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aquatraders T6 units
- Thread starter tonyjared
- Start date
It died. It was one of those $60 dual T5's.
To return it for repair would cost over $40 by UPS. Then they agreed it was only the ballast that I needed to return. That cost about ten bucks. When I got the new ballast, it died in 2 days.
I filed a claim with Better Business Bureau and my credit card company. Since I didn't want to return the unit, the cc company denied the claim.
I just gave up and trashed Aquatraders for a month on RC.
Then I got tired of that too!
But I don't want any NJRC folks to be taken for a ride!
To return it for repair would cost over $40 by UPS. Then they agreed it was only the ballast that I needed to return. That cost about ten bucks. When I got the new ballast, it died in 2 days.
I filed a claim with Better Business Bureau and my credit card company. Since I didn't want to return the unit, the cc company denied the claim.
I just gave up and trashed Aquatraders for a month on RC.
Then I got tired of that too!
But I don't want any NJRC folks to be taken for a ride!
chaoscat said:
The problem seems to be restricted to AquaTraders and not necessarily the manufacturers. You can find lots of folks happy with Jebo products, but when you get Jebo from AquaTraders you have lots of problems. Some folks believe they are handling refurbished products.
My suggestion is if you see some bargain brand you want to try, see if you can find it handled by a different distributor. Also try to get some feedback from product users as well.
i beg to differe Blange.... I ordered the MH 24" halide fixtuer from them for 179 shipped and it arrived in great shape and with no damage. It worked fine.
Like wise there is a thread on reef central thousands of posts long about the updated features of the Aquatraders line of products and 90% of the reviews are rave and great. The ONLY thing they say to change is either buy 14K phoenix bulbs or change the stock ballasts to something else to drive the stock bulbs better. IN either case your experience is one of a few but I think the majority of people there are using the information and the products just fine without any problems.
alot of people argue that if you have to change the bulbs then what is the purpose of buying the fixture... well bulb color is prefernce and some people ,lvoe hte color of the stock bulbs while someoehter s want a bluer appearance and thus they choose the phoenix versions of it.
Like wise there is a thread on reef central thousands of posts long about the updated features of the Aquatraders line of products and 90% of the reviews are rave and great. The ONLY thing they say to change is either buy 14K phoenix bulbs or change the stock ballasts to something else to drive the stock bulbs better. IN either case your experience is one of a few but I think the majority of people there are using the information and the products just fine without any problems.
alot of people argue that if you have to change the bulbs then what is the purpose of buying the fixture... well bulb color is prefernce and some people ,lvoe hte color of the stock bulbs while someoehter s want a bluer appearance and thus they choose the phoenix versions of it.
Bill you should write a review under our reviews section.
Based on how they've chose to handle your claim, alone, I won't deal with them. Not that I was planning on it but if for anyreason down the line ... I won't deal with them.
Based on how they've chose to handle your claim, alone, I won't deal with them. Not that I was planning on it but if for anyreason down the line ... I won't deal with them.
asonitez said:
Differ away! Your results may vary. There are also a few threads going back a year or two ago where metal halide fixtures were blowing capacitors and catching on fire.
The bottom line is, my story happened exactly as described. Glad yours had a better ending.
My advice to anyone considering AquaTraders is do your homework first. Many folks have great success with Odyssea and Jebo products which can be bought from other distributors. As I said in my other post, I believe the problem is with Aquatraders and not the manufacturer.
Peace!
My take on all these companies the seem to offer budget prices is save your money. If the price is a lot better than what you see from well known net vendors, or even your good LFSs, the product will be junk, not might be, it will be junk.
Even from established manufacturers you can have problems, don't risk your reef system on questionable "bargains". It will cost you long term. Always buy quality equipment. It will last, and be the least expensive long term.
This isn't to say don't shop around for price, once you know what you want, but do expect to pay for quality. There are legitimate reasons why quality costs more.
Even from established manufacturers you can have problems, don't risk your reef system on questionable "bargains". It will cost you long term. Always buy quality equipment. It will last, and be the least expensive long term.
This isn't to say don't shop around for price, once you know what you want, but do expect to pay for quality. There are legitimate reasons why quality costs more.
DaveK said:
Well said.
As a Reefer on A budget my disposable income is VERY limited with what I can do. With Every Hobby I get into which has been quite a few it would seem that there are always the practical and impractical participants of said hobby. When I was into RC car's I used stock parts, very few upgrades, stock Tx/Rx and still consistently took home 1st place trophies from the majority of my races. I was willing to utilize what I had to the best of my ability and my efforts were rewarded. Likewise it would be at those same meets that other racers would invest thousands into their vehicles and while they had considerable skill, all the best equip in the world did not help them as their cars were pushed to the limits of convention and they would ultimately have to rely on skill and maintenence to hope for a win.
Lately I've had the pleasure of visiting quite a few different homes of various reefers in and outside of jersey. Of course the mandatory "tank viewing" was always a focal point of the visit as well as the life support system that made it all tick. Too many times Have I seen tanks that took a practical approach with incredible results and tanks that had a skimmer designed for 10x their tanks size, wave makers and powerheads that seemingly took up an entire tank wall by themselves, and other equip that was inherently completely un-necessary for that particular tank. Their owners would BOAST about the costs associated with each piece of equip and frankly seeing the equip in ACTION IRL completely turned me off of ever using it.
Such was the case of Aqua-traders items. As I inherently started round-robbin checking LFS's up and down the Jersey State I started noticing that almost 90% of them utilized knock-off, non name brand, extremely simplistic lighting systems, filtration systems, uv-sterilizers, ozone generators etc with incredible results. Having the opportunity to sit down to dinner with the OWNER of a LFS for over 58 years he simply told me that no matter what the bloody hell I bought for my fish tank that NOTHING will do for me what WATER CHANGES and Maintenence on moving parts would. He told me how over the years technology took over everything and now he barely carries any synthetic products designed to remove algae, heal ich, clear water, accelerate coraline, and miracle cures. He told me straight that he used all of his products and if they did nothing for him he simply did not carry it any more. He told me that the majority of the products sold today are to try and extend the period between water changes, buffer the system to a point where it could self sustain and frankly none of it worked because there are so many things that we can't test for that will be solved with a water change and maintence on moving parts/inert surfaces. He has traveled all parts of the world and collected his own Cichlids from Tangynika and Malawai, as well as dive and recover his own anthias and tangs for his own tanks. Some of his livestock has been with him for over 20 years and he could recall the day that he acquired said species from a school of fish for his own tank.
The short and tall of this is that You don't NEED to spend ridiculous amounts of money on items toted as "quality" based on the already predisposed positions of people that bought said item because of others predisposed ideal of that becasue its expensive and totes a snazzy logo it must be the holy grail of that class of items. In my own personal experience to name a few
A New Airstone in a LEE AIR driven skimmer of appropriate size out Performs a Tunze Nano and DOC 9010.
My Odyssea(Aquatraders) 24" 36" and 48" halide fixtures after replacing the bulbs to get the color I desired
is still ticking 1 year later when for my fathers 48" Coralife- Current Orbit- Hamilton Tech and Aqua all changed within a year have A) Ceased to Function B) Burned out Ballasts C) Proved too costly to fix or replace parts D) Just proved to be a waste of money because the hype generated about that product was all unfounded fanboys looking for a reason to stroke their visa e-(sinep) spell it backward....
Ppl are amazed to this day that all my rocks are purple and I've never dosed Purple-Up or any coralline booster.
My corals have grown and spawned and grown and remained healthy through water changes and normal feeding of an ebay cheapo phyto supplement.
My SPS few though they are have shown continued growth with only water changes weekly and small doses of kalk etc when I remember. No calcium reactors needed, CO2 canisters. I keep my phosphates down with water changes and a ball of micro algae in a eggcrate case right before my return to my fish tank. No expensive reactors or media to purchase.
I use a Aqua-Euro USA 250 skimmer that I got for 216 dollars shipped and it is pulling out more gunk that I can keep up with changing/emptying the skimmate daily. Just because something is expensive dosen't mean its quality. It just means the manufacturer needs to sell it at that price to make a profit marginal to their costs. The fact that something appears better because its expensive is an ideal spurred on by the media and consumerists that continually feed the merchants that take advantage of the fact that the media is holding their item in such accord that it must be the "bently" of that particualar item. I bet if you all found out that All the movie stars and rich folk used odyssea fixtures in their multi-million dollar homes you would definately re-c0nsider. In either case reefers will continually to hold the words of other reefers as law or go with the majority. Few will actually attempt to break tradition and experience something on their own. But its prudent to know that it was the people that broke tradition, tried things for themselves and challenged the validity of manufacturer claims that have gone on to do great things and pioneer new advances in the hobby. Don't knock the Aquatraders unit until you try it.
-Aso
Lately I've had the pleasure of visiting quite a few different homes of various reefers in and outside of jersey. Of course the mandatory "tank viewing" was always a focal point of the visit as well as the life support system that made it all tick. Too many times Have I seen tanks that took a practical approach with incredible results and tanks that had a skimmer designed for 10x their tanks size, wave makers and powerheads that seemingly took up an entire tank wall by themselves, and other equip that was inherently completely un-necessary for that particular tank. Their owners would BOAST about the costs associated with each piece of equip and frankly seeing the equip in ACTION IRL completely turned me off of ever using it.
Such was the case of Aqua-traders items. As I inherently started round-robbin checking LFS's up and down the Jersey State I started noticing that almost 90% of them utilized knock-off, non name brand, extremely simplistic lighting systems, filtration systems, uv-sterilizers, ozone generators etc with incredible results. Having the opportunity to sit down to dinner with the OWNER of a LFS for over 58 years he simply told me that no matter what the bloody hell I bought for my fish tank that NOTHING will do for me what WATER CHANGES and Maintenence on moving parts would. He told me how over the years technology took over everything and now he barely carries any synthetic products designed to remove algae, heal ich, clear water, accelerate coraline, and miracle cures. He told me straight that he used all of his products and if they did nothing for him he simply did not carry it any more. He told me that the majority of the products sold today are to try and extend the period between water changes, buffer the system to a point where it could self sustain and frankly none of it worked because there are so many things that we can't test for that will be solved with a water change and maintence on moving parts/inert surfaces. He has traveled all parts of the world and collected his own Cichlids from Tangynika and Malawai, as well as dive and recover his own anthias and tangs for his own tanks. Some of his livestock has been with him for over 20 years and he could recall the day that he acquired said species from a school of fish for his own tank.
The short and tall of this is that You don't NEED to spend ridiculous amounts of money on items toted as "quality" based on the already predisposed positions of people that bought said item because of others predisposed ideal of that becasue its expensive and totes a snazzy logo it must be the holy grail of that class of items. In my own personal experience to name a few
A New Airstone in a LEE AIR driven skimmer of appropriate size out Performs a Tunze Nano and DOC 9010.
My Odyssea(Aquatraders) 24" 36" and 48" halide fixtures after replacing the bulbs to get the color I desired
is still ticking 1 year later when for my fathers 48" Coralife- Current Orbit- Hamilton Tech and Aqua all changed within a year have A) Ceased to Function B) Burned out Ballasts C) Proved too costly to fix or replace parts D) Just proved to be a waste of money because the hype generated about that product was all unfounded fanboys looking for a reason to stroke their visa e-(sinep) spell it backward....
Ppl are amazed to this day that all my rocks are purple and I've never dosed Purple-Up or any coralline booster.
My corals have grown and spawned and grown and remained healthy through water changes and normal feeding of an ebay cheapo phyto supplement.
My SPS few though they are have shown continued growth with only water changes weekly and small doses of kalk etc when I remember. No calcium reactors needed, CO2 canisters. I keep my phosphates down with water changes and a ball of micro algae in a eggcrate case right before my return to my fish tank. No expensive reactors or media to purchase.
I use a Aqua-Euro USA 250 skimmer that I got for 216 dollars shipped and it is pulling out more gunk that I can keep up with changing/emptying the skimmate daily. Just because something is expensive dosen't mean its quality. It just means the manufacturer needs to sell it at that price to make a profit marginal to their costs. The fact that something appears better because its expensive is an ideal spurred on by the media and consumerists that continually feed the merchants that take advantage of the fact that the media is holding their item in such accord that it must be the "bently" of that particualar item. I bet if you all found out that All the movie stars and rich folk used odyssea fixtures in their multi-million dollar homes you would definately re-c0nsider. In either case reefers will continually to hold the words of other reefers as law or go with the majority. Few will actually attempt to break tradition and experience something on their own. But its prudent to know that it was the people that broke tradition, tried things for themselves and challenged the validity of manufacturer claims that have gone on to do great things and pioneer new advances in the hobby. Don't knock the Aquatraders unit until you try it.
-Aso
asonitez you make a very good point. most of us started with fresh water and changing water once a week, but as we switch to salt we find ways to make it easier for us. we spend top dollar for the best so we don't have to do that weekly water change. but that is the nature of the hobby. can we see a picture of your tank?
asonitez said:
We have strayed a bit from the point of this thread.
I was speaking specifically about Aquatraders issues and not debating the concept of high end reefing vs. budget reefing.
If you check back through my posts on this board you will find that I frequently break with tradition and I frequently use budget minded products. I am a big proponent of low tech equipment and frequent water changes and diligent maintenance.I also have a few years behind me in the aquarium hobby. I setup my first freshwater tank in 1960 and my first saltwater tank was setup in 1972.
Back to the point at hand:
I did try Aquatraders with a similar T5 product and they failed miserably. I didn't go into the long story about the weeks of ignored e-mails, unreturned phone calls, and lies on the phone when I did get them. If you get something from them that works, as many do, then they are OK. If there is a problem, which seems to appear more frequently with Aquatraders than with other distributors of Odyssea products, their performance is horrible. The Better Busines Bureau in California rates them as an unsatisfactory vendor.
My advice remains if you want to try the Odyssea T6 lights, do so from another vendor.
blange3 from what have read so far on the lights i have come to the conclusion that the bulbs they probide with the light leave a lot to be desired. as far as the fires it seems like the older units had defective capacitor which seems to be cause the fires. i think if you replace the bulbs and the capacitors with the corallife bulb and capacitor you should be OK. that's my opinion. the kicker is by the time you buy the capacitor and the bulbs your better off just spending an extra $100 and get the corallife fixture.
Aquatraders is just a retailer they are not the manufacturer, I would stay far away from them as they have poor business practices. They sell refurbish as new, very poor packing, horrible customer service and if you receive a light with broken bulbs they will not replace them, they get out of this by saying they were a free gift. Odyssea is a ok entry level light but plan to replace the ballast in the future. I'd recommend replacing it with a name brand ballast when it does fail. The Odyssea fixtures all come with a 6 month warranty and there is a reason for that, if a seller doesn't state it then there is something fishy going on.
If you plan to get a Odyssea, stay away from Aquatraders look for another retailer that sells them, be careful of ebay cause last I knew Aquatraders also sold under 4 different names on their, once they get a lot of negative feedback they start selling under a new name. If the seller is in the state of California then it's probably them. Also make sure that the warranty is stated, either on the web sight or ebay, if not you will probably only get a DOA warranty and those are most likely the refurbished ones. There is a seller out of Canada that has a good rep with customer service for Odyssea and I believe there is another in Indiana. Good luck
If you plan to get a Odyssea, stay away from Aquatraders look for another retailer that sells them, be careful of ebay cause last I knew Aquatraders also sold under 4 different names on their, once they get a lot of negative feedback they start selling under a new name. If the seller is in the state of California then it's probably them. Also make sure that the warranty is stated, either on the web sight or ebay, if not you will probably only get a DOA warranty and those are most likely the refurbished ones. There is a seller out of Canada that has a good rep with customer service for Odyssea and I believe there is another in Indiana. Good luck