Fuge - How much light (meleves suggested bulbs)?

[Logzor]

I ordered two of the bulbs that Mark suggested for my fuge. The 19w 5100k with reflector.

My fuge is build into my sump (30g long) and is around 11.5"x12" with chaeto.

Should I use just one light or two. I also want to toy around with a small zoanthid frag system down there.

[corbett_n]

One light is enough, but you probably want to run it 24hrs. day if you are using cheato, and I don't think your zoos would like that

[Logzor]

Never heard of running chaeto 24/7. I know for others you do so they do not turn sexual.

I am running on a reverse cycle to stabilize PH.

[corbett_n]

I think most people run it 24hrs. Am I wrong? anybody?

[BigJay]

No, I think most of us run it reverse-daylight cycle to combat PH swings.

When the fuge light is on, the algae in the fuge takes up CO2 from the animals in the display and helps keep the PH from falling as far.

[synofreak]

Cheato prefers a dark period. I run mine reverse, and use a 15W CF(spiral) 6500 daylight bulb you can purchase at hardware stores(Menards). Both my fuges do fine under this light.

[m0nk]

Yup, chaeto needs downtime like most other macro-algaes. Caulerpa will do fine with 24/7, but that's about it. I do a reverse schedule as well to help balance pH as well.

[Logzor]

So is one 19W CFL enough? Would adding another equal 2x the growth or is there a hard cap growth wise with this algae?

[BigJay]

Originally posted by Logzor
So is one 19W CFL enough? Would adding another equal 2x the growth or is there a hard cap growth wise with this algae?

Depends on how deep your sump is, how large your refugium is, and how much macro you have in there.

I run two lights and found that I get better growth. There's more macro algae for me to remove every water change. Down side is that there's more nuisance algae in the sump, but I suppose that's better than having it in the display.

[m0nk]

Originally posted by BigJay
Depends on how deep your sump is, how large your refugium is, and how much macro you have in there.

I run two lights and found that I get better growth. There's more macro algae for me to remove every water change. Down side is that there's more nuisance algae in the sump, but I suppose that's better than having it in the display.

I run just one bulb and I get the same issue in my sump.

But yes, it depends on how deep the chaeto will be, but running more won't have any negative affects on the chaeto, just the nuisance algae in the sump, of course as BigJay noted, it's better there than in the DT.

[Logzor]

Check the first post.