refugium lighting
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Crabs McJones
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Definitely H380
Crabs McJones
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No problem
the H80 is a great fuge light, but more suited to small fuges or hang on back fuges. For triton u'll definitely want the 380 
miPapareef
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How much iron are you dosing versus size of system and size of fuge?We didn't have space for the H380 and our 'fuge is small so we went with H80 and it's growing chaeto and caleurpa well. Things really took off when we started dosing Iron...
Salt1972
Active Member
Our display is 125g and our refugium is maybe 10g. When we dosed iron, we used Randy's suggestion of crushing a Fergon tablet in 30ml of RD/DI. Then we dosed 2mL once or twice per week. We got an outbreak of algae or some strange stringy stuff all over our rocks and crushed coral bed. We stopped iron dosing and it seemed to clear up. It's entirely possible that the events were unrelated and the timing was coincidental, but our caleurpa algae is thriving and our nitrates are <4ppm consistently. So, we no longer dose iron. Maybe the caleurpa got its kick start? We did begin running GFO because we couldn't get our PO4 under .12ppm. With a small mesh bag in the overflow, we maintain .03-.05ppm PO4.
miPapareef
Well-Known Member
OP- I think you made the right choice with the H380.
Salt- Thanks for the reply. I also use the H80 over a 7 gallon fuge on a 75 gallon DT running full triton with nitrates at 5-7 and PO4 at 0.1. But I just can’t make chaeto grow, it just slowly wastes away. Been thinking about dosing iron.
That's a couple months of growth in my 20g system (8g nano and 12g trigger sump)
I run a h80 and a cheap eBay led panel
I like the h80 as I run it 24/7 so the fuge is always exporting nutrients and boosting ph. I use the eBay panel light at night to keep ph high. If I had a bigger tank I would definitely get a h380. I may still run the h80 on it 24/7 but use the h380 in place of the panel led.
With this setup I have complete control of my nutrients (I dose kno3 and KH2PO4) and my ph stays between 8.25-8.3 all day long
Salt1972
Active Member
Our chaeto remains in the refugium, no bigger or smaller than when we started it months ago. We added caleurpa. That's when we saw effective reduction of nitrates and, to a lesser, but still meaningful degree, phosphates. I've read many horror stories about the caleurpa going sexual and taking over tanks. We run our H80 22 hours a day in an effort to stave off that possibility. If it happens, we have a couple of urchins (my daughter loves them much to mine and the coral's chagrin) and a purple tang who would relish the thought. In fact, we take a pinch of the caleurpa along with nori and put it in a clip in the display 2 or 3 times per week for those guys.
