Any advantage to having LED's on a refugium?

[bradam]

Bit pricey but was wondering would there be any advantage/disadvantage to running LED's on the refugium?

I was thinking something like a

http://www.marinedepot.com/18_24_In...tant_Ocean-AS33000-FILTFILDFX-AS33000-vi.html

I live in florida in an older not so well insulated home and its pretty much impossible to keep the house under 80 in the summer short of buying a A/C unit the size of a walmart and my own private power plant to run it.. Anything that produces less heat is a must have. I currently have a 24 inch power compact light on it.

As for whats growing in the fuge... well honestly I haven't a clue. Its kind of a 10 year old mess of various random algea that I added here and there or somehow hitchhiked in there lol

 

[phurst]

That fixture is probably not optimal for algae as far as the color temp goes. I have a DIY LED fixture over the small fuge of my nano and it works extremely well, but it's a mix of 3w neutral white and warm while LEDs instead of the 1w cool blue and royal blue LEDs on the fixture you linked.

 

[bradam]

Are they any LED fixtures that are ready for algea out of the box? Or am I stuck going the DIY route?

 

[reefsurfing]

Most Leds Made for homes are in the 2700-6500 range. Hit a local big box store and those leds that screw into a socket for 20 dollars will work perfect.

 

[malawinovice]

I use this led for my refuge, a bit pricy, but no worries about fade out.

Par 38 12 watts std fixture

http://www.ledliquidatorsinc.com/PAR_38_12_LED_Cree_light_bulb.php

 

[bradam]

you go with the white or the warm white version? Dont see where it listed which the different range between the two was

 

[Anemonebuff]

Warm white would be better for algae, but the cool white will work fine.

 

[dancewithethan]

JBJ nano Gle Led

JBJ nano Gle Led

I use 2x of this LED for my sump.

http://www.marinedepot.com/JBJ_Nano...p_Lighting-JBJ_Lighting-JB9315-FIRFRL-vi.html

Don't need much power and low low heat. My chaeto loves it.

Best.

 

[Anemonebuff]

You could use a few of these:
http://www.ledliquidatorsinc.com/PAR_30_60_LED_light_bulb.php


Unless the refugium is very deep, then I would choose one with optics.

 

[bradam]

I use this led for my refuge, a bit pricy, but no worries about fade out.

Par 38 12 watts std fixture

http://www.ledliquidatorsinc.com/PAR_38_12_LED_Cree_light_bulb.php

I bought this exact bulb to try out. I must say I'm terribly un-impressed. This light output from this $80 bulb is down right terrible. The manufactor makes it out to be you could replace a regular light blub with it but it dosen't come anywhere remotely close to lighting up part of a room like a regular bulb would.

Fuge wise even close to the water line it only illuminates a small portion of the fuge, I think I"d need 4 of them to replace a single compact bulb. :sad2:

On a side note the aluminum cooling fins are sharp as razor blades, but no project is truely a project till you get a little blood on it heh

 

[125mph]

I brought an LED strip at 8000K color and my chaeto started dying... I then made my own diy strip using Cree XP-G 5000K color and chaeto tripled in size in 2 weeks.

Color intensity is extremely important in refug. From what I read, 5000K-6500K is optimal.

 

[olemiss reb]

I use the 65k of these with a cheap reflector from the painters section at lowes. I've used them for years- cheap, low heat, long lasting, chaeto grows fine.

 

[bradam]

I tried a few differnt bulb setups but do to space constraints I really can't fit one safely under my cabinet. I ended up buying the lower end marineland LED light since it I liked the size and style of it. I've had it running about 6 months now, and while my cheato hasn't died, it hasn't really grown much either. I just ordered the Marineland Reef led fixture hoping that does the ticket. The double-bright one might have worked but figured the reef one would be better.