How are these bulbs for fuge?

[rocketeer]

I'm building an above tank refugium out of a twenty long. In it I will have various macros like caulerpa, gracilaria, chaetomorpha, and ... bryopsis :huh

I'm putting a two bulb N.O. fixture above it. What do you guys think of these bulbs?

Jack

[rocketeer]

Oh yeah, the natural sunshine bulb says it has 850 kumens, color rendering of 92, and colot temperature of 5000 K. The plant and aquarium bulb has 600 lumens and a color temp of 2700 K.

I'm thinking that the these macros live closer to the surface and will accept lower color temperature. Isn't natural sunlight about 7000 K?

Thanks,
Jack

[Tim Marvin]

hit up Greg at 360 reef. The T-5's I have over the fuge are growing the plants and mangrooves like crazy.

[GaryP]

Sunlight is 5500 K

[Jenn]

What is "N.O."? I have seen you guys mention it several times, just never asked.

[Jenn]

Oh.... :blush
I should of figured that one out... ^_^
Thanks.

[Brett Wilson]

T5's would be a significant investment for a fuge light.... but the '10000Ks' that greg is selling are pretty yellow... I bet they are closer to 8000K and would work well on a fuge IMO. I have two of the 24" bulbs that I'd like to sell.

But since you already have the NO fixture I would use some bulbs from home depot or something... as close to 5500K or 6500K as you can get.

For another option they do make spiral PC bulbs that are 6500K, I've used one and I think they are pretty much the best bang for the buck in fuge lighting... They dont require ballasts, are around $6 each, and last a long time.

HTH
-Brett

[highestbid]

I have been using them for about 3 months and the cheato has started to grow so fast it is almost a nuisance. In fact I saw a thread on RC where a guy was using several of them to light a display tank (not sure what their PAR value is) but he had to use a lot of actinecs to balance the colors.

HD SKU's
774-265 5100K
772-429 6500K (might be 6400K I forget)

Their web page does not respond to these numbers but I had no trouble finding them in the store.

[GaryP]

Welcome to MAAST Highestbid. I think you are our first guest from Huntsville. Could that be because you are the only reefer in Huntsville. Surely not.

[blueboy]

i had NO bulbs in a lowes fixture over my 20G fuge, worked great, grew caulerpa, gracillaria, and chaeto quite well. i used the plant bulbs in a 48" fixture(the fuge was custom 48x8x14), so i actually had 80W over ~20G.

[highestbid]

Well I think there are a few of us over here -- but we are scarce :-) No real source for supplies or livestock close. I am trying to get the local LFS charged up -- but it will be a long hard sell I fear.

[BA]

i have the cheap $8 shop lights(from home depot) for the refugiums on my 375, grows macro/mangroves like crazy...

[highestbid]

W:oW 8 tanks -- how do you ever find time to do anything else?

[wkopplin]

I use the cheapo Lowe's / Home Depot bulbs on my 120 gallon fuge and everything does well.

[rocketeer]

Cool. Thanks guys. I think the red algas need more light than the green caulerpas in general, right? It sounds like this will be enough. I wasn't sure about the aquarium and plant light's 2700 K color temp being so low. It sounds like what blueboy's using successfully.

I can't wait to get this tank plumbed to my main tank. Once I get my fish room all up and running I'm going to try for Tank of the Month.

Jack