Refugium algae.

[Ukreeferguy2020]

Hi all. I have had my sump running for a while with Cheato in a refugium section.

It has now turned into a mixture of cheato and another more plant/leafy looking algae.

I did have some "˜cool white' lamps shining on it until I recently bought a grow light from amazon to test, hoping it to provide a better spectrum of light to improve algae growth and thus nutrient reduction.

I have a Seneye reef which I used to take the following readings just below the water surface where the algae sits.

It's obvious which is which but after reading about PAR and PUR, the cool white lamp seems to give off more PUR... [emoji848] So which is better for growing algae??

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[Michael Hoaster]

In general, full spectrum bulbs, in the 55-6500K range, cover all the peaks that plants need. What grow lights tend to do is narrow their spectrum to just the peaks that plants need, giving off a light color that looks magenta. From what I've seen, both work well.

To test your specific bulbs, set up an experiment. Test for plant growth under each bulb for a set time period. I'd be interested to see the results.