Odyssea MH

[Noise]

OK this goes out to all those electricians out there.

I have the 60" Odyssea MH unit, with 3-175w MH and 130w PC.

Are these really 175w HQI? I have read some allegations that they are really 150s. Can I use a 150w HQI bulb instead? I ask because I would rather use a different brand of bulb. But no one else makes a 175w HQI. Can anyone help?

[atvdave]

Noise. How long have you had those lights? Have you had any problems with them, other than the bulbs suck?

I'm looking into getting the 36" 2-175w fixture, but would also like to replace them with a 150W bulb.

[breedingroom]

tagging along

[MrZ]

They claim they are 175w DEs which makes no sense. I think their fixtures are just mislabled. Check out a pic of their "replacement 175w DE bulbs"

http://www.aquatraders.com/ProductImages/replacement%20bulb/ODY%20MH%20BULB.JPG

Looks like 150w bulbs to me...

Linked from This Page (http://www.aquatraders.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=133)

[Noise]

I have had the lights since May. I have had no problems, aside from having to reconnect one of the moonlights upon arrival. And yes the bulbs are a little difficult to change.

I read in another thread that someone opened the ballast box and saw that the ballasts look just as good as any. I understand they have fixed previous problems with the units. I believe the poster was an electrician too, so we can count his opinion as worthwhile :). I believe he also mentioned that the light fixture itself was well built compared to the Current USA Orbit, if not better.

I am pleased with my unit, but as is the lights are little too blue for me. I believe I have the 2007 model .

As for the pictures on the website, those are for demonstration purposes only. It is the same picture for each and every bulb, regardless of wattage or color temp. I understand your point, but I don't think those are meant to be pictures of the actual bulb you are ordering.

[breedingroom]

did you try to slap in a 150 w de bulb........

[mufret]

I have one of the smaller units and have fired 150w bulbs in the fixture. The ballast in mine does, however, claim to be a 175w. I'm not sure whether that will cause the 150w bulb to be overdriven and, if so, have any impact on the life of the bulb. Has anyone run 150w bulbs in their unit for any length of time?

[breedingroom]

I did hear some reports on these catching fire!

[breedingroom]

Though I also heard that everyone was happy with the units themselves.

[Noise]

I heard the fire stories too. I heard that they are really just 150w units that are restamped 175, because some claim there is no such thing as a 175 HQI ballast. But then why have 150w and 175w units and bulbs?

For those that had fires, what bulbs were they using? Did they try 150s? I understand that using a 150w bulb might shorten the life of the bulb. But would that cause a fire? Also I heard of people plugging the fixture into the wall instead of the ballast box. I could see that causing some problems. I think that is one of the flaws in the design of the unit. It would have been better to have a different type of plug or connection between the fixture and the ballast.

[atvdave]

I've been asking questions for the last month about the Odyssea lights. Although many people said that they catch on fire, only one person actually said he owned one that caught on fire. It was the capacitor that blew and made the fire in the ballast.

Anyway I did what research I could on this sight and just ordered the 36" 480W fixture. I have a electronics degree and I work on electric motors for a living so I think I could fix any issues with the light.

I am ashamed though.. I don't know if you can run the 150W bulb on the 175W ballast. I'll have to ask a high voltage electrician at work. I'll let you know.

I would say yes you can, theres only a 25w difference and your incoming line voltage will very 10% from time to time.

I know I have hooked up single phase 240 to 480 MH light fixtures and ran it on 120v supply and it works fine.

[Noise]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7783046#post7783046 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by atvdave
I've been asking questions for the last month about the Odyssea lights. Although many people said that they catch on fire, only one person actually said he owned one that caught on fire. It was the capacitor that blew and made the fire in the ballast.

Anyway I did what research I could on this sight and just ordered the 36" 480W fixture. I have a electronics degree and I work on electric motors for a living so I think I could fix any issues with the light.

I am ashamed though.. I don't know if you can run the 150W bulb on the 175W ballast. I'll have to ask a high voltage electrician at work. I'll let you know.

I would say yes you can, theres only a 25w difference and your incoming line voltage will very 10% from time to time.

I know I have hooked up single phase 240 to 480 MH light fixtures and ran it on 120v supply and it works fine.


Thanks for the input. I have talked to friends who are electricians and I got some slightly differing opinions. I have read that the bulbs should be matched to the output of the ballast, but I think that referred to using, say, a 150w bulb with a 250w ballast, or at least that was what I understood.

And now that you point it out, it does seem to me that most people heard of someone who knew somebody who read that there are people who think they know of someone who met somebody who works with someone who is related to a person that read a graphic novel that had a drawing of a ballast catching fire. I think I only saw one or two posts from people who actually had their unit catch fire, between this board and another.

But thanks to everyone who has replied and will reply to my thread. I appreciate your input. Glad to see that the responses were not just a bunch of people telling me I am going to burn in hell for buying this unit.

[breedingroom]

it is a real shame that the folks at the company can not answer these questions isn't it? I mean great price, but a little bit of customer service should be mandatory.......what the heck

[MrZ]

Has anyone invited the folks at the company to come weigh in on this? Maybe they would like to.

Oh, and you will burn in hell for buying this unit.

-Z

[noodles9987]

Hey guys,

I may or may not be the guy you were referring to above. I bought one of the 542 watt 48" odyssea lights about 1 month ago. And I like it a great deal. In my post last month, I was talking about how solid I thought the lighting system was. I still think the ballast is pretty decent, not a 1, but not a 10 either. And I did say in that post, that I thought the ballast was about as good as any I have seen out there. By the way, all of the wires are UL listed. They are the same wires you can get at Home Depot and every one of them are stamped UL.

Everyone says they know someone who had one of these ballasts burn their house down. This is a bunch of garbage. I mean how many houses would have to burn down before an international legal team would called in. You know, class action law suits or something. Also, those guys at aquatraders would have so many law suits against them, that they would have closed down from all the legal headaches, not to mention all the legal fees involved (I mean I assume if I had my house burn down, I would sue them. Right?). And, it doesn't matter if they give you a warranty or not. You can sue if you want too. This is the USA and that is the way it works. You may loose the case, but you still the right to your day in court. Enough of my ranting....

I did read a post along the way where some guy modified the ballsts by adding switches to it, and someone or other claimed that this was the reason for a particular ballast fire. Don't know if it was true or just another guy who knew a guy type of thing.

On day #1 I opened the ballast box and I looked up the manufacturer of the ballast. The actual ballasts are stamped 175 watts. However there are some capacitors in there that probably limit the amount of power comming out of the ballasts themselves. The unit do looks very solid. However, I promissed my wife that I would not use the ballast that came with the unit, so I did a big DIY project on the light. I added 1 fan, so now i have 3. I also put a compact fluroescent ballast inside the light under the metal grate material at the top of the lamp. Lastly I went ahead and bought an aquamedic 150 watt dual de ballast and just plugged it in. No changing of any wires with the new ballast. With these modifications, I have only 1 small ballast to worry about and because the cf ballast doesn't generate any heat, and because it had quite a bit of cool air blowing across it, I am not worried at all about it over heating. By the way, hello lights is where I got the CF ballast (40.00 with shipping). I ordered the aqua medic de electronic ballast from custom aquatics. It was 115.00. Both companies are sponsors on this site.

Last but not least - I bought some aqua medic bulbs (de 150's) and I put them in the light when I had the original ballast hooked up. They flickered for a few seconds before firing up. They looked to be about as bright as the Odyssea bulbs that shipped with my unit. I really didn't see any huge difference. When I plugged in the new electronic ballast, there was no flicker at all. The bulbs just came on.

Sorry for such a long post. Hope it helps someone.

[Noise]

MrZ thanks for that post. That is exactly the type of experience I wanted to hear about. Thanks for info about the mods too.

[jimdogg187]

IMHO, it only takes 1 bad experience with fire for me to NEVER EVEN CONSIDER a product. Its not like someone's "didn't work" or "had to be sent back". IT CAUGHT ON FIRE!!!!!!!!!

I.E. ALMOST BURNED SOMEONE'S HOUSE DOWN - COULD HAVE KILLED PEOPLE UNDER THE WRONG CIRCUMSTANCES!!!!!!

Talk about rolling the dice:rolleye1:

I guess some people will do anything to get something cheap.

Jim

[mr pink floyd]

i knwo a kid with a 150 in the "175" model
im soon adding in a phoenix 14K, the "20k" bulb they gaev me is more green and yellow than anything else

im only 15, so its all i could afford, btu it works fine for me... as soon as i get a job im upgrading my lighting to a coralife aqualight, my system is simple, nad fairly cheap, MJ mods for flow, fuge, skimmmer, ltios of rock

[atvdave]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7789988#post7789988 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jimdogg187
IMHO, it only takes 1 bad experience with fire for me to NEVER EVEN CONSIDER a product. Its not like someone's "didn't work" or "had to be sent back". IT CAUGHT ON FIRE!!!!!!!!!

I.E. ALMOST BURNED SOMEONE'S HOUSE DOWN - COULD HAVE KILLED PEOPLE UNDER THE WRONG CIRCUMSTANCES!!!!!!

Talk about rolling the dice:rolleye1:

I guess some people will do anything to get something cheap.

Jim

People die in cars every day, Do you drive?. Planes crash and burn many times a year, do you fly?

Even some very highly reputable products have all had some quality control issues, but many people still use them, and I would bet that you have some products right now in your house that at one time or another crashed and burned.

Your right.. you dont get it.

[The Grim Reefer]

There was a thread about this some months ago and someone with a lighting company posted about these. He knew the ballasts specs and everything. He said the 175 DE was for real but mainly in europe. The funny thing is the ballast will actually underdrive a 150 watt lamp. I dont remember the specifics but it had to do with different operating voltages. The memory is good but not that good:)

[jimdogg187]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7790060#post7790060 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by atvdave
People die in cars every day, Do you drive?. Planes crash and burn many times a year, do you fly?

Even some very highly reputable products have all had some quality control issues, but many people still use them, and I would bet that you have some products right now in your house that at one time or another crashed and burned.

Your right.. you dont get it.

You're right.:rolleye1: :rolleye1: :rolleye1: The car/airplane analogy is RIGHT ON!:rolleye1: :rolleye1: :rolleye1:

Lets all go out and buy one of those ford pintos. They worked for so many people. Who cares about THE FACT THEY USED TO BLOW UP!!

Well from here on out, it just a matter of opinion.

Your opinoin is: save money, anything can happen at any time.

My opinion is: Spend the money and I don't have to worry about "anything happening" at "anytime". Also known as "piece of mind".

I was just throwing out a warning to those reading this thread. Sorry if I rained on your parade :( :(

Good luck to all those who have purchased these lights! I will not be posting in this thread anylonger.

Cheers,

Jim

[atvdave]

Sorry Jim.. I must apologize. I was very rude in my comments. It's just that your post just rubbed me the wrong way.
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7789988#post7789988 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jimdogg187

I guess some people will do anything to get something cheap.

Jim

Anyways.. I'm sorry.

Dave

[BubbleMonkeyIII]

Well like I have said in other threads, and I will say again, the problems I have read with these lights have been ONLY with the CAPACITORS burning up in the ballast box.. There were SEVERAL people that posted the same thing, and there were several threads out there about fires.. and from what I remember it was all FIRST PERSON with horror stories, and I LOOKED. And from what I remember these capacitors were made in Germany NOT China.. FWIW..

So after reading all this carnage I was initally spooked into passing up this light.. Then it dawned on me that the FIXTURE itself might be OK, and since I already had a Blue WAVE VII ballast (that powers Maristar) and now Had a HO OE fixture (the junky one) I could MOD this thing to almost be Maristar quality with some DIY work, and upgrades in bulbs/ballasts etc.

As I posted before I personally was planning on MODDING a CSL ORBIT 4x65W PC unit to add HQI, so I had ALREADY purchased a DUAL 150W BLue Wave VII ballast to pull this off for that MOD, But. I ended up selling the ORbit and got an ORBIT EXTREME on EBAY in its place to check out HO T5 (very nice btw).. As I also said in that thread the OE fixture IMHO is flimsy junk compared to the CSL 4PC light I bought a few years back.. No comparison in quality IMHO. The end caps stick in this one,and break bulbs when trying to remove them, also, the Moonlights dont work, worst of all, the stand for the light is BARELY enough to hold the light up off the tank very weak... But, on the upside, the lights are bright :) So now, since I have this T5 Junk fixture I figured I would pillage the HO T5 Ballasts from this light and gut the ODYSSEA Ballast and put them in there :) to power the 4-HO T5 bulbs I will place in ODY HQI.

I also got the feeling the FIXTURE itself was pretty nice from what I read.. So I went ahead and ordered one on EBAY but NOT from Aqua Traitors.. but from another seller.. I had heard Too much bad press to take a chance with them.

I got the light fixture and was actually somewhat impressed with the light fixture itself..quality when it came .. Fairly solid and nice looking and fairly planned out well, actually.. I warily plugged the ballast in and powered up the lights just to check the weak T5 bulbs they sent and the HQI... just to see if everything worked.. They all turned on so thats a start.

I plan on rewiring the thing totally using the 600V wires (need to buy these for BWVII) to power the HQI from the BWVII. and using the OE T5 ballasts put into the gutted ODY ballast. (for cooling and will keep the timer too)

I got an older dual 150W HQi UNIT with 4x T5.. (26 W and low output) I think this was an older unit as it doesnt have Moonlights, and uses T5 vs PC. Being a new fan of T5 I went for this model, I will add HO T5 ballasts and bulbs to the unit. to bring it to Maristar Quality :) Being an older unit, I probably have the cursed capacitors in this ballast, but no matter that thing is going to be gutted and replaced to run only the pillaged T5 ballast from the OE extreme fixture.

Also, There were MANY threads I read on the NET about fires from these particular capacitors.. and ballasts, so bottom line...I would NEVER use this ballast no matter what people say here or at the Company not even the newer ones... just too much risk.

I however would recommend and do use a Blue Wave VII or other USA UL listed Ballast with a track record to run the HQI and T5 lights with this unit. I would also recommend gutting the ODY ballast box and using some good OLE UL listed HO T5 or PC ballasts to power this unit.

Like the guy said, yes its rolling the dice.. True, But if you eliminate as MUCH of the CHANCE as possible.. you cut down the percentages even greater of fire. There are not guarantees in life but you can cut down many dangers by using quality equipment, even if it powers a lesser known fixture. As long as the wiring on the fixture portion is solid (seemed to be to me) should be good to go. Hard to MUCK this part up :)

To me running this fixture on other Name Brand ballasts is the ONLY way to go, and really, despite what others might say, is really not taking a chances as much as running it on the STOCK ballasts they ship the lights with.

In my particular case it was worth it to just buy the light, as I purchased this other stuff already.. I know this wont work for everyone, but its not a bad idea if you feel led to buy the product ONLY for the light fixture.

I dont know what all this talk is about no 175W HQI being out there, I for one, have seen 175W HQI bulbs listed for sale on AquaConnect's site. These are the makers of the first, and most popular 14K HQI bulbs that came out awhile back. So for all you saying there are not 175W HQI, thats just not correct. This site lists 10k and 14k bulbs too. :)

http://www.aquaristics.com/pro_lighthit.php

Will take some pictures of my UPgrade Mod on this ODY light, and any experiences I have.

One thing that did bother me about the LIGHT fixture itself, was how the unit was grounded. (or not really grounded) the wires inside the end cap, were jammed into the screw holes that held the end cover in place, and that was how the ground wires were held in place.. not good.. Mine popped loose and I could EASILY see these jiggling loose in shipping. Not sure if this really effects anything, but I will be grounding mine with a SCREW somewhere :)

[The Grim Reefer]

"I dont know what all this talk is about no 175W HQI being out there, I for one, have seen 175W HQI bulbs listed for sale on AquaConnect's site. These are the makers of the first, and most popular 14K HQI bulbs that came out awhile back. So for all you saying there are not 175W HQI, thats just not correct. This site lists 10k and 14k bulbs too."

There are no 175's listed on the site you linked to other than SE screw in lamps.

[BubbleMonkeyIII]

I stand corrupted... you are correct SIR!

I didnt see the words "screw in" after the 175W HIT lights all this time.. Until now...after you mentioned this.. I Just saw the "HIT" and figured it was double ended as well.. Mmmmmm.... Weird... I guess I was focusing on the 150W 14k's as those were what I wanted anyway.

Well if this is true, that there are no 175 W DE HIT bulbs.. then maybe UFOs are real, Ken lay is alive, and Jim Morrison is NOT dead as well.

[djc1026]

Just an added thought ARO makes a ballast that runs 150/175 bulbs. It's unclear if it can run SE 175s or DE, but it does specify HQI 150s. Anyway, here's the link:

http://www.hellolights.com/aroba15mh.html

Dave

[Talonstorm]

If you are thinking about an Odyssea MH fixture, I would strongly recommend you do NOT get one. I will give you my story. I purchased one in December of 2005 (~7 months ago). Within the first 5 days it stopped working and just blew fuse after fuse when I tried to turn it on. I had to ship it back to California at my cost (almost $40 because the ballast is very heavy). When I received it back it worked for only a couple of days and started with the same problems. I finally got it not to blow the fuse by tightening the ground wire. I thought my problems were solved. It worked for another month and then wouldn't light and began to blow fuses again. One morning I turned it on and it lit, so I went to work. When I got home it was dark, so I unplugged it to check the fuse again. The box housing the ballast was hot enough to burn myself just by touching it. I was shocked at the birdsnest of wires I found when I opened it. The ballasts looked like they were made in the 70s and the wiring was even worse. Since the pc lights still worked I purchased an ARO ballast to replace the mh ballast. It was a nightmare that took weeks to figure out with the wiring. I finally got it wired in and then the fans and the pc lights would not work. I replaced the pc ballasts with a workhorse ballast and wired with fans with a plug type DC power converter. I finally have everything working again. I am just waiting to receive the pc replacement bulbs I ordered as one of the 2 bulbs went bad. I also bought a new mh bulb (I didn't have to do this, but the one that came with the fixture got very yellow looking towards the end).

Total cost:

original price: $194.99
shipping back: $40.00
New mh ballast: $100.00
New pc ballast: $30.00
DC converter: $15.00
New PC bulbs: $33.00
New MH bulb: $65.00

Total: 477.99

As you can see, I could have gotten a very nice high quality fixture for less money. :mad2: So, take my advice for what it is worth, listen, or not, but don't say you weren't warned! You get what you pay for, total junk!!

Tina

[BubbleMonkeyIII]

Good to hear your personal story... 1st hand.. Question what model light did you get? I was told they addressed the melting capacitors in 2nd half of 06? But again I wouldnt trust that as far as I could throw it.

Again sounds to me you had most if not all your problems stem from the ballasts and wiring? good job dumping the HQI ballasts though either way.. good to come home and only find the LIGHTS were dark and not your whole place with SOOT.

Any problems with the LIGHT fixture itself? other than the GROUND wire?

And the GROUND WIRE... Im assuming you are referring to the wire(S) that are in the light fixture right?? Not surprised that thing came loose if it was the ground wire in the light, If you were talking about a wire in the ballast I would also check out the FIXTURE's grounding wires.. hahah.. They are just stuffed into the screw holes of the outer casing.

Yea Im not really looking forward to gutting that powersupply to find a home for my HO T5 ballasts.. and figuring out the spaghetti that is sure to be in there.. I just plan on removing everything but the fans. hahaha.. Hopefully though would be nice to keep the timer function going, but not necessary.. if its too much work.. forget it.. I will just gut it, and use the box to house my t5 Ballasts. Since I already have a BWVII the HQI ballasts in my case are taken care of.

Any tips on how you wired yours would be appreciated. Can you PM me with a simple diagram on how this thing is wired? That would be cool of you... I would like to keep the fan maybe do what you did, put a powersupply fan in there, and just connect the T5 HO ballasts to the wires that would supply the T5 lighting.
(my unit is older and has the LO T5 vs the PC)

Still everything tallied I can just about create a Maristar quality light (minus the reflectors maybe) for around 500$ including the light, the HO T5 bulbs the BWave BALLASTs.. and even throwing in some new HQI.

But im with you about a person NOT buying it if they arent willing or cannot $$$ the DIY ballasts wiring and ballast upgrades Not worth the trouble or the risk. Granted Im unusual in that I just wanted the fixture and could easily just TOSS that 300lb ballast out the door if need be.. hahahah Fact I was just trying to get the fixture itself. :)

[The Grim Reefer]

The reflectors are an important part of what makes the Maristar so good. If you have the stuff laying around to make the fixture safe and like dinging around with it more power to ya. I wouldn't be suggesting oddysea to anyone. They don't really have a good track record as far as honesty goes so I wouldn't take their word that the quality control issues have been resolved.

[Reef_bones]

I would ditch the fans too. They are loud.. ;)

[Talonstorm]

I forgot to mention the fixture. Mine was the 175 W MH plus two 18 W pc bulbs. The ground wire I was refering to was the one in the lower ballast housing box that is attached with a screw to the bottom of the box. I can't help you with a wiring diagram for the fixture as purchased. The birdsnest of wires have so many different colors spliced together I couldn't even follow wires from one thing to the next. I will make you a simple diagram of how I re-wired the light, but it is probably going to be confusing and not technical at all. Like this color wire to this color. I will also take a few pictures of the box re-wired. My neighbor did most of it for me, I don't know where he got the patience from. :)

I didn't have a lot of problems with the actual light fixture. The worst part about that is getting the metal slides out to remove the plexiglass pieces, to replace the bulbs. I cracked both pieces of plexiglass trying to get them out (I should add the new pieces into my total cost).

If you buy new parts, I recommend www.hellolights.com for the aro ballast (which produces very little heat). I got my workhorse ballast from www.innovativelights.com . They are very reasonably priced on the workhorse ballasts, plus I got a nice grounded power cord from there as well.

I will post pictures tonight or tomorrow.

Tina

[brettmc]

To go back to the original question, as far as a 150W in the 175W MH socket, i'm not forsure but maybe someone can interpret the writing on the side of ballasts. I just took mine apart which happens to be the 175W with (2) 24W PC's so here they are.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i241/brettmc83/ballast7.jpg
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i241/brettmc83/ballast4.jpg
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i241/brettmc83/ballast2.jpg
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i241/brettmc83/ballast1.jpg

[BubbleMonkeyIII]

Those capacitors look different than the ones from Germany that were frying... HQ? mm.. what year is your light? It does appear they have changed capacitor companies.. to Chinese company Vs German?

the ignitor says "50-150W MH"... so Im assuming 150W is the max for those?

And I am joining the ranks of the 175 W DE HQI non believers since Grim corrected me

[BubbleMonkeyIII]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7792327#post7792327 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The Grim Reefer
The reflectors are an important part of what makes the Maristar so good. If you have the stuff laying around to make the fixture safe and like dinging around with it more power to ya. I wouldn't be suggesting oddysea to anyone. They don't really have a good track record as far as honesty goes so I wouldn't take their word that the quality control issues have been resolved.

Yep thats true, I saw the tek t5 reflector tests, pretty impressive actually.. increasing almost 2x the PAR? So that would be a pretty nice upgrade to the fixture to put individual reflectors for each of the 4 T5s in my unit.

Also someone (you?) said the HQI was hammered which wasnt the best use of reflector.. that could also be changed probably fairly easily.

I agree with you about NOT going with them.. But I was just in an unusual position to upgrade this thing with great parts I ALREADY had.. If people didnt have this I would recommend just getting a 500-800$+ fixture stock cuz by the time you bought everything needed for this, you could easily have a pre-made light. ahahha

This might also work for someone (if they had the guts) that burned up their ballast but still had the fixture.. Cheaper to get another ballast (s) and power it with that (as some including mysel are doing)

But it does appear to be a different brand of capacitor in the recent post above.. we should ask him to monitor its performance as he seems to be using it.

[The Grim Reefer]

the metal cap is an update from the old ones. It will at least be less likely to burn when the cap blows.

[BubbleMonkeyIII]

when you said "metal cap" I assume that means the capacitor
So is this capacitor housing, made from metal in reality? What was the other one made from? Plastic? Is that why it burned? It just got too hot and started melting?

No electrician here but if the other was plastic and this one is metal then it would seem less likely to burn up itself on the outside.. true, but might melt something NEXT TO it.. ahahhaha But wouldnt a metal/aluminum housing just hold the fire INSIDE vs letting it out if there was a blow out? Seems like the fires were the results of the innards blowing up, vs the exterior failing. So maybe this is a good thing, like keeping a fire in a steel drum or something.. so it doesnt spread kind of thing..

Assuming the lights would just stop functioning as the interior of the CAP melted down, and or fuses/GFI would blow etc.. But the fire would be "contained" so to speak within the metal housing of the capacitor?

[The Grim Reefer]

The others were white plastic I believe. This one at least looks metal.

[brettmc]

I have no idea, but you guys are talking above my head. I have yet to use this contramption fully since I'm just gettin ready to add LR tomorrow. This system is also a 223W version with 175w HQI, and 2 24W PC's. I believe that the ballast is a 2007 version but i'm not for sure. I'm sure that this is going to ignite the debate about odyssea's being a POS, but my daylight PC already burned out, it got extremely hot and melted a zip tie that was holding it onto the socket, but the actinic bulb is just fine so that makes me think that it was just the bulb, which i'm replacing both of them now. But I will keep ya'lls posted on its performance in the coming months.

[Talonstorm]

Here are some of the pictures of my light. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture of the birdsnest of wires I saw when I opened the ballast box, but here is a picture of some of the components, you can see what I mean by parts that look like they were made in the 70s.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b222/Talonstorm/lightinsideold1.jpg

Here is what the ballast box looks like now:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b222/Talonstorm/lightinsidenew1.jpg

Tina

[The Grim Reefer]

The fisrt picture looks like surplus parts from the Chinese space program.

Nice upgrade.

[jayel]

I have been running the original 211w mh system from odyssea. It has been lighting my tank for almost 2 years. I changed to a 150w 14k phoenix bulb after two months and have had to replace the fans to radio shack brand. At one time i did notice that the ballast was hot to touch so i took out the plastic vents on the side of the ballast box (High tech upgrade!).
Other than that, i have been pleased with this light. I was new to the hobby when i made the purchase and considered it a great learning tool. As i know now, upgrades are inevitable and i am happy to have sustained my tank for so long and i am looking foward to upgrading to bigger, better, well-built, non-hazardous, more efficeint and ultimately more expensive equipment.

[heuerfan]

Those that experienced problems with the ballast, which version do you have? I noticed they have a newer version out, version 4 (2007 model). Perhaps they fixed the ballast problem?
http://www.aquatraders.com/ProductImages/lighting/metal%20halide/MH48542.gif

Thanks,
Steven