Will white light grow chaeto

[RussC]

Thinking about a DIY refugium. Have some white LED lights. Will that grow Chaeto?

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

I think it can be done. BRS had a series on cheato a while back where they had good but not great growth using a basic light bulb.

 

[PerplexyHexy]

Im having great growth with just a little marineland white/blue led lamp

 

[PatW]

I used an inexpensive light and it grew chaeto fine. But when I ramped up my display lights for corals, the chaeto withered. After that I got a high powered refugium light and the chaeto does fine. If you have a fish only with relatively low lighting, a basic light will grow chaeto. But if your display has high powered lights, your refugium lights need to be powerful also.

 

[roberthu526]

I used an inexpensive light and it grew chaeto fine. But when I ramped up my display lights for corals, the chaeto withered. After that I got a high powered refugium light and the chaeto does fine. If you have a fish only with relatively low lighting, a basic light will grow chaeto. But if your display has high powered lights, your refugium lights need to be powerful also.

This makes a lot of sense.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I used an inexpensive light and it grew chaeto fine. But when I ramped up my display lights for corals, the chaeto withered. After that I got a high powered refugium light and the chaeto does fine. If you have a fish only with relatively low lighting, a basic light will grow chaeto. But if your display has high powered lights, your refugium lights need to be powerful also.

This is pretty true and many people have see it first hand. Basically you need the algae in the fuge to out compete algae in the display. Since algea needs light and we tend to have very intense lighting over our display tanks a low watt CFL over the fuge algae will not cut it and algae will grow better in the display due to having more light.

 

[408Dartfish]

I get chaeto to grow pretty good with a White LED Zetlight from BRS with 0 tumbling.

 

[jda]

Yes, the white will grow chaeto. White has red, green, blue, orange and all of the colors in it. It is fine.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yes.
Keep in mind white is relative and mostly slang.
White can be 16k 8k 56k and 32k.
Between 28 and 56k you should have no problem.

My first HOB Refugium I ran a $9 ikea led for five years.

 

[OriginalUserName]

Yes. Just keep in mind that a white light with X watts won't work as well as a red/blue light with the same wattage.
You can also pick up a fairly cheap grow light like this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LX1EO3W/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Jet915]

I used an inexpensive light and it grew chaeto fine. But when I ramped up my display lights for corals, the chaeto withered. After that I got a high powered refugium light and the chaeto does fine. If you have a fish only with relatively low lighting, a basic light will grow chaeto. But if your display has high powered lights, your refugium lights need to be powerful also.

Interesting, my chaeto started shrinking when I upped my LED and added a T5 bulb....good to know cause I used a small white LED light to grow my chaeto as well.

 

[OriginalUserName]

Interesting, my chaeto started shrinking when I upped my LED and added a T5 bulb....good to know cause I used a small white LED light to grow my chaeto as well.

More light in the DT means corals and algae in the DT are able to take up more nutrients, leaving less for the chaeto.

 

[Jet915]

More light in the DT means corals and algae in the DT are able to take up more nutrients, leaving less for the chaeto.

Yeah, I figured it was a nutient issue, I switched to turning the chaeto light on at night to do reverse cycle and I think the chaeto has stopped shrinking but its still small....

 

[BZOFIQ]

I dont see why not. It's been done all these years before the new breed of reefers was conditioned to think only purple light is allowed.

 

[madweazl]

I ran two 6500k CFLs in clip on fixtures over my refugium with good results until switching to the Kessil.

 

[madweazl]

I used an inexpensive light and it grew chaeto fine. But when I ramped up my display lights for corals, the chaeto withered. After that I got a high powered refugium light and the chaeto does fine. If you have a fish only with relatively low lighting, a basic light will grow chaeto. But if your display has high powered lights, your refugium lights need to be powerful also.

Eh?

 

[Cnidoblast]

One or two clip on desk lamps and these bulbs should do you fine: https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/36858/FC23-S65.html

I do not think it's worth money to use high end LED systems to grow algae that is going to be frozen and then thrown away anyway

Just be careful not to get saltwater into the desk lamps - hook them up to a GFCI outlet if possible!

I do not have a fuge but I know commercial algae growers tend to use florescent lamps

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I dont see why not. It's been done all these years before the new breed of reefers was conditioned to think only purple light is allowed.

Right?

 

[FugeTown]

Before I added a ton of liveroock, I used to use chaeto to keep my nutrients down and I grew the chaeto with one of those low wattage spiral lightbulbs from the hardware store. It grew so fast I had to throw a big clump of it out every month, funny part is how people make money off it and it literally grows like a weed. I only got rid of it because I used a gravity overflow that always failed which was a royal pain in the butt. Now with a ton of liverock and the reef octopus skimmer I’m feeding heavy to keep my Corals happy because of how low the nitrates and phosphates stay.

 

[Rich Klein]

Thinking about a DIY refugium. Have some white LED lights. Will that grow Chaeto?

This 150 W LED Growl light that I purchased on Amazon for $43 grows massive amounts of Chaeto in my 14 x 12 fuge. Destroyed the hair algae in my 165 gal DT, which is lit by 2 Kessil AP 700s. It was so cheap and works so well I bought a 2nd one for a backup.