would not fit… With these extra lights sitting around now for about 2 months I figured it would make the most sence to get a real T-5 hood next time around.

Finally, if you are not familiar with my recent plunge into the hi-tech realm of planted aquarium see this post: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=88786

So enough with the back story.

I have been eyeing a few different hoods and finally settled on a Catalina Aquariums hood, made in San Francisco and sold on E-Bay. I decided that I would go with the 6x configuration so that I could play around with the effects of high / very high lighting. 6 x 54 = 324-watts of T-5 over 72g. Everything looked right so I finally placed my order and it just arrived this morning! – Cost of Odyssea hood after shipping = $112 – Cost of Catalina hood after shipping = $340 (I hope this one is a keeper!)

So here is a blow-by-blow on the my new hood:

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The box appeared to have survived the journey rather well with only one gashed corner. Big box and heavy too…

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First thought is, wow, this is really well packed:

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Impressive and promising. The light was actually shipped in a wood frame! Sure feels like I got my $35 worth in the shipping department:

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Some first impressions, hefting it out of the box: this thing is sturdy and nothing is rattling around… wait something IS rattling around (later found a loose wire slice cap in the hood – not a good sign, but everything seems to work, so I am hoping it was just an extra one).

The piece of acrylic on the Odyssea was so thin and jagged, I had to be careful not to cut my fingers when removing it (exaggerating a little). Not this one! This thing has wonderfully smooth edges with round corners, and it is over ¼-inch think!

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Looks like Catalina has their own brand T-5 lights too… but that’s ok, cause I have a bunch of other ones if these seem shoddy.

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Here a shot of the end cap with the switches on it. I had to push them back into place, but they seem sturdy enough, and plastic covered. The two big wires are for the lights, the smaller wire is for the moonlight add-ons.

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Another nice thing: each light has it’s own reflector. Everything came with blue sticky tape that needed to be peeled off… The last hood wasn’t like that. Also notice the strange end-caps. I have always seen the ones that you slide in, turn and click… these are some kind of weird push them in manually thing.

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First bulb in on one side… still not sure what I think about these end-caps:

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And here it is all the way in. It is the clips in the reflector that hold the light in correctly:

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A couple more pics (one of each end) showing the weird, snake-like end caps:

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Quick power test and I discover that the first switch controls the first 2 lights and the second controls the other 4… I think I like that better than 3/3:

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All lit up. The fan comes on with the 4-light switch and is not silent. Everything is well anchored to the frame though, and it has been running for a couple of hours now and is not bothering me. No rattling or similar noises, just a low hum/buzz.

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Next step is to pull the old hood off and get this one up there… A little wire wrangling and I have it up and on. Immediate and very obvious difference… perhaps some from the +108-watts, but even with 2 of the lights off it seems much brighter and colors are much nicer. Wow.

The cords are kind of in the way on the side as they are arranged, but I think I can live with that. This hood is also much wider than advertised. They said 8.5-inches, but it is more like 11-inches. My glass tops had to slide forward and will no longer close. I am considering taking them off again… but we will see.

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The moonlights are also very cool. The way I have the hood on currently they are at the back. I might end up spinning the hood around to have them in the middle. Also, there are now 8 of them, a big upgrade from the 4 I used to have. They are on a dimmer switch so you can adjust how much moonlight you need. Great, feature but I think I may leave them cranked all the way up.

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Finally the mounting feet… As I was worried, they would never fit on my tank. They flair out too wide for my 11-inch mounting area on the sides… $15 lost, but oh well. They would have taken the light too high above the water anyways, IMO.

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Some final parting shots of the old hood:

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BTW, I have no use for this hood... It would light up a 55g great, and replacement bulbs are cheap from Odyssea... Not my cup of tea, but I would sell it for $50... Not sure if I want to ship it though... I will move this into the Barter Trade forum later.

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Preliminary final thoughts…

After running the lights for about 30 minutes, one of my replacement bulbs that have been sitting in my garage for the last 2-months started to flicker and give issue. I have since replaced it with one of Catalina’s lights all seems well again.

My least favorite part of any of these setups is the fan, but this one seems to be acceptable. If I ever get sick of it, it appears to be a standard PC fan size, so I am sure I could put something else on there.

The lights look good, and the aquarium looks much better. Since my camera can’t take full light shots anyways, I am not sure anyone would see a difference, but I certainly do. I am also impressed with the overall build quality, which appears to exceed anything I have seen to-date, including tek and coralife fixtures, etc.


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I have always wished there was a good website for aquarium product reviews like you can find in PC equipment… This is my small contribution for now.






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Thanks for the review! At that price I might have to consider NOT doing a DIY setup. A good hood just looks so much nicer.
 
Ah man! I just realized that I mixed up your prices. I thought the new hood was cheaper..... DOH!

I take it back. DIY is still a go.
 
That looks like it is a fine light ;-)
Thanks for that excellent review. I can't wait to see some shots of the growth you get with that light.
 
Ya, I under-spent on the first one and decided I didn't want to do that again. I also considered DIY, but for my aesthetic standards, that would have required a $400 canopy plus the lights, which put it out of the running.
 
Thanks Zezmo. :) I will keep everyone updated with photos of the tank over time

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UPDATES AFTER A COUPLE OF DAYS
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Well a couple of days in and I really like this hood. My plants have never looked better. I posted up some photos under the new light in my bigger thread:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=88786&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=25

A few clarification:

- The cable routing problem I pointed out orginally is not a problem if you put the hood on the other way around, which I have now done.

- This hood body is polished black aluminum, and very easy to wipe / clean compared to my old Odyssea. Really looks nice, even to people who would not be able to tell the differences.

- The Catalina HO T-5 lights seem to be very nice in fact. These are full spectrum and seem better suited than my last ones.

- The weird snake-like end caps worked out fine. They are not as easy when it comes to replacing lights, since it can be a bit more difficult to pull the ends off. That said, the lights are held very well, and the end caps have a nice plastic/rubber sleeve on them if ever water should get under the splash guard.

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Hope this is helpful to others looking for a hood for their planted tank...
 
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