Chaeto, what colours to use?

[GHOSTLY]

I'm not looking to spend too much money on a chaeto light but I have this nicrew light that comes with 4 settings. A cool white that you'd see in a reef tank, a warm planted light, blue, and off. I was wondering what would be best between the 3 colours for chaeto?

 

[blaxsun]

Red.

 

[GHOSTLY]

Red.

Just pure red or a spectrum leaning towards red

 

[o2manyfish]

I grow it faster than anyone I've ever met -- My refugium is outdoors and using sunlight. The last 6 months it's been on a rampage and I'm able to harvest a 33g trashbag every 2-3 weeks.

Dave B

 

[GHOSTLY]

I grow it faster than anyone I've ever met -- My refugium is outdoors and using sunlight. The last 6 months it's been on a rampage and I'm able to harvest a 33g trashbag every 2-3 weeks.

Dave B

Is it connected to your tank?

 

[mdb_talon]

If you can have them all I would say go that route. Plants in general (and in my experience cheato specifically) do best with a full spectrum light. It is of course generally has more reds/whites than we would do in a reef tank, but again full spectrum is ideal. We usually dont see the blues when looking at a grow light as they are drowned out by the other spectrums, but a good multi-purpose grow light is also going to have quite a bit of blue spectrum in it also.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

If you can have them all I would say go that route. Plants in general (and in my experience cheato specifically) do best with a full spectrum light. It is of course generally has more reds/whites than we would do in a reef tank, but again full spectrum is ideal. We usually dont see the blues when looking at a grow light as they are drowned out by the other spectrums, but a good multi-purpose grow light is also going to have quite a bit of blue spectrum in it also.

We have a lab we do for photosynthetic rate measured by accumulation of O2 gas in a closed beaker.

Students compare p-synth rate by growing aquatic vegetation (I typically use Caulerpa) under blue, red, green, yellow, and full-spectrum lights.

Honestly, the only spectrum that doesn’t really drive much p-synth is green (obviously). All other colors do roughly the same, although full-spectrum typically does nominally more. Enough to make a difference? Probably not.

 

[Spare time]

I don't think color matters so much unless it's a low intensity light. Just avoid lights that are primarily greenish (500-600nm in particular)

 

[mdb_talon]

We have a lab we do for photosynthetic rate measured by accumulation of O2 gas in a closed beaker.

Students compare p-synth rate by growing aquatic vegetation (I typically use Caulerpa) under blue, red, green, yellow, and full-spectrum lights.

Honestly, the only spectrum that doesn’t really drive much p-synth is green (obviously). All other colors do roughly the same, although full-spectrum typically does nominally more. Enough to make a difference? Probably not.

I would argue it certainly makes a difference over time. I mean you can get a plant to grow and measure very high photosynthesis with just a single wavelength of red in the mid 650s. However longterm you are going to end up with a less healthy plant lacking in chlorophyll production that blue light helps provide.