How much light for a refugium?

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Thu May 27, 2004 12:13 am

I am going to set up a refugium and wondered how much light would you consider to be the minimum that could be used. Right now I have a 6 gallon Eclipse light (I think it's 8 watts) over some macro, but I have a LOA light that I can use.

Snakeman · Post by **Snakeman** » Thu May 27, 2004 8:20 am

I've got a 55watt pc over mine. I sure a 36watt pc would be fine. You can get Pc bulbs and workhorse ballast that are already riged up really cheap on ebay. I bought a 36 watt 2 bulb setup for my frag tank and it came with the rubber endcaps, ballast, two bulbs, bulb holders, and a reflector for around $40. I think, I could be wrong but it was cheaper than buying all the parts and putting them together myself.

ShagMan · Post by **ShagMan** » Thu May 27, 2004 8:55 am

I run 2 x 65w LOA lights over my 55G... could use one more.

fishgills · Post by **fishgills** » Thu May 27, 2004 1:09 pm

Hi, i run 1x65 watt also lights of america, calurpa going nuts, its on my 29 gallon ecosystem, it came with a 18 watter, good luck, by the way the fixture cost's 30 bucks at home depot, i believe the replacement bulb is 9 bucks.

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Thu May 27, 2004 1:20 pm

I have one of the LOA lights already but I am more worried about the heat that they produce and the light will be on 24/7.

fishgills · Post by **fishgills** » Thu May 27, 2004 1:35 pm

Hi i have it sitting right on top of my glass, i have a fan that's sitting on the floor pointed at the light.

ShagMan · Post by **ShagMan** » Thu May 27, 2004 3:07 pm

generating heat? Mine don't add much heat at all... I have mine nestled onto the black trim at the top of a 55G... they happen to fit perfectly.

Amyjoe · Post by **Amyjoe** » Thu May 27, 2004 3:23 pm

They do run a little warm but nothing too horrible. Can honestly say I don't think we ever cooled ours when we were running the refugium lighting....

KrazyPlace · Post by **KrazyPlace** » Thu May 27, 2004 4:27 pm

I have a 65W LOA (6500K) from Home Depot over a 10G without any additional cooling. The macro growth is very good! Several people have seen my refugium and will tell you it is more than adequate.

I have a 65G reef (4 fish & many corals) and a 29G fish only (4 fish, 3 starfish, and inverts) that flow through this 10G refugium. My nitrates were between 30-50ppm the week before installing the refugium and I could not keep a coral alive. My tank was nearly a year old at the time too. With in 2 months of installing the refuge, the nitrates were at <1 ppm. Today they are now non-detect. I feed heavily each day a blender mix of shrimp, oyster, mussle, left-over flake food, pellet food, salt water, ammino acids, mysis & brine shirmp, and nori. My corals are doing great now that the nitrates are gone.

I don't know about anyone else, but my single LOA over a 10G refugium is a must have and more than adequate. Did I mention cheap?

Post by **snoopdog** » Thu May 27, 2004 6:25 pm

IMO you do not really need a ton of light over a refugium. But macro algea that is left in the refugium is growing very well with no light over it at all. Very hard to kill this stuff, i think Scott said he poured vinegar in the tank with his in 20 degree weather and it still did not die.

Eric L · Post by **Eric L** » Sat May 29, 2004 7:20 pm

I agree that a lot of light isn't needed. On my 75 gal. fuge I cut back from 110 watts to 55 (pc daylight bulbs). Despite halving the light levels, macro growth didn't seem to change much. It just got greener.

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Sat May 29, 2004 11:12 pm

I have 28 watts over mine now. Time will tell.