Fuge Lighting

[LiveOutLoud]

Well i'm looking to setup my refugium here soon and I'm wondering for most macroalgaes:cheato,halimeda..... what type of lighting do you need. Could I get away with just standard fluerescent or do they need stronger? Thanks

[Sploke]

I use a 14w screw-in CF in one of those clamp worklights over my fuge, which contains chaeto and C. prolifera.

[wellsm2]

I bought and outdoor lamp screwed it into the wooden brace under the display, and a 6500k cf bulb from Home Depot for about $15.00. It has worked great with the chaeto I have in my fuge.

[noskimmer]

I'm not sure how electricity is billed in other countries, however is AU we have peak, off peak and shoulder. Basically 7pm - 7am electricity cost nothing (off peak tarrif), so taking advantage of that and because I have a couple of spare 250watt MH's and a couple of 55watt compact laying around I put those on my fuge and run a reverse photo period. This will also generally keep temp controlled in the cooler months and a more stable PH.

An unexpected side effect is that coral has begun to grow from know where, and any coral that I have in my display which maybe under attack, getting crowded, or otherwise not doing great, I move it to the fuge for some R&R.

So I guess, depending on what you want your sump\fuge to do, better lighting is better.

[AnnetteG]

I've done ok with regular fluorescents, but I think I could do better with better light. I plan to get some of those outdoor lights from HD when I can. I see those on a lot of people's refugiums around here.

If you happen to have a spare standard type "aquarium light" that takes those skinny bulbs that have a normal size base, like a regular household light bulb, you can put the halogen bulbs in there and get more light out of less watts and increase your light output from a cheapy fixture. For example, I have a light I stole from an old 10 gallon tank that takes 2x 25w bulbs. I replaced the 25w bulbs with 2 6500 K daylight 14w halogen bulbs that are equivalent in output to 2 60w regular bulbs. So instead of putting 50 watts over my fuge, I have 120 watts. You can't go too high up on the watts on the halogens though or they don't fit. I wanted the 24w ones that are equal to 100w (?) bulbs, but they're too fat for my fixture.

Not sure if we get an off peak rate here, I should look into that. I know I read a loooonnnnggggg time ago, and in another state, about running appliances during off peak hours, so I never run my dishwasher till after 9 pm, which has just become a habit. I need to check into it here though. Probably just depends on each individual electric company.

[LiveOutLoud]

So I have an extra 150 watt work bench light. I dunno a flood light or something? Do you think that would work?

[mattmartindrift]

With energy costs, I really want to setup an LED fuge lighting setup. My setup is a nano with a 2.5g fuge, so it'll be much easier/cheaper.

[AnnetteG]

you know, I'd thought of that too! I bet you could get a couple of white led strips off ebay that would work great. I just got a blue moonlight strip for my display that I'm really happy with and the seller says on their auctions that if you need something, just ask them and they probably have it. I bet they could make you one in the right spectrum, if you're not a DIYer, which I'm totally not. ;)

[DeeSeven]

I went to walmart and picked up a plant light for 14.99 (i think) and never had an issue. It works wonderfully