Starting a refugium

[Prince916]

whats the cheapest lights i can use to light up a refuguim wit some cheto. Its about a 10-15gall refugium.

 

[Pitcom]

I dunno how cheap you wana go, but for around 50 bucks you can get a current 18" t5 fixture. It works awesome as a fuge light. If you are looking for even cheaper, you can just use a cheap reflective light fixture from home depot with a 13 watt twist bulb.

 

[Prince916]

Any of this lights good enough to keep cheto?

 

[AlexStinson]

get a metal spotlight, screw t5's, find a bulb for growing, or a "pure white" which in GE talk is 6.5k

 

[Pitcom]

get a metal spotlight, screw t5's, find a bulb for growing, or a "pure white" which in GE talk is 6.5k

You have just as much if not better growth with the t5 fixture i mentioned plus less wattage consumption than a standard spotlight. Not to mention a fixture in which will sit right on the tank. The bulbs will also last about 1 year on a 24 hr photo period.

The fixture comes with 1 actinic bulb and 1 10k bulb. So you need to change the 460 bulb to a 10k as well. !0k bulbs are perfectly suitable for growing, i use this same fixture on all of my vivariums and my plants grow like crazy.

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~category~18_inch_Current_USA_Nova_Extreme_2x18_watt_T5_HO_10K_460nm_~lt;20in_Units&vendor~Current_USA~SearchStr~current+t5~action~view~idProduct~CU01136~idCategory~FILTFIT5T5.html

 

[newly salted]

Clip on metal refletor and screw in power compact bulb 6500k, 15 bucks walmart.
Works great! Cheapest thing I ever bought for the tank

 

[Prince916]

well i just bought some clip on metal reflector and a plant grow bulb from walmart.

 

[mfinn]

This is another light bulb that works very well.

http://www.melevsreef.com/fuge_bulb.html