Refugium light for Chaeto

[maddmaxx]

I've actually looked into this bulb and was thinking of trying it.

Do you have a link to the mounting clamp you use?

I've tried out 65k cfl bulbs on my moms tank and it never got good growth at all.That is why i am leaning more towards the red/blue par 30/38 bulbs.

with much research and personal experience from using red/blue bulbs for chaeto is not ideal. for some odd reason the chaeto plant itself doesn't do well under the spectrum of the red/blue bulbs. chaeto does best under 65k full spectrum. I know you stated that you've tried it and didn't work well for you in past. I would recommend higher wattage or possibly add some flow. now the species of calp does fantastic under those type of lights. just do a lil more research before purchasing those bulbs

 

[Spiffy]

Do you want to grow chaeto?

Or do you want to GROWWWWW CHAETOOOO!!!!!???
http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-FLORALUX-150w-HPS-Mini-Grow-Light

I wanted to try an experiment to find out if I could fill an entire 30-gallon with cheato... Just a tank full of cheato... Lol!

with much research and personal experience from using red/blue bulbs for chaeto is not ideal. for some odd reason the chaeto plant itself doesn't do well under the spectrum of the red/blue bulbs. chaeto does best under 65k full spectrum. I know you stated that you've tried it and didn't work well for you in past. I would recommend higher wattage or possibly add some flow. now the species of calp does fantastic under those type of lights. just do a lil more research before purchasing those bulbs

Very true. I tried the same thing with a blue light on my first refugium, and it didn't work out very well. Cheato just shriveled up and died, even on a 24-hour cycle.

 

[laga77]

Unless you have a really large refugium! :thumbsup:

On the other hand, the more you have to trim, the more nutrients you are removing.

Exactly !

 

[icebrg5]

with much research and personal experience from using red/blue bulbs for chaeto is not ideal. for some odd reason the chaeto plant itself doesn't do well under the spectrum of the red/blue bulbs. chaeto does best under 65k full spectrum. I know you stated that you've tried it and didn't work well for you in past. I would recommend higher wattage or possibly add some flow. now the species of calp does fantastic under those type of lights. just do a lil more research before purchasing those bulbs

I'll try out the 65k bulb first for a few months and see how it does and then decide on switching to a red/blue led.

 

[Johnseye]

Unless you have a really large refugium! :thumbsup:

On the other hand, the more you have to trim, the more nutrients you are removing.

Good points

 

[d2mini]

Very true. I tried the same thing with a blue light on my first refugium, and it didn't work out very well. Cheato just shriveled up and died, even on a 24-hour cycle.

Ya, forget blue. My HPS bulb is 2400k-ish. Really yellow/orange.
Big bucket of chaeto every month.
Just follow what the marijuana guys are doing. It's the same freakin principle. :beachbum:

 

[landonmcq]

I kinda went a different route with my fuge lighting and man is it growing chaeto. I cut at least a baseball sized chunk every week. I used red/blue and cool blue 5050 LED strips from Amazon.

 

[colorful1180]

I use GROUP BUY 5 Watt REFUGIUM PAR 30 LED LIGHT. Works pretty good. Cost me $19.

 

[Duality]

with much research and personal experience from using red/blue bulbs for chaeto is not ideal. for some odd reason the chaeto plant itself doesn't do well under the spectrum of the red/blue bulbs. chaeto does best under 65k full spectrum. I know you stated that you've tried it and didn't work well for you in past. I would recommend higher wattage or possibly add some flow. now the species of calp does fantastic under those type of lights. just do a lil more research before purchasing those bulbs

I don't have a problem growing chaeto under red/blue LEDs. My hydroponic light is only red/blue LEDs, 40 red 3watt LEDs, and 20 blue 3watt LEDs.
Like I said above a pull out a 5 gallon bucket worth of chaeto every month. At one point I had 3 types of caulerpa growing in my fuge and over the last 9 months the chaeto has completely over taken the fuge.
This was my fuge back on 9/22/14

This is today.

 

[Hitch08]

Holy moly!

 

[icebrg5]

I don't have a problem growing chaeto under red/blue LEDs. My hydroponic light is only red/blue LEDs, 40 red 3watt LEDs, and 20 blue 3watt LEDs.
Like I said above a pull out a 5 gallon bucket worth of chaeto every month. At one point I had 3 types of caulerpa growing in my fuge and over the last 9 months the chaeto has completely over taken the fuge.
This was my fuge back on 9/22/14

This is today.

I see posts like this that make me want to try the red/blue bulbs but then i see posts saying the complete opposite saying that it doesn't grow well and 65k bulbs are the best.

I'll try out the 65k bulb first since i have one laying around.If after 2 months or so I will decide on switching over to a red/blue combo

 

[icebrg5]

I have a clip on light but they way my stand and sump is setup there is no good place to clip it anywhere.

Would a 6500K led strip work the same as a 65k cfl bulb?

Like a 12' or 18' one?

 

[icebrg5]

Well here is what i came up with since i couldn't clip the light to anything.

Got the algae last night along with a 65k bulb.

Also you can't see it from the picture but I did cut an opening in the egg crate so the light can get through easier.
I only left enough egg crate around the light to support the light.
Still going to add another piece of egg crate on both sides of the light so it can't slide off in either direction.

It does a real nice job of spinning around on its own so all of the algae is getting light.

 

[ericarenee]

I've got 6 of them on my fuge going for a few years now and they are just fine. I think the ones that caught fire were the Chinese black box full spectrum LED's. I remember reading something about that but never these. I'll make sure to keep some marshmellows close by just in case! :thumbsup:.

I have 6 of them as well... Did have two more then stopped working. Bad driver..

Just ordered 10 =20w Version of these for me new 6 foot long Fuge in Progress..
There is not much electronics in them to really catch on fire. they will short out and just stop working...

 

[Duality]

Ok I just pulled most of the chaeto out of my fuge. Like I said 5 gallon bucket full

Here's my fuge now

And for u that don't believe it's a full bucket here u go
https://vimeo.com/136785293

 

[foozed]

I'm using a 30g life reefugium with that same
Light and my chaeto is growing fast.
Today was my first harvest after 3 weeks and it at least quadrupled in size from the baseball I started with.
When you harvest is it full of detritus and other crap? Mine was filthy.
I put mine in a bucket of RODI and shook it a few times, creating a very dark brown slurry and then put a small baseball of cleaned green back in the fuge.
I'm wondering if I have too little flow in my fuge.
There is a slight film on the waters surface but I'm thinking it's a fuge...