Lining refugium with LED strip lights?

[burningmime]

I'm thinking of lining the inside of my refugium with these things:


(or one of the many similar products; this one is only 12V so probably won't be able to out compete any light in the display). These could be submerged in the water so the chaeto and other algae is lit from all sides, or I could just put them around the top. Would something like that work?

 

[xxkenny90xx]

I wouldn't put any type of cheap light in the water, no matter how waterproof they claim to be. I have put leds on the sides of my fuge though (on the outside) so my chaeto gets light from mor angles. As for that light I didn't see any info about how powerful it is but I would guess that you'd need a ton of it to equal the amount of bulbs that other cheap amazon plant leds have. Why not go with a panel full of bulbs and secure it to the sides and one above the fuge?

 

[burningmime]

I wouldn't put any type of cheap light in the water, no matter how waterproof they claim to be. I have put leds on the sides of my fuge though (on the outside) so my chaeto gets light from mor angles. As for that light I didn't see any info about how powerful it is but I would guess that you'd need a ton of it to equal the amount of bulbs that other cheap amazon plant leds have. Why not go with a panel full of bulbs and secure it to the sides and one above the fuge?

I'm currently thinking of doing a "closed fuge" where the lid is a few inches above the water. This will prevent the light from turning my basement/fish room purple and growing algae on the skimmer. So I need lights that are happy very close to the water instead of being mounted high up.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

What do you mean by closed fuge?

 

[burningmime]

What do you mean by closed fuge?

An opaque rubbermaid tub with a lid on it so light doesn't spill out into the rest of the room.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Gotcha. You could try those but I wouldn't expect them to last long term enclosed like that. I'd look at something of better quality (feels weird saying that since I use cheapo amazon grow lights)