What K should be in the fuge?

Whats the best K color bulb to get for a refugium. Ive heard anything from 3000-5000 works best for chaeto and other macro algae. When i set up my refugium in the future i plan on having some of plus maybe some magroves. What would anyone recommend?

 

Reason being is i found an old garage light fixture well, in my garage and its a 70W HPS fixture. The rating in on the bulb looks like a 3000K its very orange yellow look. Would this be alright as my lighting on my fuge?

 

I know someone out there has a light on there fuge, what kinda Kelvin is it?

 

I run a 5k bulb.

 

6500 is best.

Michael Rice
Marine Engineers Aquarium Blog
Sent from Tapatalk so excuse my poor English

 

Here is a article if you would like to read about refugium bulbs. Melevsreef.com - Refugium Bulb

 

Interesting. I was under the impression that 5k wouldn't work. I might have top play around with some different bulbs soon.

Michael Rice
Marine Engineers Aquarium Blog
Sent from Tapatalk so excuse my poor English

 

I did a lot of research into it after blowing up the fixture I had on my chaeto ( it went for a dive into the tank). What I came up with was the 5000k bulb I use now, which I bought because I couldnt find a 5100k. The old bulbs I used were 70w standard incandescent small aquarium hood bulbs. The 5100 made a big difference in growth.

 

thanks for that, i may have to get that sucker. Although trying out that 70 hps wouldnt be a bad idea..

 

I have experimented with several different Kelvin temperature ranges in my sump/refugium (all of them have been CFL bulbs). I first started with a 4500K and saw no growth in my cheato, ulva or gracilaria. After a few weeks I switched to a 5500K bulk and saw a small amount of growth on the chaeto only after a few weeks. I am now running a 6500K and am seeing some drastic improvement in my chaeto, ulva and gracilaria. Something else that I thought would be worth mentioning is that the micro algae in my sump and refugium has seen a lot more growth with this 6500K bulb.