Hi all,
When I had my 180 and wanted to try T5 lighting for the first time, I went with an AquaticLife 72 inch 12x39w T5HO fixture with a builtin timer and two zones/ballasts. One controlling 8 bulbs and the other 4 bulbs.
I liked it enough so that when I planned my 220, I purchased a duplicate model for the new tank.
Fast forward 7 months
The new fixture had issues right out of the box. A new relay was sent and I did the DIY install. It kinda worked for a week or so. They then sent me an entirely NEW unit and I shipped them the old one and the bad relay as well. All was now well.
The new new fixture worked fine until about 4 weeks ago when the same issues started where the lights would NOT TURN OFF unless the plug was pulled Needless to say this was less than optimal I swapped back to the unit I had over the 180, so no real loss.
I waited until yesterday to gather my thoughts and provide a nice timeline for them and contacted their CS reps that I had dealt with previously and explained the issue via e-mail. Told them I expected more for the $ and that I could no longer support/recommend their product based on my experience.
They responded today and were very understanding of my feelings and sentiments and extremely apologetic. They explained that one of their suppliers had REPLACED the relay that was on the schematic for the 72" model w/o advising AquaticLife. This of course was not a good thing and I was horrified for them. We all know what substandard components can do...
They offered to send me a new relay ASAP and also offered a FULL SET OF BULBS as compensation which I thought a really nice gesture.
I will fix the fixture so at least I have it and can sell it at least. Or have someone fix it as it WAS a bit difficult for me.
****
Just want to say that their customer service was always great, the product did not seem to match it NOR the performance of the orginal one.. I am thrilled that I know WHY I had so many issues when the ORIGINAL fixture is STILL IN SERVICE and is OLDER LOL It has never failed where two other brand new ones did.
I KNEW something had to be wrong but could not prove it.
So, for anyone using this size model and having issues, contact them and get a new relay...
Hope this helps someone else.
When I had my 180 and wanted to try T5 lighting for the first time, I went with an AquaticLife 72 inch 12x39w T5HO fixture with a builtin timer and two zones/ballasts. One controlling 8 bulbs and the other 4 bulbs.
I liked it enough so that when I planned my 220, I purchased a duplicate model for the new tank.
Fast forward 7 months
The new fixture had issues right out of the box. A new relay was sent and I did the DIY install. It kinda worked for a week or so. They then sent me an entirely NEW unit and I shipped them the old one and the bad relay as well. All was now well.
The new new fixture worked fine until about 4 weeks ago when the same issues started where the lights would NOT TURN OFF unless the plug was pulled
Needless to say this was less than optimal I swapped back to the unit I had over the 180, so no real loss.I waited until yesterday to gather my thoughts and provide a nice timeline for them and contacted their CS reps that I had dealt with previously and explained the issue via e-mail. Told them I expected more for the $ and that I could no longer support/recommend their product based on my experience.
They responded today and were very understanding of my feelings and sentiments and extremely apologetic. They explained that one of their suppliers had REPLACED the relay that was on the schematic for the 72" model w/o advising AquaticLife. This of course was not a good thing and I was horrified for them. We all know what substandard components can do...
They offered to send me a new relay ASAP and also offered a FULL SET OF BULBS as compensation which I thought a really nice gesture.
I will fix the fixture so at least I have it and can sell it at least. Or have someone fix it as it WAS a bit difficult for me.
****
Just want to say that their customer service was always great, the product did not seem to match it NOR the performance of the orginal one.. I am thrilled that I know WHY I had so many issues when the ORIGINAL fixture is STILL IN SERVICE and is OLDER LOL It has never failed where two other brand new ones did.
I KNEW something had to be wrong but could not prove it.
So, for anyone using this size model and having issues, contact them and get a new relay...
Hope this helps someone else.
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