# Odessea Vs Glo



## Guppy_Madness (Sep 2, 2010)

I am planning to buy T5 light for my new 20 Gallon Freshwater Planted tank Please advise which one should I get?

1. Odyssea 24" 48W T5 HO Light Fixture Extendable Series (FW/ Planted)
or 
2. Glo T5 High Output Lighting System, Double, 24-Inch (Misc.)


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## carmenh (Dec 20, 2009)

I love my Glo. I know the Odyssea's don't catch fire *anymore* but they still scare me


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## Guppy_Madness (Sep 2, 2010)

carmenh said:


> I love my Glo. I know the Odyssea's don't catch fire *anymore* but they still scare me


They were catching Fire before???


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

Guppy_Madness said:


> They were catching Fire before???


When Odyssea were a different company, and a much different design, ONE persons Metal Halide unit, with the old magnetic ballasts (not really used much anymore I think) supposedly caught fire- and so did the rumours of it online. However no information about how the light was used (or misused) was given when the person reported the event. That was over 10 years ago iirc.

I have 6 Odyssea T5HO lights.

I also have 1 Hagen GLO T5HO light.

Their are many pros and cons to both of them- which I will post about later if I can remember to. Also, don't buy the Odysseas off of the resellers here in Canada- they are double the price of going direct to Aquatraders in USA (where I bought mine) or their Ebay (Topdogsellers).


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## carmenh (Dec 20, 2009)

I just did a quick search to find you a link and to be honest, there's as many people who say it's not true, or that it was a long time ago...



Guppy_Madness said:


> They were catching Fire before???


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## rubadub (Sep 12, 2010)

it was just the old metal halides 
the original poster was asking about t5ho's

its kinda hard to mess up a t5 system lol

not sure about the glo system but the 1 thiing im not a fan of is the on/off switches on the odyssea are on the balast not on the main unit

but they're on a timer anyway so meih


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## chriscro (Dec 3, 2010)

probably some idiot put his daily newspaper on it while he took a shart....

I have several odyssea lighting systems and just love them. Almost half the price and they are fairly durable and work great. Im setting up a SW talk as we speak and i can't wait to throw a big 72 incher on it.


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

rubadub said:


> not sure about the glo system but the 1 thiing im not a fan of is the on/off switches on the odyssea are on the balast not on the main unit


Yeah well, the Hagen GLO fixtures don't even have an ON/OFF toggle!!! If you want them off you gotta crawl under your tank and unplug it- or put them on a timer.

On the Odyssea's, I find the switch on the ballast convenient, as I have my ballasts zip-tied to the side of the tank.


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## TBA (Sep 30, 2011)

to be very honest I couldn't find any fourm except this one which support Odyssea.
But their own site has such good reviews about their fixture I wonder if they can control the reviews...


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## Kooka (Feb 8, 2011)

I have an Odyssea fixture as well and I am very pleased with it so far. For the money that I paid for it, it was more than a bargain, as a similar fixture bought here in Canada would have cost me almost $500. The light isn't top-notch quality; if you ever get one you'll see its cheaply built, with cheap materials and shotty workmanship, but IT GETS THE JOB DONE. 

And Will is right, the only report of a Odyssea fixture burning a house down was due to a single metal halide unit. I'm not their spokesperson or anything, but I'm just trying to inform others with my own experiences to help them decide.


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

I'll support any product that adequately gets the job done without my having to spend so much to get my money's worth.

I'm sure many $250+ light fixtures are super awesome in everyway with many bells and whistles. But my goal is to provide light for my plants and fish, I don't see that as being complicated, and it needn't be expensive. If I can spend 1/3-1/5th the amount to get that done, that's the choice I'll make!


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

Kooka said:


> The light isn't top-notch quality; if you ever get one you'll see its cheaply built, with cheap materials and shotty workmanship, but IT GETS THE JOB DONE.


Where is it shoddy in it's worksmanship? I think it uses cheap materials, and a very simple but effective design. Shoddy would mean that it's badly made I think.

I'm dissapointed that a Stripped the screw heads off, but there's no reason to take those screws out (Now that I figured out it isn't needed to replace the bulbs). Cheap screws I guess, but that's a common problem in many chinese made products I've found.


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## bigfishy (Jun 19, 2009)

Will said:


> Their are many pros and cons to both of them- which I will post about later if I can remember to. Also, don't buy the Odysseas off of the resellers here in Canada- they are double the price of going direct to Aquatraders in USA (where I bought mine) or their Ebay (Topdogsellers).


This guy! 

http://stores.ebay.com/topdogsellers


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## Kooka (Feb 8, 2011)

Will said:


> Where is it shoddy in it's worksmanship? I think it uses cheap materials, and a very simple but effective design. Shoddy would mean that it's badly made I think.
> 
> I'm dissapointed that a Stripped the screw heads off, but there's no reason to take those screws out (Now that I figured out it isn't needed to replace the bulbs). Cheap screws I guess, but that's a common problem in many chinese made products I've found.


I guess its shoddy, not shotty  Will, the design is indeed well thought out and effective, but the way the fixture was manufactured and assembled (I guess in some Chinese factory) is absolutely terrible. I'll give you just some examples that really stood out for me: the light reflector was crimped and cut unevenly, the plastic endcaps that enclose the lights interior were fitted loosely and are unevenly extruded/formed, and the timer is just barely seated in its mounting socket. The aluminum housing of the fixture itself is "flexible" so care must be taken when lifting it up so as to not warp it. When I first turned on the light, my brother and I struggled to turn on the second bank of T5 lights as the button that controlled them on the timer was unresponsive. In a fit of frustration, I began pressing the buttons as hard as I could and to my amazement, all 4 lights turned on! Turns out the first button that controls the first bank of bulbs is defective, and requires the user to press it with a large amount of force and towards an upward angle. Now all that is only what can be seen without taking the light apart!

Like I said before, the light is good for the amount of money I paid for it. It is designed very well, comes with a built-in timer and moonlights, uses only one power cord, is aethetically pleasing on top of the aquarium and even comes with the bulbs already in their sockets. Would I buy this fixture again? Absolutely. Does it perform what is was meant to do well? Yes. Is the quality of its materials and assembly as good as that of other brand name lights? No. This is just my opinion, you can take it with more than a grain of salt if you want and even better than that, get one and see for yourself.


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## 4rdguy (Nov 27, 2010)

i have 3 different GLO fixtures, all 36" units. they are GREAT lights and i will stand by them. yes they dont have a power switch but my 36" fixtures CAME WITH a 2 output on/off timer in the box because of that. not sure if the 24"s come with that too but just my $0.02, maybe something to ask a LFS


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## charlie1 (Dec 1, 2011)

I also have used 4 ft,3 ft & 2 ft Hagen glo fixtures with great satisfaction, switches was not an issue to me as i use timers on all lights, can`t comment on the Odessea since i have no personal experience with them.
I have seen test results published by Petsandpond that suggest that the Hagen Glo out performs the other fixtures they tested against, never stumbled any comparison's with the Odessea.
Regards
http://www.petsandponds.com/en/aquarium-supplies/c5813/index.html


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## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

I have the Hagen Glow fixture also. It's a solid light, it gets very hot having the ballast ontop of those bulbs. And on top of that it's mounted in my custom canopy so I often burn myself on it. Well, maybe burn is a bad description, but it gets hotter than any other t5ho I've used.





















Kooka said:


> Like I said before, the light is good for the amount of money I paid for it. It is designed very well, comes with a built-in timer and moonlights, uses only one power cord, is aethetically pleasing on top of the aquarium and even comes with the bulbs already in their sockets. Would I buy this fixture again? Absolutely. Does it perform what is was meant to do well? Yes. Is the quality of its materials and assembly as good as that of other brand name lights? No. This is just my opinion, you can take it with more than a grain of salt if you want and even better than that, get one and see for yourself.


Ahhh you have that version of the light, I just have the simple version without moonlights and timer. Here's a couple of mine mounted above my tanks:


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## mkblitz (Oct 12, 2011)

never had a problem with my odyssea. the way to go if you're looking for bang for buck. Can't really match their prices, especially in an eye gouging country like canada  They do the job and if you break it after a few years, you can still afford a new one.


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