Macroalgae and MH's

[o2bnh20]

I'm wanting to keep an anenome in my fuge. I have good growth of Chaeto and Caulerpro with small pieces of LR, but there's also room for the animal. The anemone would reguire more intense lighting and I though I would use a 175W MH w/ 96W Actinics. Would this be too much light for my macroalgae? I don't want to harm the good thing I have going with the algae.
Scott

 

[hmott]

lots of people use old mh's off the display to light their fuge's. It won't be a problem for the macros. Heat would be the only possible problem.

 

[piercho]

I use 250W 6500K a few inches over my "fuge". Most green and brown alga do well under intense light. What I don't get is why you would use actinic where you don't see it?

 

[kmk2307]

I think your algae would just love the light.

 

[Triterium]

I use a 4000K 175 watt MH over my fuge. I also have two anemones in the fuge (flower and condy). The growth is amazing. I agree with howard that the actinics aren't needed.

 

[reefkeeper1]

Right now I'm using a Ushio 10K 250-watt bulb with a Hamilton Electronic ballast over a 50-gallon refugium, but it seems like I'm getting better macroalgae growth with a 42-watt CF (bulb looks yellow) over another refugium. Should I get one of the 6500K or lower bulbs at this site for better macroalgae growth? To me, it seems algaes really like the red/yellow wavelength for optimum growth:

250-watt low K bulbs

 

[biomekanic]

Not trying to be pedantic here, but if you're putting in major predators like anenomes, it's not a refugium anymore, but a vegetative filter.

Algae prefer the lower end color spectrum for growth, I got great growth out of my HOB refugium with the GENIV 5K CF bulbs. The higher K bulbs are more for color aesthetics for our purposes than the corals, they don't care the color rating, as long as their getting enough light (but not to much) to feed their symbiotic algae, it's all good.

 

[Triterium]

Not trying to be pedantic here, but if you're putting in major predators like anenomes, it's not a refugium anymore, but a vegetative filter.

Please explain. Are you saying they reduce the pod population or effect something else?

 

[jimwat]

Tagging along.

I have turtle grass growing in my fuge, and in an effort to promote more growth I added 250W MH (using an extra 10k XM bulb I already had). After do some searching on the internet, I decided to switch out the more expensive 10k bulb for a cheaper 4k bulb (I got here http://aquaticlight.com/bulbs.html). My assumption was that photosynthetic radiation (PAR) needs would be basically the same for aquatic and terrestrial plants. Under that assumption, most of the hydroponics sites (as well as a few for growing "herbs" ) recommend a Kelvin rating between 3000 and 6500 with the 4000 to 5000 range being the best for general plant growth. I have only had the bulb for a few days, so we shall see how it goes.

 

[jimwat]

Another FYI - according to some of the sites I visited, it seems that the lower Kelvin bulbs tend to last longer. However, this may be just a rumor as I was not able to find any real explanation. I suppose one could survey the Mean Life Hours of different Kelvin rated bulbs to check for trends, but who has time for that?

 

[reefkeeper1]

Another FYI - according to some of the sites I visited, it seems that the lower Kelvin bulbs tend to last longer. However, this may be just a rumor as I was not able to find any real explanation. I suppose one could survey the Mean Life Hours of different Kelvin rated bulbs to check for trends, but who has time for that?

I've read from a few places that the Iwasaki 6500K bulbs last a long time compared to the higher K bulbs. For the moment, I've replaced my 250-watt MH bulb with one 96-watt PC under an ahsupply.com reflector - mainly for heat issues and the fact I don't think the macroalgae in my 50-gallon refugium needs that much light. I may supplement with another 96-watt PC in the future.

 

[jimwat]

I've read from a few places that the Iwasaki 6500K bulbs last a long time compared to the higher K bulbs.

I had read that too. I also read that Iwasakis are really mercury vapor bulbs, which would put them in a class of their own.