LED Flood Light for Refugium
- Thread starter Mono
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Sidius
Active Member
That's impressive growth.. seems like a pretty affordable refugium light and it's waterproof. I may have to try this on my next tank build.You tell me. This is a pic during a water change, so my sump level is low.
I'd love a review on it if you ever had the time (ex: any annoyances/challenges or any positives)
PiggyPuffin
Active Member
Ultimately I went with this light as my refugium is an awkward shape (4" wide x 20" long x 12" water depth). I wanted to spread out the PAR as much as possible along that long (20x12) side piece of glass which has a large surface area but is very shallow and I wanted to mount the light directly on the glass. From the top it is deep but very narrow. It's not running yet as my tank is still too new. I'll let you know how it works out.
I threw some heat sinks on it when I first got it, but I think it’s unnecessary. It works great. I throw out bags of chaeto every two weeks. It grows like crazy in here and my 220 gallon display is completely nuisance algae free. Actually it’s so free of algae that some of my CuC are starving to death.
The only real bad thing is the footprint. Since it has no fans, it has to be a big heatsink. Not a problem for me, but I could see how it wouldn’t fit for other folks.
Maybe I’ll post a video of it sometime. It shows up for a few seconds in my build video.
Sidius
Active Member
I'll check it out! What kind of spread and at what height off the water surface are you currently running it?
About 12” off the water. Here are some pics of my setup.
No significant nuisance algae. This is recently harvested so it isn’t deep. Grows like crazy.
It floats because when the light is on, photosynthesis occurs so rapidly that bubbles accumulate and help the chaeto to float to the top. An annoying trait because then it clogs the strainer to the return section.
The little blue tube on the left is the output of my calcium reactor. The CO2 rich water helps the chaeto grow faster too.
No significant nuisance algae. This is recently harvested so it isn’t deep. Grows like crazy.
It floats because when the light is on, photosynthesis occurs so rapidly that bubbles accumulate and help the chaeto to float to the top. An annoying trait because then it clogs the strainer to the return section.
The little blue tube on the left is the output of my calcium reactor. The CO2 rich water helps the chaeto grow faster too.
Sidius
Active Member
@wangspeed That's seriously impressive.. I am planning a large refugium plumbed into my next build (using an old 75 gallon tank for a dedicated refugium and to give me space for other things like brightwell bricks or other bio media/rock rubble). I'm thinking about the 300w version of that light for the added length/spread. The actual chaeto section will be roughly 36" depending on where I install baffles. Can you tell me how much spread that fixture has?
FYI your tank build is amazing. I've been reading through your build thread and I'm very jealous lol.
FYI your tank build is amazing. I've been reading through your build thread and I'm very jealous lol.
At 12” off the water the spread is good enough for maybe 18” wide. I have coralline growing in the next section, despite using the light blockers. It easily handles going 24” back in my fuge section. I think it partly depends on how much nutrients you have and how fast you want to grow the chaeto to strip the nutrients. With the 300W version, I bet it could cover 36” if you have the height.
I feed like there’s no tomorrow and still had phosphates bottom out on me a few weeks ago. I mean like a scary amount of food sometimes. Wrasses getting fat! Even my copperband has a cute little belly after eating.
