It seems when it comes to refugium lighting, it's either really cheap, or kind of expensive. Is there nothing in the middle?
I switched from carbon dosing to a refugium coming up on two months ago. In that time I have seen a significant reduction of hair algae and cyano in my display. It's still not perfect but I have maybe 1/3 now what I had before. I started with a softball size of chaeto and it has about doubled in size and the walls of the fuge have some hair algae (better there than in display).
I am using a 6500k CFL and a clip on reflector, total investment is like $22. Since I am seeing positive signs I am considering upgrading. I keep hearing about he H380 but that seems a bit insane, the section in my sump is 15x9x9". I could only mount the light maybe 9-10" above the water at most but I would prefer not to because of light spill into the rest of the sump. I have about 70g water volume total.
Is a Kessil H80 probably the way to go? Or should I just stick with what I am doing and as the chaeto grows larger it will outcompete the display even more? I imagine more light would help that. Amazon has a bunch of Chinese grow lights but instead of spending $20-30 on something just ok I would rather just spend more on something I know will work, and will work for years.
Thanks
I switched from carbon dosing to a refugium coming up on two months ago. In that time I have seen a significant reduction of hair algae and cyano in my display. It's still not perfect but I have maybe 1/3 now what I had before. I started with a softball size of chaeto and it has about doubled in size and the walls of the fuge have some hair algae (better there than in display).
I am using a 6500k CFL and a clip on reflector, total investment is like $22. Since I am seeing positive signs I am considering upgrading. I keep hearing about he H380 but that seems a bit insane, the section in my sump is 15x9x9". I could only mount the light maybe 9-10" above the water at most but I would prefer not to because of light spill into the rest of the sump. I have about 70g water volume total.
Is a Kessil H80 probably the way to go? Or should I just stick with what I am doing and as the chaeto grows larger it will outcompete the display even more? I imagine more light would help that. Amazon has a bunch of Chinese grow lights but instead of spending $20-30 on something just ok I would rather just spend more on something I know will work, and will work for years.
Thanks