40 long sps lighting

[hkgar]

4x54w T5 would be my choice for best-of-breed light for this tank. I would use 2 B+, 6500K and a True Actinic.

Individual reflectors and Advance ballast will yield almost identical results to ATI Sunpower. Workhorse ballasts are OK, but lower output.

Just did some checking, and found a Phillips Advance ballast for 80 watt t5's and at $50 a ballast plus it can only drive 1 lamp.

I pretty sure I will save $400 and stay with my Workhorse 7's. I just changed bulbs and the par at 6' BWL is 460+ (8 80W ATI T5's)

 

[prosper]

Why would you run only the white channel over the refugium? If i ran a fuge I'd turn all channels up to 100. Macros grow best with an absurd amount of light. Don't be afraid to give them 700-1000 par. They'll just grow better. Even plants and algae use predominantly
Blue light for photosynthesis.


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can I blast the cheato right away? or does it need to be calculated

 

[Bpb]

No need. Just nail it with as much light as you can. Brs hits their chaeto with a 600 watt horticultural Kessil for crying out loud, and I have seen threads of people using 1000 watt HPS lamps on their chaeto. It can thrive with WAY more light than corals can. Being it is a true macro algae and not just a symbiotic think layer of single cell micro algae. Think of it more like a desert plant. Capable of tolerating ungodly amounts of light. The less light you give it, the more cyano, dinoflagellates, and hair algae will grow over it and smother it. That has been my negative experience. Not hitting it with enough light just causes the fuge to turn into a cyano and hair algae soup and the chaeto dies


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[jayball]

No need. Just nail it with as much light as you can. Brs hits their chaeto with a 600 watt horticultural Kessil for crying out loud, and I have seen threads of people using 1000 watt HPS lamps on their chaeto. It can thrive with WAY more light than corals can. Being it is a true macro algae and not just a symbiotic think layer of single cell micro algae. Think of it more like a desert plant. Capable of tolerating ungodly amounts of light. The less light you give it, the more cyano, dinoflagellates, and hair algae will grow over it and smother it. That has been my negative experience. Not hitting it with enough light just causes the fuge to turn into a cyano and hair algae soup and the chaeto dies


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That makes sense, in the wild Chaeto can form huge floating mats. PAR is north of 1300 at sea level in the equatorial region.