eBay Metal Halide bulbs

[kien]

I've been using eBay builds for a couple of bulb changes now. I ordered from two different eBay vendors but the builbs were virtually identical. They were marketed as 15K aquarium DE halide bulbs.

Pros.

Cheap. I ordered 3 bulbs for the cost of one Phoenix bulb.

Cons.

1. Colour temp isn't quite what is advertised. It is more like a 12-14K bulb.
2. They seem to colour shift sooner than brand name bulbs. I changed mine out at 8 or 9 months instead of 12 like I did with Phoenix bulbs.

Anyway, that's my take on them :-)