I think APW mentioned buying some bulbs which didn't live up to what he thought they might. How do you know what kind to buy? In this case they're PC...Current-USA, Coralife, Jebo Odessa are a few I've found on the net...some certainly are cheaper than others. Is it a case of you get what you pay for?
It's exactly you get what you pay for. Especially when it comes to Jebo, they're pure junk in every department. You just have to make sure you're getting the right K rating on the bulb you want, and then narrow it down from there to what brand you'll go with, and then check out feedback on the item...
I can give a definite thumbs down to ARC bulbs. I bought 4, and ALL FOUR burned out within 6 months. Not got dim, not were off colour, they burned out.
I'm a little torn on bulbs right now. I used to be very much into retrofitting common bulbs over tanks, but man, I really like the higher colour temp bulbs for the look and you just can't find them through lighting stores (best I found in T5 was 6500k, special order).
Thanks to the SP sales, I'm using all Hagen Power-Glo 18,000k (whatever) T5HO bulbs. I like the look. Hopefully they last a while :)
funny I don't like 18000k, found it made my fish glow weird. to each his own. :) I know what colour temp I want, jsut wondered about the brands. Now, who needs bulbs so we can try a group order?! Anyone have a preferred place to buy from, either in the states or in Canada?
I think Muad'dib tried to do a bulb group order from Litemore a while ago, for high-colour temp bulbs and it went nowhere because they wanted him to order them in case quantities (40/case).
I looked into shipping bulbs to me in the spec I wanted, but many places wanted lots of extra shipping cost for 4' bulbs for some reason.
The 18,000k are a weird colour, but I like the effect it has on the blues in the fish.
I find that it also varies between company I have the 18k and I don't find them to be as blue as i thought they would be... were as the giesman higher k bulbs are very blueish.. I like the hagen so far bu for the price you can get realy good quality ordered in like UV or giesman which I will do nxt time for sure.
Someone might want to ask Ray about a group order; he carries the Giesman bulbs that I've heard lots of good stuff about.
Pat from Ottawa inverts can order them in aswell
I also carry the UV bulbs (previously known as URI). Their actinics are the only true T5 actinic on the market. The color difference when i switched to UV actinics on my main tank was quite impressive.
I never know where to post anything anymore.
I have posted a comparison of my odyssea light to my satellite in the planted section of the board.
I agree that jebo oddysea lighting fixtures have serious problems, but the bulbs themself seem better for planted tanks than those that came with my satellite.