What's your favorite chaeto grow light?

Shawn

Shawn

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So - I've set up a 40 gallon long and ditched the biocube. Now that I have a sump and chaeto (thanks Jin and Drew for your chaeto contributions!) I'm wondering what the best lighting method would be. Eventually, I think I want to get a H380, but that's not financially feasible right this second. What's a relatively cheap, good chaeto grow light? This would also function as a backup light in the event the H380 dies once I grab one. I'm curious of what you guys think!
 
JBJ Nano-Glo 4-LED Refugium Light
I'm using one of these one each f my tanks, grows Cheato very well, not the cheapest option out there but works well and is compact.
1558620600649.png
 
Fwiw-
An $8 Spring type 5000k fluorescent lamp in an aluminum flood lamp fixture works fine.

I’ll be using something a little more sharp, design wise, on the new system for around $30 from Amazon. I’ll try to pull it up when I’m in front of a pc.


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I got this idea from a member. He uses ABI 18W Full Spectrum LED Grow Light Bulb PAR38 (Blue 450-460nm, Red 620-630 nm, Deep Red 660nm, Cold White 10000K). It looked cool in his sump and he said it was doing great. So I got one a few weeks ago and it is awesome! My Chaeto loves it and has doubled in size since I added it. My nitrites are at 0 and holding!
 
I know this may not be the most relevant but with my diy ATS, I had originally started with a led flood lights I got from Amazon that had 630 red and few 450 blues. I struggled to get good growth but it worked overall. To get to the point it worked there were several stages of undesirable films that grew on the sheet. Once it started growing gha well I'd have to clean the canvas sheet every 7-10 days even if there wasn't as much gha as I'd've like on it. The reason it had to be cleaned at that point is because cyano would start growing on top of the gha after that period of time.

So after one of the led cob's died in one of the floods over the last winter I reached out to Bud, Floyd R Turbo, from Turbo's Aquatics. He was kind enough to give me a crash course on lighting for an ATS. After following his instructions I rebuilt the flood's with new leds from the ground up. The only things I kept from the stock light was the housings and the power cords. But the cost for the led stars from Steve's leds and the new drivers totaled more than I spent to build the whole ATS... including the led floods. I'm real happy I did it though. Now the ATS is a GHA growing machine!!! With no cyano in there.

Now's where the relevance comes into play. The lighting instructions Bud gave me is it's 80% 660 red to 20% 420 true violet and the number of leds per square inch I'd need to light the sheet properly, nothing much more that. Guess what primary spectrum's Kessil's H series has in them??? ;)

I'd look for lights that have similar primary spectrum's for a fudge light. The problem is finding the actual nm specs for fixtures on Amazon.
Also everyone has different sized fuges but for a small one I wouldn't go below 10w. For something bigger, say 24"x24" I'd shoot for 50-80w. Don't trust the rated wattage on Amazon either. The floods I got were supposed to be 50w each, they ran at roughly 72w combined. The rebuilt ones run at 160w at 100% power or about 80w each with the drivers. I had to dial them back to 50% because they were too powerful initially. I'm now running them at 60%.
 
That's some great info. I have a JBL nano fuge light that I ran on my Biocube32. It's in my sump now. I think I'm just going to run the grow light and the JBL until I can spring for a Kessil. There's a Black Magic Hydroponics light at Home Depot for $40 - was gonna try that today, but I'm having good growth as it is. I'm actually selling some chaeto at some point this week, so I'll consider it "decent" for now. I *might* try that Black Magic light from Home Depot just to see, but I think the Kessil is gonna be the way to go. While I love DIY stuff, and would REALLY love to learn LED electronics principles, my main goal is to excel with this 40g as I set up my 125g.
 

You've probably already seen this video if you've researched refugium lights, but it does an excellent job breaking down what PAR and PUR mean and shows the difference between a standard LED bulb and the Kessils. I ordered the UFO grow light from amazon to try out, but the Kessil would be ideal to have.

Amazon.com: UFO Led Grow Light, Growstar 150W Full Spectrum Plant Light with High Par Value Cree COB and Switch for Indoor Plants Bloom Flowering and Growing: Gateway

Amazon.com: UFO Led Grow Light, Growstar 150W Full Spectrum Plant Light with High Par Value Cree COB and Switch for Indoor Plants Bloom Flowering and Growing: Gateway
www.amazon.com


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dapperjman said:

You've probably already seen this video if you've researched refugium lights, but it does an excellent job breaking down what PAR and PUR mean and shows the difference between a standard LED bulb and the Kessils. I ordered the UFO grow light from amazon to try out, but the Kessil would be ideal to have.

Amazon.com: UFO Led Grow Light, Growstar 150W Full Spectrum Plant Light with High Par Value Cree COB and Switch for Indoor Plants Bloom Flowering and Growing: Gateway

Amazon.com: UFO Led Grow Light, Growstar 150W Full Spectrum Plant Light with High Par Value Cree COB and Switch for Indoor Plants Bloom Flowering and Growing: Gateway
www.amazon.com


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Click to expand...

Any update on this light? I'm looking for a fuge light and this seems promising. Can't drop the $$$ for a kessil right now.
 
popsbjd said:
Any update on this light? I'm looking for a fuge light and this seems promising. Can't drop the $$$ for a kessil right now.
Click to expand...

Hey @popsbjd, I'll be honest I bought the light and couldn't find time to install it until today. It worked out though because I came across a used Seneye Reef PAR meter for $100 so I grabbed it and done a quick test on my old fuge light and the new UFO one. I got the 150W UFO light and replaced a 60W equivalent Cree LED bulb. I did hang the UFO light about 2 inches closer to the water, but I don't think that would have made a big difference with my old light. You can clearly see below that I am getting over 6X the PAR and a much higher PUR since the UFO light appears to have more of the blue and red spectrum that the chlorophyll in plants can use.

I'll have to report back in a few weeks on how it does growing chaeto!

Cree 60W at Surface
7545

Cree 60W 3 inches below surface
7546

UFO 150W at Surface
7547

UFO 150W 3 inches below surface
7548
 
dapperjman said:
Hey @popsbjd, I'll be honest I bought the light and couldn't find time to install it until today. It worked out though because I came across a used Seneye Reef PAR meter for $100 so I grabbed it and done a quick test on my old fuge light and the new UFO one. I got the 150W UFO light and replaced a 60W equivalent Cree LED bulb. I did hang the UFO light about 2 inches closer to the water, but I don't think that would have made a big difference with my old light. You can clearly see below that I am getting over 6X the PAR and a much higher PUR since the UFO light appears to have more of the blue and red spectrum that the chlorophyll in plants can use.

I'll have to report back in a few weeks on how it does growing chaeto!

Cree 60W at Surface
View attachment 7545

Cree 60W 3 inches below surface
View attachment 7546

UFO 150W at Surface
View attachment 7547

UFO 150W 3 inches below surface
View attachment 7548
Click to expand...
Thanks for that. This looks like a really solid light for the money.

Id love an update moving forward but i may by one next week based on those numbers.

Ive got black boxes on all my reefs. Maybe is time for a black cylinder for my fuge.

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After doing a lot of research I think I’ll be going with the Kessil -H389. Thanks for all the feedback!
 
aestheticlibra said:
After doing a lot of research I think I’ll be going with the Kessil -H389. Thanks for all the feedback!
Click to expand...
Thats a beast. I would doubt you will have any trouble but it would be great if you'd update on your experience once its been up for a bit.

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popsbjd said:
Thats a beast. I would doubt you will have any trouble but it would be great if you'd update on your experience once its been up for a bit.

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Click to expand...

Definitely will do!
 
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