a refugium ??

[gibbswagon]

I just got a Aquafuge pro refugium installed yesterday. I have a 4 inch sandbed in there, a little live rock, and some chaeto. how long should I leave the light on for? what do you guys with the same HOB syle fuge do? And i got a 18w vho bulb for lighting if that helps:strooper:

 

[Blown 346]

I run my fuge with the reverse cycle lighting. It will give time for the Macro algae to rest and go dark, while the tank lights are on, and once the tank lights are off your PH will stay in balance and wont shift.

 

[jknecht]

You'll get a mix of answers. Some seem people run them 24/7 and swear by it. Others seem to run them opposite of their daily lighting routine. For a HOB I would probably run it during the day with my lights just so it's not distracting at night when everything is off.

 

[artful-dodger]

The two common choices are 1) to light the 'fuge on the hours that the tank's main lights are off and 2) light the 'fuge full time. The argument for the first option is to stimulte algae growth in the 'fuge in the off cycle of the corals' algae in an attempt to balance out pH. I've measured pH at morning, noon and night and never seen a big swing (YMMV based on what amount of photosynthetic corals you keep and what lighting you have, I suppose). Anyway, for me there was no obvious advantage to going opposite cycle so I light the refugium full time.