Old odyssea t5 fixture

[Andrew_B]

So I bought this Odyssea t5 fixture from a box member with the intention to switching out bulbs to try out on a freshwater tank, never used t5 on a FW tank before. Bought a couple bulbs today and apparently this is the old model of fixture that uses t5ho bulbs with different pin placement. New Odyssea fixtures now use regular bulbs.

Anyone know where I can get these old style bulbs? Also... is this the style of fixture that has many known fire issues? I know the company had issues which made them improve their equipment.

Just figured this is the type of stuff that should be mentioned as a seller "Oh, you can't replace the bulbs... and it can burn your house down"

[snailtrax]

I've had a pretty good variety of t5 lights, including, I believe, an Odyssea and a Nameless e-Bay one. I've never noticed the pins being any different on any of the bulbs, but there are High Output ones and Normal ones. I once stuck some HO bulbs into a Normal Coralife fixture, and wondered why they burned out so fast, and semi-melted the plexi-shield, but nothing caught fire, I'm happy to say. You can tell if you you need HO or Normal,because the wattage is double on the HO ones for the same size. Sorry if I've stated the obvious, but like I said, I've never seen different pin placements on any of the t5 bulbs I've owned. Compact florescent, yes.

[BiGPiNK]

If it is t5ho, but with proprietary pins, it maybe cheaper in the long run to look at replacing the tombstones so you can use whatever bulbs you want in future, i believe the ballast issue was pretty much only on the halide ballasts so hopefully you'll never have an issue with that anyway

Sent from BiGPiNK's Tapatalk

[jeb102385]

The tombstones are pretty easy to change out, and I have odyssea fixtures on my frog tanks and have never had a problem

[jsbaker]

The ballast issue also affected T5HO fixtures, had it happen to me earlier this year on a fixture that was only a few months old. I can't say for sure how old the fixture was since there is not telling how long it sat on the store shelf but it was the 2 x 39W model.