LED sizing for refugium

[ReefBeta]

Is there any rule on how much light to pick for refugium? I am looking for one for a 45G setup with about 4G fuge, 13*9 area.

Does the size like that need as powerful as Kessil H380 (or some grow light with similar 90W output )? Will it be problems if the light is too powerful? Since neither H380 nor most of the led grow light are dimmable, I won’t be able to just turn it down.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Is there any rule on how much light to pick for refugium? I am looking for one for a 45G setup with about 4G fuge, 13*9 area.

Does the size like that need as powerful as Kessil H380 (or some grow light with similar 90W output )? Will it be problems if the light is too powerful? Since neither H380 nor most of the led grow light are dimmable, I won’t be able to just turn it down.

My fuge is slightly larger than yours 13x11 and I have the H380 over it, about 9 inches off the water surface. So far it's doing good.

 

[ReefBeta]

My fuge is slightly larger than yours 13x11 and I have the H380 over it, about 9 inches off the water surface. So far it's doing good.

What is your system's size, and stock level?

 

[Crabs McJones]

What is your system's size, and stock level?

I have a 40 breeder with a 20 sump. 5 fish and a mix of sps, lps, and soft coral

 

[Daniel Waters]

The H380 wouldn't be too much light in the sense that the chaeto or other macro could certainly handle the intensity if there are adequate nutrients and trimmed regularly. However, the h380 has a very large spread, so I think a larger fuge area is best for that particular light. I suspect another cheaper grow light focused for your refugium area would be adequate. I'm just not sure how much marginal difference the h380 is going to provide would justify the extra cost. I've used a h380. It grew my chaeto so well that I had trouble keeping my nutrients above 0! So I guess it might also depend on if you are really struggling controlling your nutrients and feel like you need such a high powered light. A less strong light but ran a bit longer may work just as well for example (I had to cut my h380 back in the time it ran because I didn't really have a large enough fuge space and nutrients to run it for more than 12 hours each day). You could run another smaller light 16 hours for example to compensate for the lower power.

 

[ReefBeta]

The H380 wouldn't be too much light in the sense that the chaeto or other macro could certainly handle the intensity if there are adequate nutrients and trimmed regularly. However, the h380 has a very large spread, so I think a larger fuge area is best for that particular light. I suspect another cheaper grow light focused for your refugium area would be adequate. I'm just not sure how much marginal difference the h380 is going to provide would justify the extra cost. I've used a h380. It grew my chaeto so well that I had trouble keeping my nutrients above 0! So I guess it might also depend on if you are really struggling controlling your nutrients and feel like you need such a high powered light. A less strong light but ran a bit longer may work just as well for example (I had to cut my h380 back in the time it ran because I didn't really have a large enough fuge space and nutrients to run it for more than 12 hours each day). You could run another smaller light 16 hours for example to compensate for the lower power.

Yeah that make lots of sense. I actually not in great need of nutritions export since I'm dosing vodka and nutritions are pretty low already. I'll cut back on vodka as the fuge mature. The main reason I do fuge is for it to drive down PH at night. My daily PH swing from 7.9 to 8.3. I made up space for the new fuge for less than a week, and now it can go to 7.95 to 8.35 in the day. My hope is by increasing night time lowest PH, the day time PH can reach 8.4 ~ 8.5. What is your PH daily swing?

In terms of light choice, I will probably not get a H380, just point it out as it's probably the more familiar one in this community. It's a 90W agriculture LED, so I'm looking for something around 50W ~ 100W LED, and those are lots of options under $100. I am actually researching into weed growers community more , as the grow rate is the main concern there. Kessil H380 is not a popular option there as because of the price point, and production of LEDs with similar power consumption are not different by too much.

 

[Daniel Waters]

What is your PH daily swing?

I haven't tested my PH consistently enough to say. It's usually in the 8.0 to 8.2 range but I'm sure it probably swings more than that. Chasing PH is something I would not get hung up on, UNLESS you are running at levels that are bad or it is dropping too low. In your case, a drop to 7.9 does not seem abnormal or harmful to me. A reverse light cycle will help some, but I think you can achieve that with a cheaper light option like you are considering.

 

[ReefBeta]

I haven't tested my PH consistently enough to say. It's usually in the 8.0 to 8.2 range but I'm sure it probably swings more than that. Chasing PH is something I would not get hung up on, UNLESS you are running at levels that are bad or it is dropping too low. In your case, a drop to 7.9 does not seem abnormal or harmful to me. A reverse light cycle will help some, but I think you can achieve that with a cheaper light option like you are considering.

Yeah, I don't mean 7.9 is problematic. I'm not really chasing a number, more so to try out how well a full power refugium can delivery on that end. Of course the reason to want higher PH is to increase rate of calcification of coral, at least that's what BRS demonstrated and probably more reliable than any other snake oil addictive, I think.

 

[Daniel Waters]

Yeah, I don't mean 7.9 is problematic. I'm not really chasing a number, more so to try out how well a full power refugium can delivery on that end. Of course the reason to want higher PH is to increase rate of calcification of coral, at least that's what BRS demonstrated and probably more reliable than any other snake oil addictive, I think.

Let me know what you find out!