Odyssea T5 Dual 6500K Aquarium Light Freshwater Plant Extendable (48")

I now own four of these units in various sizes to light my reptile enclosures. They work amazingly well and provide bright, high-output, 6500k light that is also great for plant growth in bioactive enclosures. With all but one animal (an albino snake who shouldn’t be exposed to UVB), I simply remove one of the two tubes and replace it with an Arcadia UVB of the appropriate percentage. Voila! — a dual light / UVB source.Because the end handles expand and retract, I use the 24” fixture for a standard 36” Exo Terra tank, which provides a nice light gradient without being overwhelming. (NOTE: If you do swap out for a UVB tube, you MUST remove the plastic light cover or the UVB will not reach your animal). You can mount the fixture outside of the tank (over the screen) or simply hang it from the screen on the inside with sturdy ties for an animal that needs closer UVB penetration.I honestly couldn’t ask for a better lighting/UVB solution for my herps. I only wish it came in a mini version for smaller tanks.

First off, this wasn't supposed to arrive until friday, came a day early. A wonderful surprise that made my morning. Now to the actual light. It is wonderful! It is sleek and beautiful. Because it uses an external ballast, the housing is less than 1.5 inches thick. As other reviews have stated, it does look like it will be a little tricky to change the bulbs. But since they are t5, you should only need to change them about once a year. And since I bought this to use for a reptile vivarium, with one bulb being uvb, I will have to change once a year. But for being a third of the price of similar name brand lights, I can deal with it. The light just comes shipped in its product box. So if you live in an area where package theft is prevalent, you may want to keep a close eye on shipping or have your post office hold it. But as far as how this packaging affected condition of the item, it was fine. The box was in great shape and so was the light. I have bought a led light from this same seller and was very pleased with it too. I highly recommend this seller and this light! Reptile keepers, buy this light! T5 uvb tubes are better than t8 anyway. But you can have your uvb light and plant light in the same compact fixture, reducing bulk on top of your tank. I will update this with more pics and info once I get my set up going and get more of a feel for it.

I purchased this fixture with some apprehension. I had read other reviews stating that the ballasts were cheap and defective and prone to even catching on fire.. I had read that replacing bulbs would likely cause damage to the fixture or to the plastic brackets/mounts that hold the bulbs in place.. Well, my experience has been a lot better and it has now been more than a year since I purchased this fixture.I have had no issues with the ballast. I did take some precautions.. I placed the ballast inside a steel case and located the case on a small concrete slab.. Yes.. That's right.. I was that cautious after reading other horror stories.As for changing the bulbs what I did was to unplug and let the fixture cool down before trying to replace the bulbs. Once the bulbs and fixture were cool/room temperature, I used a Philips screwdriver to remove the two screws that hold the clear plastic brackets to the frame. Next I unplugged each end of each bulb, one at a time.. There's a bit of wiggling required here.. Just go slow and gentle and pull off the connectors one at a time.. Once this is done, you can slide off the bulbs from the two clear plastic holders/brackets.. Again, be gentle and patient.. Then all you need to do is reverse the order and steps to install the new bulbs. Slide the new bulbs one at a time.. Slide the brackets to the correct location to line them up with the screw holes and reconnect the ends and screw in the brackets back to the fixture frame.Of course you can replace the plastic bulb holders. A good hardware store will sell T5 bulb holders and at least one company sells them here on Amazon. Just replace those silly plastic ones that come with this fixture. I made my own from some scrap aluminum using aviation snips.Is replacing bulbs as simple as other fixtures I own? No. But this fixture also costs a lot less.. I think I paid around $50 delivered, bulbs included.Update 3/2/2021: After four years of daily use, the lights began to rapidly flicker constantly. I opened the ballast to find one of the two main capacitors had begun to leak. These are 250v 100uF capacitors. (See photos.) The only thing I would change about the ballast is the plastic that is used to isolate the circuit board. In my unit this plastic goes entirely around the capacitors, making it vulnerable to heat from a burst capacitor. The capacitors should not be surrounded by flammable thin plastic that can melt or ignite.

I am excited to review this item because the listing is rather nondescript and although all the information in the listing is correct, for some reason I had serious reservations about ordering this item. For one, several reviewers seem to have problems with damage in shipping and problems with operation and the price is rather cheap. Is this as good as a $120 name brand light? No. Is it 95% as good at 33% the price? YES!!! In an aquarium shop you would pay at least $100 for this light. The 48" model that I purchased will grow demanding plants in up to a 55 gallon aquarium with no problems. The color temperature of the lights is 6500K as advertised but I still choose to supplement with 660 nm leds to promote "red tops" and flowering. This is brighter than most led lights on the market and it is definitely "on par" with any name brand VHO T5 fixture you will find anywhere. Don't let the cheap price and the ameture reviews fool you. 1 negative: The bracket is about 1/2" too short for a standard 40 "long" tank (it works it just doesn't fit perfectly).

Good lighting. Aquarium plants appear to be thriving.

Ordered this for my plants in my chameleon tank and makes a huge difference! But when replacing lightbulbs I recommend removing one of the sides to make it easier