whats a good spectrum for refugium lighting?

[nitrofish]

5100k sound about right?

 

[thenine]

5100 K to 6500 K seems to be the best.

 

[nitrofish]

I just found some nice 65k 20w= 75w compact florecents at wallmart for about $4 , I decided to use those, I have 3 hanging above my fuge right now.

 

[One Eye]

I was using 50/50 pc lighting over my fuge. When I set up my other tanks I needed a temp light over one of them. I took the pc's from the fuge. All I had hanging around was a heat light from my son's old snake cage. The macro really took off under the "snake" light.

 

[clamm]

using a 75W daylight energy saving bulb. Seems to work well.

 

[Chuck Spyropulos]

I was using a 10,000K PC Brightlight bulb and got poor chaeto growth. After speaking with Denvig, he convinced me to try a lower spectrum bulb. Now I use the 10,000K / 6500K combination PC bulb and my chaeto grows out of control !!!

 

[Matt L.]

I use 5100K

Matt

 

[NateHanson]

I use 65W 65K PC from home depot.

 

[JWeb]

I use a 6500K 15W PC from Hellolights.com and get NO growth of my chaeto. I mention this because I believe 15W is not enough to effect growth of chaeto - which surprises me since the area being lit is only 8" x 8". (Either that or my chaeto is defective...)

 

[NateHanson]

I think you're right about your wattage Jeff. I got no chaeto growth with 20W of light, then I moved to 65 and it took off! The other possibility is that you don't have enough nutrients to make the chaeto grow. The line feeding my fuge got blocked for a while, and I noticed it because my chaeto stopped growing completely. It needs both light and food.

 

[nitrofish]

what does that home depo bulb look like, does it come with a fixture?

 

[NateHanson]

Yeah, it's an outdoor floodlight fixture. The brand is Lights of America. It's a rectangular fixture about a foot long, half a foot wide, about 4 inches tall. It costs $18. From time to time there's an energy star $10 instant rebate on them too.

 

[heavydc2]

its seaweed... lighting does not really matter as long as it has some. You'll find some people who use florescents, some people go all out, and everything in between. I personally use 2 65 watt grow lights. But you can use anything.

 

[RichConley]

I've got a 75 watt halogen floodlight. My chaeto grows like crazy. I'd say its somewhere around 4000K