Help with refugium components

[ASIN28]

Hey all,
I’m ready to put a refugium into the sump. I have a 12’ x 14’ section in the sump for it. A few questions:
1. For now I am just going to use a light bulb in a fixture from the hardware store, what kind of lightbulb do you guys recommend?

2. What do you recommend to use in the refugium? A piece of live rock, live sand, etc?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Jeff Jarry reef]

Hey all,
I’m ready to put a refugium into the sump. I have a 12’ x 14’ section in the sump for it. A few questions:
1. For now I am just going to use a light bulb in a fixture from the hardware store, what kind of lightbulb do you guys recommend?

2. What do you recommend to use in the refugium? A piece of live rock, live sand, etc?

Thanks in advance!

You can get a grow light from lowes will work. I have always used a tunze led but a plant spectrum bulb will do.
And in refugium i put a bio block in mine or bio balls in bag.
Live rock will work great too. As far as sand i dont use because i can keep sump cleaner at maintenance time.

 

[Chibils]

I grew Chaeto just fine with a 150w 3500°K compact fluorescent bulb (CFL). Nowadays since LEDs have mostly replaced them, just find the most powerful LED you can or a cheap grow bulb. It ought to be sufficient for now.

 

[R.Weller]

We're using a generic 9 watt LED full spectrum grow bulb from the hardware store & it does fine. The bulb was $15.

As far as other materials, I would stuff it with as much reef rock as you can. Either dry or cultured will do the job. This will provide a place for your Pods to grow. I've always had a deep sand bed in mine (5" - 7") + live rock, but it will depend on the depth that you have avaiable. Once you add the rock, if you are not certain that you already have a Pod population in your system, buy a 16oz bottle from a local hobbiest or online vendor to get the culture stated. It will grow from there.