Lighting a Fuge for Triton Method. Need advice!

[Biglurr54]

I am in the process of a new build. I have outgrown my 60 cube and finally got the approval from the wife to do a large living room reef tank. I am looking at a 150 gallon tank. 60x24x24. I want to try something new with this tank and I was between an automatic water change system with Masterflex pumps or Triton. Triton is the winner.

I need help with lighting of the fuge. I plan on doing a separate 18x18x18 cube as the fuge. That will overflow into a sump with skimmer, po4 reactor and carbon reactor.

I want to have a very powerful light for the fuge. I plan on many different species of algae in the fuge. What would be the best option for a full spectrum fuge light?

2 – 24watt PLL t5 running 3500k bulbs in custom reflector

Kessil H380 (Not full spectrum)

DIY LED fixture with 3500k, 660nm red, and RB leds? I can go as big as needed and change spectrum as needed for this option. I feel like this is unknown territory at this point in the hobby.

70watt or 150watt halide running 3500k bulb. (Heat is an issue as I don’t plan on a chiller)

Other t5 or LED light?

I want to fuge to easily out compete the display tank for nutrients. The display will be running 3 150 watt HQI M80 14k lights with 30 Luxeon RB and 8 Semileds Hyper violet 3.0 so it has big shoes to fill.

Please let me know your thoughts.

 

[bif24701]

I am in the process of a new build. I have outgrown my 60 cube and finally got the approval from the wife to do a large living room reef tank. I am looking at a 150 gallon tank. 60x24x24. I want to try something new with this tank and I was between an automatic water change system with Masterflex pumps or Triton. Triton is the winner.

I need help with lighting of the fuge. I plan on doing a separate 18x18x18 cube as the fuge. That will overflow into a sump with skimmer, po4 reactor and carbon reactor.

I want to have a very powerful light for the fuge. I plan on many different species of algae in the fuge. What would be the best option for a full spectrum fuge light?

2 – 24watt PLL t5 running 3500k bulbs in custom reflector

Kessil H380 (Not full spectrum)

DIY LED fixture with 3500k, 660nm red, and RB leds? I can go as big as needed and change spectrum as needed for this option. I feel like this is unknown territory at this point in the hobby.

70watt or 150watt halide running 3500k bulb. (Heat is an issue as I don’t plan on a chiller)

Other t5 or LED light?

I want to fuge to easily out compete the display tank for nutrients. The display will be running 3 150 watt HQI M80 14k lights with 30 Luxeon RB and 8 Semileds Hyper violet 3.0 so it has big shoes to fill.

Please let me know your thoughts.

I don't see any reason why not get the Kessil. As you said, need a light that can compete with the display.

 

[Biglurr54]

My concerns with the kessil is it is not full spectrum and it's the most expensive.

 

[bif24701]

My concerns with the kessil is it is not full spectrum and it's the most expensive.

It is designed specifically for photosynthesis in growing plants. Are you going to display this fuge?

 

[Biglurr54]

Nope it will be concealed.

 

[Best Fish-Jake]

If it's not for display I reccomend going with the ELIVE strip lights.. they're customizable, low cost, and are perfectly capable of growing algae

 

[bif24701]

Nope it will be concealed.

Then if you want to ensure results the Kessil is the clear choice.

 

[K100286]

Kessil. Check out BRStv video testing various lights for refugiums.

 

[Biglurr54]

I've seen brs. I love what they do. It's amazing the money and effort they put into bettering this hobby for everyone. I owe most of my success to them. With that said, they are also a company selling products. The best fuge light that brs sells is hands down the kessil h380. There are t5 options, halide options, and there is the diy led route and these were things brs didn't look into. No fault to them. Maybe they weren't even contenders due to poor performance in a fuge. I have to imagine a 75 or 150 watt halide would out produce the h380 though. I know full spectrum is important and the h380 focuses on chlorophyll peaks.

All this said I am leaning towards the h380 mostly from the rave reviews brs gave it. I just want to make sure there aren't other, better options that are over looked due to a company not selling that product. Brs does a good job calling it out and being fair with products they don't sell but they are a business who is putting up the coin to do the experiments so they are inherently bias even though they try not to be.

 

[K100286]

All good points, but I haven't seen any other company doing the experiments BRS is doing. I think we all are trying to get the best product we can at the lowest price. I am as guilty as a lot of reefers where we pay less thinking the cheaper product will make do, but usually,but not always the produce does not do the job or breaks down. Good luck.

 

[Biglurr54]

I completely agree with you. Fuge lights are grossly over looked. I give bed credit for binging the attention to the fact that the fuge light matters as much as (if not more than) the display light.

 

[hart24601]

It's good to consider that the kessil puts out 90W of LED power right on those chlorophyll peaks. That is a lot of light. Hydra 26 is also 90w but it has colors that do not match chlorophyll peaks so even a light like that isn't as efficient for growing macro. (but those other colors are important for our viewing and coral - just not here). Even Chinese black box fixtures run 110W at peak and again the peaks don't match macro growing exactly. I just picked up a H380 up for myself - for the power, 90w of totally useable light for macro it's not a crazy price.

 

[Maacc]

There's a 300 watt viparspectra led I use on my fuge. I think it's about $90 on Amazon.

 

[hart24601]

There's a 300 watt viparspectra led I use on my fuge. I think it's about $90 on Amazon.

Good lord that is a lot of power! Does it really pull 300W? Some of those fixtures like black box use higher capacity LEDs but limit the actual power that goes into them. I would think that sucker would heat up fast and burn out if pulling 300w! You can see the cooling capacity on these monsters, they have a 150w and 300w (and larger)

http://www.maxspect.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=91&Itemid=487&lang=en


Ah, found this from another site:

"This Viparspectra 300w LED grow light equals the output of a 250 watt HID system, while only consuming 136 watts."

Still not bad price for 136W

 

[lqn14]

They are marketed 300w because they have either 3w or 5w leds that in total equal 300watts. They don't ever consume that much. What you probably should focus more on if the PAR number that these type of lights output. There are tons of sites and YouTube videos bay should PAR numbers for fuge or "grow" spectrum lights. But I agree with most of you that kessil h380 is the most efficient and power light in the price range that I have seen.

 

[esolo16]

If the fuge is in the stand, I'd imagine halide/t5 would cause some heat issues.

 

[Maacc]

I can promise you that it's bright.

Hoping to get a par meter on it in the next few weeks.

 

[CodyRVA]

Fuge lights are grossly over looked.

Respectfully, I disagree. It's become extremely trendy to beg the question "what fuge light should I buy" and what's worse is decisions are made with judgement purely based off of the results showcased by BRS. By no means do I contest those results or what lights are "the best," but holy cow batman the success and failure of a reef will absolutely NOT depend on your fuge light. We're so caught up on how much one should spend on a fuge light that we're not taking the time to ask if the ROI is justified. There are a plethora of inexpensive alternatives that are more than sufficient, let alone the number of reefers who don't even have a fuge at all and have amazingly healthy reefs.

Just my .02, if you have the money then rock on, I would personally invest it elsewhere; where results are undeniable: lighting, filtration, etc.

 

[ksfulk]

I had great success with my Triton refugium using a 150w MH Grow Lamp used for horticulture. Runs about $70 - $100 depending on where you get them from. Here's one on Amazon. Cant really argue for any other light. I didnt see as much growth when using other types of lighting - but those were lights designed for something more general. I was tossing about 600mL of macro algae out twice a week with this rig. I didnt really notice much heat as a result of running this fixture, but every situation will vary.

 

[hart24601]

Respectfully, I disagree. It's become extremely trendy to beg the question "what fuge light should I buy" and what's worse is decisions are made with judgement purely based off of the results showcased by BRS. By no means do I contest those results or what lights are "the best," but holy cow batman the success and failure of a reef will absolutely NOT depend on your fuge light. We're so caught up on how much one should spend on a fuge light that we're not taking the time to ask if the ROI is justified. There are a plethora of inexpensive alternatives that are more than sufficient, let alone the number of reefers who don't even have a fuge at all and have amazingly healthy reefs.

Just my .02, if you have the money then rock on, I would personally invest it elsewhere; where results are undeniable: lighting, filtration, etc.

While I understand the sentiment I am going the other direction. I sure would like more information than just a video provided by BRS, however I feel that making decisions based off their results are sure better than just guessing or speculation by strangers on the internet whom might not even be running what they suggest. The BRS experiments are in their infancy, when they start adding more bioload via various amounts of food and seeing what point, if any, chateo growth can no longer keep up it will be even more valuable information.

Of course BRS is a company and selling their products, but I don't see anyone else doing that work with macro and nutrient reduction.

Isn't investing money in fuge lights investing in filtration?

I also would argue that a fuge light could make or break a system, especially if they rely only on macro for export. A large tank (with large bioload) with compact fluorescent simply may not be able to grow enough macro or grow it fast enough. I hope future BRS videos examine it.

There are many people that are growing macro algae, however just because it grows doesn't mean it couldn't grow faster - reducing more nutrients and making for less reliance on GFO or other export methods.