Why do we use ganja lights to grow chaeto?

[Patrick.S]

I’m going to lay out some assumptions to spark a conversation. The assumptions might be misplaced in which case I’d love to have them cleared up.

Most of the high end grow lights sold to light our refugiums were designed to bloom marijuana plants.

Those in horticulture who use grow lights to promote vegetative growth use lights in the daylight to bluer spectrum.

Why do we use red grow lights for the vegetative growth of our macro algae? The Triton method recommends a blend of blue and daylight t5. Why are fuges so commonly lit by bloom spectrum lights?

I’m trying to design my next refugium so I’d love some clarity here.

 

[Sdot]

Great question and following. I decided to use the best of both worlds... (H160 and A160WE) I think the horticulture light has a more "usable" spectrum for plants therefore should work well for marine algae?

 

[joseserrano]

I use black box equivilant grow lights for my cheato, They do great, I harvest a dense 5g bucket every 2-3 weeks (I have to remember to pull it out).

 

[mrpizzaface]

I’m going to lay out some assumptions to spark a conversation. The assumptions might be misplaced in which case I’d love to have them cleared up.

Most of the high end grow lights sold to light our refugiums were designed to bloom marijuana plants.

Those in horticulture who use grow lights to promote vegetative growth use lights in the daylight to bluer spectrum.

Why do we use red grow lights for the vegetative growth of our macro algae? The Triton method recommends a blend of blue and daylight t5. Why are fuges so commonly lit by bloom spectrum lights?

I’m trying to design my next refugium so I’d love some clarity here.

How is using a redder spectrum light to bloom marijuana, not a horticultural application used to promote vegetative growth?

 

[najer]

I wanna harvest your sump once those buds are phat and juicy!
... my bad I was picturing you growing marijuana in your fuge instead of mangroves!

 

[Nburg's Reef]

How is using a redder spectrum light to bloom marijuana, not a horticultural application used to promote vegetative growth?

Red/Blue lights are sold in horticulture for more than just weed. It's hard on the eyes if you have to work in that area, but its much more efficient to not use green spectrum since the plants don't need them or use them. I use them to keep my palms and vegetables happy indoors in the winter.

They are commonly associated with weed, I am guessing, because weed needs lots of light and these can put out a lot of the light they need without wasted energy for spectrum the plants don't need. And you can't exactly grow weed outside in most places in the US.

 

[Patrick.S]

Red/Blue lights are sold in horticulture for more than just weed. It's hard on the eyes if you have to work in that area, but its much more efficient to not use green spectrum since the plants don't need them or use them. I use them to keep my palms and vegetables happy indoors in the winter.

They are commonly associated with weed, I am guessing, because weed needs lots of light and these can put out a lot of the light they need without wasted energy for spectrum the plants don't need. And you can't exactly grow weed outside in most places in the US.

Can you help me understand the bloom vs veg settings on so many grow lights in that case?

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Can you help me understand the bloom vs veg settings on so many grow lights in that case?

No idea. My grow lights are single setting, On/Off. My point was that the blue and red spectrum is not something special to cannabis. It wouldn't surprise me if there were settings for different types of plants or growing times.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

As someone that owned a commercial weed warehouse that pumped out 100 pounds of high grade cannabis a month... There are two light spectrums that we use. The blue light is for vegetative growth. The natural light on the summer is bluer in spectrum. We trigger the plants to start flowering by increasing the length of darkness to 12 hours. There is a flowering hormone that is produced when the sun is up but degrades when exposed to light.. so longer darkness..flowering hormone builds up.. Flower!!

We use redder lights to flower as they contain more wavelengths that induce flowering and bud growth... because the light in the late summer and fall is redder because the sun is lower and passes through more atmosphere.

If you are growing chaeto then you want to run the bluer lights or the "veg" program.

On another note, this is where I also learned that the idea that LED lights can grow things with half the wattage is a total myth. We had SOO many LED companies setting up examples grows in our warehouse in order to sell us $300,000 worth of LED units. They did grow and produce quality buds, it's just the net weight of the buds was much less than halides. "Oh great, we saved $3,000 on our monthly power bill and would produce $120,000 less of product" "add more lights was there answer".

Anyways.. off topic.. blue is what you want.

 

[Bpb]

As someone that owned a commercial weed warehouse that pumped out 100 pounds of high grade cannabis a month... There are two light spectrums that we use. The blue light is for vegetative growth. The natural light on the summer is bluer in spectrum. We trigger the plants to start flowering by increasing the length of darkness to 12 hours. There is a flowering hormone that is produced when the sun is up but degrades when exposed to light.. so longer darkness..flowering hormone builds up.. Flower!!

We use redder lights to flower as they contain more wavelengths that induce flowering and bud growth... because the light in the late summer and fall is redder because the sun is lower and passes through more atmosphere.

If you are growing chaeto then you want to run the bluer lights or the "veg" program.

On another note, this is where I also learned that the idea that LED lights can grow things with half the wattage is a total myth. We had SOO many LED companies setting up examples grows in our warehouse in order to sell us $300,000 worth of LED units. They did grow and produce quality buds, it's just the net weight of the buds was much less than halides. "Oh great, we saved $3,000 on our monthly power bill and would produce $120,000 less of product" "add more lights was there answer".

Anyways.. off topic.. blue is what you want.

Outstanding reply and insight. Thank you sir.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

No sweat. Half the challange..ok, maybe 70% of the challenge of professionally growing of cannabis is separating the BS advice from truth. Having a minor in botany certainly helps.

I suppose the same can be said of marine aquariums. Just today someone told me that "there is no bacteria in the water column, it is only on the rcoks and substrate. Umm....then how did it get there?

 

[Joekovar]

I was under the impression that chaetomorpha is part of the green algae family. Being that red light is a signal of decreased photon energy to photosynthetic organisms, triggering blooming/flowering, seeding, and other preparations for a period of dormancy, and algae is a simple organism in a state of basically perpetual bloom, really having no vegetative state, it would make sense that red light should promote better chaetomorpha growth.

I've always thought it was pretty neat that we can trigger flowering in marijuana by extending it's darkness period. Perhaps more so that interrupting that period once it's begun, or letting temperatures rise too high, can cause hermaphrodites.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Red light is not a signal to plants, the duration of light (or more accurately darkness) is a signal to plants. Chaeto absorbs both red and green light. In the charts I have seen it has the ability to absorb red and blue light, almost equally with a decided lean towards blue light.

Most "grow weed" lights in the vegetative setting are both red and blue but they will appear red. The flowering setting contains much less blue light and should be avoided.

Almost every plant and animal on planet earth uses the length of the day to signal certain activities. From Elk deciding to get it on to sunflowers blooming, it is all the amount of day light.

 

[Gary Inwood]

I use black box equivilant grow lights for my cheato, They do great, I harvest a dense 5g bucket every 2-3 weeks (I have to remember to pull it out).

so you have a Chinese black box over your sump?
is your sump enclosed?
how high is it above your sump?
asking these questions as i was told on here is was not a good idea to put my mars aqua 165w led over my sump/refugium.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

I would put it about 16" above your sump. Will grow chaeto like mad! If it's too much light it will turn white.. just dial it back a little.

 

[Gary Inwood]

I would put it about 16" above your sump. Will grow chaeto like mad! If it's too much light it will turn white.. just dial it back a little.

sold going to do it this weekend.
Thank you

 

[joseserrano]

so you have a Chinese black box over your sump?
is your sump enclosed?
how high is it above your sump?
asking these questions as i was told on here is was not a good idea to put my mars aqua 165w led over my sump/refugium.

 

[jda]

Do not overthink lighting chaeto. If it is going to grow, you can light it with a CFL in a clip-on reflector and have to prune it in half every few weeks.

IMO, having some iron in the water and enough, but not too much, N and P is way more important than the light.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

I 2nd the need for iron. That is why I grow chaeto in an old metal skillet.

 

[Nobody077]

Simple COST, most people use cheaper light setups that are simply marketed as marijuana grow lights. The focus is on the grow and bloom spectrum and they dont care about full visual spectrum to keep cost down. Grow light is a grow light, tomatoes,fruit,flowers,weed or chaeto.