Odyssea replacement bulbs

[s1rk1118]

A few months back, I bought an Odyssea 48" fixture with what they claimed was 2-175w 20,000k DE halides and 2-96w "blue" PC's. I am not real happy with the looks or performance of the lights. I am going to change the "blues" to true actinics, and was going to change the halides to 10,000k's. First, I cannot find 175w DE's, so I figured to overdrive some 150's. Digging a little further, I double checked my ballast and found a M137 pulse start (with an ignitor of undetermined value), not a M81 ballast as I had assumed. What bulbs CAN I use?

[scholl]

bump

[The Grim Reefer]

Paulerik I think is the screen name of the person that posted this but the 150 will not be overdriven on the 175 system. He listed all the specs on the ballasts. His post is in one of the oddysea lighting threads.

[VaderWS6]

I saw a 150 or 175 watt DE Odyssea setup at my LFS on their clam tank, and that is by far the worst looking setup I've seen in a long time. Those bulbs totally suck, not bright at all.

[scholl]

Thanks, I have that set up and think I should have put that money towards an Aquamedic Ocean Light 2x250 mh 2x39x T5. The Odyssea is pretty dim compared to a lot of stuff I see. Hmmmmm, maybe I'll buy myself a Christmas present.

[lscaquarium]

switching bulbs on those fixtures does amazing things.
night and day, the oddesea bulbs flat out suck.

[Horace]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6291816#post6291816 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by lscaquarium
switching bulbs on those fixtures does amazing things.
night and day, the oddesea bulbs flat out suck.

Same is true for the T5 HO units. Thier bulbs suck hardcore. When you switch out the bulbs it is noticabley brighter and looks SOOO much better. But thier reflectors suck too so......

[rickburdeniuk]

I guess you already figured some of this out but you have a Pulse start ballast so I suppose that's where you should start looking. Acording to this chart it should drive 175W Ushio and Aqualine AB bulbs SE:

http://www.aquarium-lighting-guide.com/metal-halide-ansi

Not sure that info helps you too much but it's what I have on hand! ;)

[s1rk1118]

actually, after the fans in my ballast box started making funny noises, and then the fans in my fixture quit, I decided to scrap the potential fire hazard and make my own unit. I took out the PC's and the moonlights, threw away the rest of the fixture and bought a dual PFO ballast with some 175 SE Ushio's and now have a great light.

[BWilfong]

I tried the XM 10K, too yellow, tried the Phoenix 14k, too blue. Basically, whatever you get will shift the colors unless you replace the ballasts.

You can get straight pin 96w atinics from reeftanklighting.com