Refugium Light Picks ?

Who likes what lights, temps and blubs?

I was thinking about the coralife mini pc compact for the freshwater& planted tanks which is 2-9watt 6700k PC

But the reef coralife mini is the same price and is 1-9watt 10000k & 1-9watt actinic 03

which light do you think will grow chaetomorpha better?

 

The 6700k

 

HD clip on light fixture with a 75watt halogen screw in bulb-total of about $10

 

Plants are not very picky.

In any case, they do not need the extra cost of a 10k or even actinics. Both of these are for human perspective only. Halogen systems are usually available in higher wattages/initial price but are not as efficient as fluorescents. So you have to amortize initial cost and operating cost because fluorescents cost more initially. 9 watt PC seems silly to me. Power compacts are for squeezing a lot of light into a small area. Generally to achieve some depth penetration. I wouldn't think this is necessary in a fuge.

I use a 25 watt incandescent on mine. Not complex, cheap and reasonable efficient. If things did not grow well I would have moved to something else and not lost much in capital investment. How much growth do you want?

Hope this helped.

Live long and prosper.;D

 

I have used "real" aquarium lighting in my sump. A 55W JBJ 10K PC and I have used th HD screw in PC bulbs 2x23W. The 10K did grow chaeto better but not alot better.

 

I use the Jalli mini power compact lights. 17"-18watts and 11"-13watts. They are $20 and $15 respectively and can be bought at www.petsolutions.com . I prefer the power compacts because of low power consumption and strong light intensity. I cant remember whether the bulbs are 6700K, 8800K or 10,000K, but it does not matter, the algae will grow just fine with any of these bulbs.

 

The macro should grow better under the 6700k than the 10000k theoretically.

 

Whatever old POS twin bulb fixture I have lying around from a past tank with the oldest "grow bad algae" bulbs I have. Algae isn't picky. My chaeto has been in there for about a month and is growing like mad. Don't spend real $ on the refug.

 

BTW, if you have the room, try putting the bulbs next to the refugium not over it. Assuming Acrylic you get 99+% pass through and you don't need to deal with the fixture and bulbs getting salted up. Just scrape the bad algae off the acrylic every now and then. It's sort of neat to see the chaeto growing roots and shoots towards the glass.

 

I'm right there with you blade. I have a cheapie 2 bulb 24" fluorescent fixture with the ends taped up to keep out the salt. I did buy a "grow light" to see if it would help... I can't tell the difference. Like you said, "algae isn't picky." lol

Jim