Refugium / Fuge light

[zerreissen]

Good morning fellow Maastards,

I would like to setup a refugium in my sump and am looking at lighting options for growing macro. I would like to use LED's as the lighting source to keep the heat down. I did a search for this topic on the forums and unless I'm just really terrible at searching, the threads that I found are quite old. I figured there should be some technology advances since last year.

Can anyone recommend an led fixture (less than $100) for my fuge? Grow lights for plants generally require red spectrum, and none of the bulbs at the local stores that I saw have that.
If there are not any viable options, I'm assuming CFL's are the next best bet?


Thanks!

[txg8gxp]

I personally think it's hard to beat the Bright Effects brand CF bulbs from Lowe's, They are like $8. I'm a huge led fan and even my sump fuge has the Bright Effects bulb over it. They seem to be a very popular choice, I used one over a planted fresh water tank for several months and it worked great.

[justahobby]

The bright effects bulbs are phenomenal. If you are set on LED, check out some of the par30 and par38 bulbs.

[FireWater]

I just set up a Par30 bulb over my fuge. $30 at Lowes. I can't really give any feedback yet as I literally set it up last night. I also bought one of the Bright effects bulbs as a back up plan.

[350gt]

Why not just setup one Panorama led strip over it? Not the newer pro but the older models can be found pretty cheap....

[FireWater]

That is what my plan was, but they were out of stock and not shipping. I just so happened to speak with a LFS today that carries the Ecoxotic line and was told that they are now back in stock and should be shipping soon.

[BSJF]

I bought a panorama for my fuge, but I don't like it for that. I bought a clip on lamp, removed the reflector, then got the daylight LED bulb from HD or Lowes for like $40. My macro is growing faster than ever!

[ShAgMaN]

I bought a panorama for my fuge, but I don't like it for that. I bought a clip on lamp, removed the reflector, then got the daylight LED bulb from HD or Lowes for like $40. My macro is growing faster than ever!

Cool, that's what I'm going to do. What size/watt did you get?

[FireWater]

Lorraine, that is my current set up as of last night.
Terry, I don't remember the brand. I got mine at Lowes. It says par30 on the box. It is a flood style and was less than 40.

[BSJF]

You will love it John. I think mine is 18W (equivalent to something like 120w bulb). You might have to shop around to find the right spectrum. Anything near 5000-6500K range is best for plant growth.

[zerreissen]

Thanks for the info guys! I think I'll head over to HD after work and pick up one the the Par30 LED's and see how it goes. I've already got a couple of clip on light fixtures from my turtle days :)

Might also pick up a Bright Effects this weekend and experiment...