Display Refugium Lighting

Nates · Jul 16, 2016

Im setting up a display refugium for my already existing 90gal mixed reef. What i'm having trouble with is deciding on a tank size and light that will grow Caulerpa, Halimeda, Penicillus capitus, ect. The tank sizes i'm looking at are 29 and 37 because i already have a stand 30in x 12in. Since it is a display tank, I would like to be able to keep some soft corals and a purple bush gorgonia (muriceopsis flaride). I'd prefer to have the 37gal tank but if I need a lot better light to grow what I want to grow then that will be the deciding factor. There will also be a pair of seahorses in the tank. I'm so far away still from the complete product that i havn't yet decided on a species but if anyone would like to weigh in that part of the build, because i've read horses do not like intense lighting, then i'm open for discussing that as well.
The lights I have been looking at are Coralifes T5HO dual florescent 30in, Zoo med aqua sun 30in, and a couple other spin offs that get more expensive from there.
Thank you for reading my post. I'm really looking forward to hearing from you.

saltyfilmfolks · Jul 17, 2016

Sea horses I'm told don't do well in higher reef tempratures. I have friends growing macro tanks very well with Mars aqua led.
You can use lights that grow plants or corals. Either will be fine. I prefer a fuller spectrum for plants. R y and o. Are generally missing in reef lights.

Nates · Jul 17, 2016

saltyfilmfolks said:
Sea horses I'm told don't do well in higher reef tempratures. I have friends growing macro tanks very well with Mars aqua led.
You can use lights that grow plants or corals. Either will be fine. I prefer a fuller spectrum for plants. R y and o. Are generally missing in reef lights.

These lights look too good to be true. At that price I am most definitely going to have to try these out. I'm a big fan of the LED on reef tanks already, I just didn't know these existed. Thank you very much for suggesting these. I'm just hoping that they will be able to penetrate the water column deep enough in a tall tank to grow plants on the bottom.
As for the seahorses and cooler water, I'm aware of this and I have a small chiller that I'm going to run on the fuge to bring down the temp to around 75 and see how the plants and soft corals do before adding one of the warmer horse species like Hippocampus kuda. I know that at 75 it might still be too warm and ill make adjustments then. My LFS keeps a breeding pair in 78F and they look fine even though I'm sure theyd be better off in something closer to 70F. I'm not sure of the species.

saltyfilmfolks · Jul 17, 2016

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chronzze-macro-lagoon-120g.256644/#post-3032776
This is a reefer local to me. His tank is a couple black boxes I'm pretty sure.
With those you'll have more of a problem with too much penetration and power than too little.

Nates · Jul 17, 2016

saltyfilmfolks said:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chronzze-macro-lagoon-120g.256644/#post-3032776
This is a reefer local to me. His tank is a couple black boxes I'm pretty sure.
With those you'll have more of a problem with too much penetration and power than too little.

Thats almost exactly what I want to do. Loved the addition of the pipefish and how he labeled all of his plants with each picture. The two lights he has on his display he says are Vegas though and has something called a reef breeder on the macro tank. I looked up both and they arent quite what im looking for. Vegas are too nice for this job and the reef breeder doesnt come in the right size. I am over the top interested in all these Chinese black box LED's though. I've been doing this awhile and have always bought whatever was the best at the time. These LED's though seem like the right gear for a much better price.