Metal Halide Bulbs - Ebay?

[NaCl H20]

Has anyone had any first hand experience with metal halide bulbs purchased off of ebay? There's a vendor there that is selling them pretty darn cheap compared to the name brand bulbs. You can basically get 2 bulbs shipped for the price of 1 name brand bulb list price.
I've already been using Champion Lighting's "Blue Line" (Made in China) bulbs so I don't know if these are really that different.
Specifically I'm using (2) 175w 10000k SE Probe Start bulbs on a Custom SeaLife Magnetic Ballast. Anyone have any comments? Is this a case of "you get what you pay for" or is it "no name = no expensive markup"?
(I've also checked out Sanjay's lighting guide and from there it looked like I should be considering the XM's for their PPFD on my magnetic ballast).
Here's a link to their store. Thanks in advance.

 

[NYreefNoob]

had one and junk, yellowish color and half as bright

 

[alfani]

I had one of those made in china, the bulb says 20K but when compared to ICECAP or phoenix they are less then 14K

 

[ZANYMASTER]

Please do not buy from them.They are pure junk.One vendor has some 35.00 bulbs forgot his screen name is comparing his bulbs to XM.

 

[tosiek]

As with anything, you get what you pay for. The whole "no name = no expensive markup" is a myth for any product. For the most part any object like that is run using secondhand molds or engineering specs bought secondhand after the patents were dropped and is usually at the lowest possible standard. Or made using rejects from factory runs. they take out the research and developement part of a product and are able to sell the products at sometimes 25% the price of the copy.

It still performs the function of whatever you want. But its like the difference between driving a BMW or ferrari then driving a saturn or something. It still gets you from point A to B but the driving difference is completely opposite and its tailored to other things.

Take LG, they started off buying the reject parts and old molds and reassembling products while making the pieces that were missing. Threw their name on it and resold the product. That or they took an unpatented product and remade a copy of it while tweaking some minor things.

Anyone remember LG phones when you could buy a copy of a sprint phone from them at 10$ retail? Its a different ballgame with them now since they have the demand and money to make their own product. But their products are the low end of quality and features and their idea's are still usually tweaked remakes of existing products but their prices are affordable for almost anyone.

 

[jejton]

I recently saw the namebrand bulbs I was looking for also being sold for half price as new on eBay but am wary as it seems to good to be true. Is there any way to verify if a bulb is new when received? As for Sanjay's charts, I tried using that section on this website but when I fill in my bulb info ( ballast is not listed ) I get an error instead of the info requested ( sorry for the hijack ).

 

[JLAudio]

I had the 10k that they come with and there not bad. They are yellowish as are many 10k's. However, for the price there not bad at all. Ive had phoenix, XM, Coralvue and they really are a good deal

 

[mcnuggget]

items like this where when i pay, i'm hoping for quality which on ebay, is mighty risky.

 

[NaCl H20]

Thanks everyone for your responses.

tosiek- Although I agree with what you're saying for a lot of categories (that's why I phrased the question the way I did), I wouldn't say its absolutely always true for everything.
It's only because I'm in the private label business and know that for many products that are private labelled (where it wears the retailers name for example), there is no difference in the actual quality of the product itself (think food or generic drugs). The price difference to the consumer is really more a product of the brand name and the associated marketing and maybe r&d expenses than a difference in the quality of the product itself. Many national brand name manufacturers actually produce product for retailers private labels off the same manufacturing lines.
We have lines that are our own label, private labelled, and licensed goods all at different selling retails. There is no construction difference in the product. The difference is in the royalty we have to pay to the licensor and the incremental cost of applying their logos.
Generally it's hard for the consumer (me in this case), if not impossible, to tell when it's not something that's quantifiably different. In this case we could actually see (color temperature) or test (Sanjay) the difference. I think with electronics this is certainly the case more often than not.

jetjon- make sure you have popups disabled for MR, I get Sanjays info in a new popup window when I click it.

JLAudio- I re-read your post a few times and wanted to know do you mean the Custom SeaLife, ebay, or Champion Lighting bulbs are yellow? And which are the good deals, the (phoenix, XM, Coralvue) or the other ones your referencing? Thanks- just wanted to make sure I understood your advice.

mcnugget- Yes, I've been there before, and that's why I ask first now- when I have the opportunity.

So, I think the ebay bulbs are definitely out. Anyone then want to weigh in on Phoenix vs. XM vs. Coralvue (ReefLux) in the SE bulbs? I wanted to stick with 10k's only because I'm only at 175watts on a 30"h tank and didn't want to lose more PPFD/PAR by going to a higher K. I have actinic PC's to supplement the blue so I think I'm ok staying at 10k. So Phoenix vs. XM vs. Coralvue (ReefLux) anyone?

Thanks everyone.

 

[JLAudio]

JLAudio- I re-read your post a few times and wanted to know do you mean the Custom SeaLife, ebay, or Champion Lighting bulbs are yellow? And which are the good deals, the (phoenix, XM, Coralvue) or the other ones your referencing? Thanks- just wanted to make sure I understood your advice.

I was talking about the odyssea brand that has been deemed "unsafe" and black listed, and had 2 MH lighting systems and currently a t5 and all gave me no problems. When I changed the bulbs to "phoenix coralvue etc" the change was minute. I also used different ballast and feel there are better looking bulbs but your growth will be fine with these bulbs, especially if you need bulk bulbs

 

[da5speed]

Im using one of the $400 2*250 Mh and 260 watt atinic lights fixtures right now from ebay they've been running for 9 months now. Im sure they use the cheapo bulbs. They were a little yellowish, but i did have plenty of growth from them. When i change bulbs this month ill be going with a name brand bulb (not sure which on yet), but ill put a post up to to let everyone know if i see a change in growth in the tank.

 

[NaCl H20]

Went with XM's- Much Brighter

Just wanted to provide a follow up on this thread: I went with 10k XM's (175 watt) and am thoroughly impressed with the added brightness compared to the previous 'Blue Line Super White' bulbs I've been using for a number of years. The added brightness/PAR is very noticeable and I've turned back my photo period to let my corals adjust properly.

Since I also changed the PC Actinics I got a chance to completely wipe down the retrofit reflector and that I'm sure made a slight difference as well.

Anyway for my magnetic ballast the XM's were ranked pretty high on Sanjay's Lighting Guide and I just wanted to attest to the difference, it is visually noticeable.

 

[Aquatic Life Direct]

time for a FTS!

 

[NaCl H20]

Hey what's a FTS? not familiar with the acronym?

 

[KathyC]

Full Tank Shot

 

[NaCl H20]

Full Tank Shot. Ohhh right, haha I'll take some pics when I get a chance to do a little cleaning up. It's not ready for prime time yet!

 

[jwisson]

This guy also sells MH bulbs very cheep and i have had great results with them on my old tank. Reefoptics.com

 

[kool-cat]

I was just thinking about trying and buying the no name brand ebay bulb for $27 shipped. This thread changed my mind. I will just continue to buy phoenix bulbs. The old supplier I use to purchase them from $50 shipped doesn't exist any more.

 

[NaCl H20]

kool-cat: That's where I was headed- and in the name of saving $, but then I thought this bulb replacement expense is divided over a years time and if I got a no name off ebay that was somehow off spectrum or less PAR would I really be saving $ if I had to then go out and buy what I ended up getting (XM's) anyway?
I'm glad everyones input on this thread helped your decision out. :smile: