What The Helios!!??

[waterbury guy]

Last night my 40W NO 50/50 bulb died. Instead of investing $30 into a new bulb, I thought I’d invest six times that into a new PC lighting system. Turning my wife onto my logic will be a different matter. The Helios fixture has been on the market since early this year, and Hellolights has been carrying them for the last couple of months, and are frequently “out of stock” so I assume they’re selling quite a few. These are right in my price range, I have no canopy so the enclosed unit looks good for me, and I’m just looking to have softies and maybe some LPS, so 220W should do the trick. Hoping someone on this board has purchased one or seen one in action somewhere and give it a review. If anyone actually had a picture of one on a tank, that would be fantastic….

 

[bobby & kari]

i have a 150 gallon tank and i have two seta of helios mounted on my canopy all of my corals are doing fine but i thought that my lights on one side burned out but it was the ballast so try to switch the plugs if they light up its the ballast take it back also my freind has one set of helios on a 90 gallon and his tank is blown out with softs and hards and is getting great results

 

[heavenly damsel]

We have two of the Helios lights. Afraid I cannot offer good ratings on them. They have a great design. We love the fact they are so slim in height. But the ballasts suck. We have replaced ballasts on both of them in less than 3 months. My husband laughs (good thing he has a sense of humor) about how many sites offer retro fit parts. In hind sight I would not buy them again. I would go with MH lighting from the start, the cost is not much different and the lighting is far superior. Sorry.

 

[waterbury guy]

Thanks for the replies. Heavenly, do you have yours mounted in a canopy? And does your tank have an open top or a glass cover?

 

[heavenly damsel]

The ends of the fixtures sit on runners at either end and are about 5" above the water. The tank is glassed except for about 4" along the front.
We have had a terrible time finding a replacement ballast for them. If you have any leads please let us know.

 

[waterbury guy]

I believe www.hellolights.com buy the fixture from:
http://www.commodityaxis.com/
maybe they could help you out.

 

[bobby & kari]

heavenaly you should be able to take the ballast back where you got it i had the same problem on my lights lfs replaced it now they work great any other questions e-mail me @ bkclark@comcast.net id be happy to help you

 

[heavenly damsel]

Our LFS only got two in and we bought them both. When the first one went bad they ordered a new one for us...it took 3 months to come in. It has delayed setting up our second reef tank due to lack of proper lighting. We ordered a ballast online, when it came in it was faulty, we are sending it back for a new one. In retrospect I wish I had gone with MH lighting. But then hind sight is always 20/20.

 

[bobby & kari]

thats true

 

[heavenly damsel]

Hellolights talked us into an Icecap ballast, then shipped us a defective unit. Our luck with lighting has been all bad.
The other lights we have a Jalli and we have replaced ballasts on them as well.

 

[bobby & kari]

try this call my lfs and ask for andy 734 722 4474 tell him bob clark sent you