Best LED light for a refugium

[Akrite]

I just replaced my old sump with a new eshopp R-300 sump and i'm looking for a LED light for the refugium section. Something around 18". I have had T5's in the past but I want to try LED's, unless they suck as a light source for refugiums. What are your thoughts and what are other people using?

 

[Akrite]

I saw this on MarineDepot, is it any good?

UP Aqua UA-F17 6.69 Inch Flexible LED

 

[mcgyvr]

whats gonna be in the fuge?
many are just using a 5000K (or more 6500k is fairly common) flood light for an in-sump fuge.
some make red/blue DIY led fixtures..

 

[Akrite]

I plan to keep chaeto in the refug section of the sump along with some live rock. Is there a LED that would help grow chaeto as good as a flood light?

 

[mfinn]

I replaced my Lowes cf lights for these led bulbs.
The macro growth has really taken off.

 

[mr9iron]

Where do you get that bulb at?

 

[slief]

Where do you get that bulb at?

Lowes has them. Utilitech 15 watt 800 lumen 5000K.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_179879-7577...&currentURL=?Ntt=utilitech+15+watt&facetInfo=

 

[mr9iron]

Lowes has them. Utilitech 15 watt 800 lumen 5000K.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_179879-7577...&currentURL=?Ntt=utilitech+15+watt&facetInfo=

Thank you.

 

[Akrite]

Anyone else?

 

[Tzwizzle]

Reefbreeders looks like have a nice little unit for $100

 

[JustinGr]

I use a Reefbrite 15" 50/50 XHO. They are about 150$

 

[dlai531]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PAR30-Dimma...17?pt=US_Light_Bulbs&var=&hash=item3a84f08d01

9x2 in cool white is working pretty well for me

 

[mcgyvr]

That lowes LED bulb posted above was the exact bulb I had.. Worked great for cheato and a turf scrubber I once had setup.
Just picked up the bulb, some wire, a plug and an outdoor bulb socket that can be screwed to a wall.. Cheap and perfect..great growth

 

[TropTrea]

I have a 90 galloon refugium. About a year ago I switched to running 40 watts of cool White Cree LED's on it 24/7. The Cheto grew like crazy and I was constantly thinning it at least every other week. Since then I reduced to 24 watts of the cool white LED's and now only have to thin the Cheto out every other month. Prior to the LEd's I was running 80 watts of 5,000K florescent bulbs and did not get near the growth I have now.

 

[Thomas_Geoffery]

I run the ultra tec LED flood lamp on mine... Works great

 

[bradleybradley]

I'm trying out an Ecoxotic Stunner LED strip. So far my Chateo is growing under it.

 

[robertifly]

Yesterday I bought a Fluval Aqualife & Plant led for $89 at Petco. I has 8 watt and red, white and blue leds. Quality seems good enough, although it sticks to the side of refuguim, I like the size also. We'll see how well it grows cheato

 

[dadummy]

I am running @700ma 4 cool white, 2 royal blue, 2 red and threw in one green cause it was laying around and wanted to use it. Led's are jb welded to a piece of 1/4" aluminum flat stock approx. 6" X 12" Have blue ochtodes growing stupid fast in fuge. If I had to build another fuge light I would buy a bunch of leds and driver from fleabay and do it the same way.

 

[Boa1277]

Kessil 6500k Amazon Sun best led by far for a refugium. ( notice I did not say the cheapest)

 

[TropTrea]

Kessil 6500k Amazon Sun best led by far for a refugium. ( notice I did not say the cheapest)

That would be very close to equivelent of using Cree 6,500K LED's by themselves. The secret though is getting the right wattage total for the cycle you need and the size of your refugium. I have found that 21 watts total works great on 90 gallon refugium running them 24 hours per day. This comes out to 5.6 Watts per gallon per hour. So if you run for the lights for about 11 hours per day you only need about 1/2 watt per gallon.