What makes a refugium light a refugium light? (Share your setup!) | BRStv Investigates

[rushbattle]

Yes, I did that. I own the BRS dual chamber Carbon-GFO reactor, and Ive got to say that it works great. The GFO did lower phosphate and the carbon made my tank crystal clear. It did help reduce algae growth. I did regular water changes, and I did dose carbon to lower nitrates. I like doing maintenance on my tank, but I don't like spending too much time. I felt like I was always, cleaning something, or dosing something (Yes i could dose automatically). What it comes down to is what works best for me. I've gotten excellent results with my scrubber. If I want me nitrates to measure zero I run it for 18 hours a day. If I want to raise my nitrates I run it for 15-16 hours. I can control the scrubbers light intensity and time from my Apex. Its very easy, and not sure why more people don't use one. Now my maintenance is just the occasional water change, clean equipment, test water and clean the screen.

Ah, manual dosing is miserable. I don't understand how folks do it. As long as you can balance nitrogen and phosphorus removal you should be good. But then you probably need doser for Fe for the algae scrubber and maybe other additives?

 

[Greybeard]

LOL I agree! Guess I am curious what others think about buying $120 in bulbs to cover all four spectrums. I will certainly bring it back to the team as leverage : )

Be less than what I payed for the 8x 48" ATI T5's I have over my tank!

Found a local... well, semi-local, indoor gardening supply place that has them on the shelf. I'll be stopping by this weekend

 

[dragonfish]

what about this ones for a 50 gal ?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/20p...fe-led-background-light-warm/32670566698.html

 

[Ryan Browne]

All my levels are stable, and only dose as needed. Water changes do help, but I do have to dose elements like iron. The scrubber does suck the water clean, but it depends on how long and how intense I run the lights. For me 15 hours a day at 100% intensity is working. My nitrates are under 5ppm and phosphorus is not detectable. Plus my PH and ORP are super stable now. My skimmer almost seems useless now, it barely pulls anything out. I only have to clean it out once a month now, used to have to dump it once a week. I do need to buy an automatic doser, ive been adding it to my ATO container. Not the best way, but its been working for me.

Ah, manual dosing is miserable. I don't understand how folks do it. As long as you can balance nitrogen and phosphorus removal you should be good. But then you probably need doser for Fe for the algae scrubber and maybe other additives?

 

[Biglurr54]

I loved my scrubber but cleaning every 3 days was required and it was way more messy. Now I have a fuge and mars hydro light. Love it. Way better export than the scrubber so far.

 

[needbiggertanks]

Ive got a dimmable 300w grow light for my sump, chaeto in there and just started some mangrove propogules. The light is great for the chaeto, but i'd have to update how it is with the mangroves

 

[Chops30]

Par 38 led flood lamp

 

[Mr_Banana_Pants]

If you have a red macro algea does it require a different spectrum then what traditional refugium lights produce???

 

[Big G]

I use these 12x12 grow light panels. My wife uses them to start vegetable seedlings during the late winter. Thought I'd give it a try in my sump. They work really well. https://amazon.com/gp/product/B01IVQ96KY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[michaelstevenbrice]

I go back and forth on this. I tell people that I buy coral and fish so I can own nice equipment. I really like the H380, but for $399 I wonder if I am better off putting that money into a nicer skimmer. They sell these A19 bulbs at menards and a few local greenhouses, and it worked well. I don't have a par meter, but it was bright enough to get a knock on the door from people looking for weed, and more importantly after a couple of months I was pulling a handful of chaeto every week. Is the Seneye accurate enough to test our bulbs for spectrum?

https://www.menards.com/main/electr...t-a19-grow-led-light-bulb/p-1444430371479.htm

 

[Orm Embar]

I also run a refugium with a Mars Hydro (24 watt) grow light. Red and blue LED's over some chaeto and dragon's breath. I do have some dragon's breath and gracilaria in the main display as well (gracilaria is growing, or at least I think that it is as it now has white tips). No skimmer. Was running very low nitrate/phosphate on light feeding, which I have been ramping up to see how well things are with heavier feeding. Works very well, so I have no plans on changing anything currently.

 

[Mohammad D. ALMUTAIRI]

I've got a cheap 15watt flood light 6500K on my refugium. did the job pretty much as wanted!
for the future I might go with a grow out light that are designed for Hydroponic farms, I've seen them in action and they are just INSANE!

 

[Ryanbrs]

I go back and forth on this. I tell people that I buy coral and fish so I can own nice equipment. I really like the H380, but for $399 I wonder if I am better off putting that money into a nicer skimmer. They sell these A19 bulbs at menards and a few local greenhouses, and it worked well. I don't have a par meter, but it was bright enough to get a knock on the door from people looking for weed, and more importantly after a couple of months I was pulling a handful of chaeto every week. Is the Seneye accurate enough to test our bulbs for spectrum?

https://www.menards.com/main/electr...t-a19-grow-led-light-bulb/p-1444430371479.htm

Well, it is only $299 and I guess it depends on your goals. For most people, the primary goal is a nutrient reduction. Most people believe a skimmer is going to remove around 30% of the waste. A solid fuge can completely eliminate unwanted nutrient build up.

 

[JasPR]

word of warning-- I had a mixed bed of caulerpa growing in my large sump. It was mixed with cheatomorpha -- forming a matt of thick Caulerpa and a base of loose growing cheato. I installed the red emitting kessil pendent. within a few days everything turned white and dissolved! At first, my theory was the light being very different simply killed my 6 year old veggie filter. This released a massive amount of nitrogen and phosphate and then massive bacteria blooms from the nutrient and the decay. But upon reflection, I recall massive die offs of sexually active Caulerpa groves occur under certain conditions. In the case-- it was the FLOWERING stage ( "ludicrous setting!") of that kessil light that set it off! Too much a coincidence to consider anything else! Again, all the whitening and decay started within a week of adding on the kessil red light. The cheato did not die at the same rate but followed in the overall slimy environment that the rapidly dying caulerpa created. A word to the wise if you have a mixed green zone in your refugium

 

[teller]

word of warning-- I had a mixed bed of caulerpa growing in my large sump. It was mixed with cheatomorpha -- forming a matt of thick Caulerpa and a base of loose growing cheato. I installed the red emitting kessil pendent. within a few days everything turned white and dissolved! At first, my theory was the light being very different simply killed my 6 year old veggie filter. This released a massive amount of nitrogen and phosphate and then massive bacteria blooms from the nutrient and the decay. But upon reflection, I recall massive die offs of sexually active Caulerpa groves occur under certain conditions. In the case-- it was the FLOWERING stage ( "ludicrous setting!") of that kessil light that set it off! Too much a coincidence to consider anything else! Again, all the whitening and decay started within a week of adding on the kessil red light. The cheato did not die at the same rate but followed in the overall slimy environment that the rapidly dying caulerpa created. A word to the wise if you have a mixed green zone in your refugium

Thanks a lot for posting your experience. Maybe it is another reason people don't advise to have caulerpa for years.

 

[michaelstevenbrice]

Well, it is only $299 and I guess it depends on your goals. For most people, the primary goal is a nutrient reduction. Most people believe a skimmer is going to remove around 30% of the waste. A solid fuge can completely eliminate unwanted nutrient build up.

Oh - my bad - I did look at the price, just a typo. Are you suggesting running a better fuge and no skimmer? I think they compliment each other too well to decide on one vs the other. My math for my future built goes like this - I can get an H380 and a $200-$300 skimmer, or I can get an H80 and spend that extra $170 on the skimmer I really want. (I don't have my budget set yet, but you get the general idea)

 

[Greybeard]

word of warning-- I had a mixed bed of caulerpa growing in my large sump.

Any idea what kind of caulerpa? Racemosa is famous for this... had it happen to me once, it was a gigantic mess. I'm using C. Mexicana, along with Chaetomorpha and Gracilaria.

If you watch it, you can see when Caulerpa is going to go sexual... it develops 'thorns'... for lack of a better word. If your fuge lights go off for an extended period, you really have to watch it.

 

[Ryanbrs]

Oh - my bad - I did look at the price, just a typo. Are you suggesting running a better fuge and no skimmer? I think they compliment each other too well to decide on one vs the other. My math for my future built goes like this - I can get an H380 and a $200-$300 skimmer, or I can get an H80 and spend that extra $170 on the skimmer I really want. (I don't have my budget set yet, but you get the general idea)

I haven't explored this enough to say this for certain but I think a lot of reefers may find that a high powered fuge strips too much of the carbon dioxide from the water. Net result is the pH will be higher than desirable and you actually need a skimmer to introduce more co2 and keep the pH down. This is counter intuitive to the way that many reefers think about this type of thing but I can tell you for sure the skimmers in the office lower the pH because of the amount of co2 in the air is higher than what's in the tank.

however, if this is the purpose for the skimmer it can probably the cheapest skimmer out there.

 

[michaelstevenbrice]

That seems like a dream come true. I struggle to keep my PH at 8.0. I don't know what I would do with myself - it would make controlling PH super easy with an apex though. What kind of effect on PH have you seen on the 160 with that Behemoth H1200?

I might be stubborn - but I still want a fancy skimmer. Haha

 

[Joe Grubbs]

For me it has been a journey... I have run the CF with a metal reflector (and yes, chaeto did grow), run 2-grow bulb T5s, run the Kessil A160 Tuna Sun on the 'grow setting' (had the best success with this lamp, running 6" above the chaeto, requiring monthly trimming of the cheato), then came the Kessil H380 ... running it now on a 12 hour alternate schedule. First mistake, started it up at the same height as the A160...badly bleached out the chaeto. It is now running at 12" (cheato is doing much better). I used the Seneye to set the light height so par is 400-600 above the cheato.

Attached is a pic of my 'sump system'... (wires and all) the un-lit base is a 75 gal tank, housing the Roller Matt, 5 gal of MarinePure spheres, heaters, make up water, system ground, & return pump. Sitting on top of this is the 35 gal refugium, with a 14" deep sand bed and cheato, and supporting to carbon/gfo filters. Since raising the light, the cheato has begun to recover. Added 2 additional macro algae to the refuge, a red and root based to the DSB to better export nutrients from the DSB.

The roller mat filter, and upgraded Kessil are new additions in an attempt to combat the bit of 'red slime' showing up on the rocks in the display. I recognize that we feed generously...

Thank you BRS for this series on refugiums and lighting... has given confidence that such changes will help us in clearing up and maintaining the display tank.