refugium

[Amadod2]

looking to start a refugium in my sump, no sand just cheato, for all of you who have one or tired one, does it work in helping to lower phosphates, and i was thinking of using a led strip, would that work?? im limited in space in my sump area.

[Amadod2]

here is a link to one light i fund, i have purchased led from them before and they did the job, im just not sure if this will work?

http://www.aquastyleonline.com/products/NewStyle-refugium-light.html

[jordsyke]

My refugium grew chaeto like crazy and worked wonders on my nitrates, but did not do much with my phosphates

[Amadod2]

Are your phosphates normally low? How much lower do you think the cheato lowered them by?

[jason604]

The ball of chaeto in my refug haven't seem to have grown at all in 7 months. Using cfl 5500k floodlights. Dunno if it helping but my nitrate is pretty low considering the amount of fishes I hav in my tank

[straightrazorguy]

I've got a refugium full of algae and zero nitrates. My phosphates were high until I started running ROWAphos.

Then I started reading about the Redfield ratio and learned that both carbon and Nitrogen are limiting my phosphate removal. That's why a refugium will never lower your phosphates to zero unless you are willing to add carbon and nitrates to your tank. But, chances are they will use up all the available nitrates.

Here's some reading:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2109768

[straightrazorguy]

PS. If you want cheato or red macro algae, I have lots.

[Amadod2]

What does red nacho alge do?

[straightrazorguy]

I don't know about nacho algae but red macro algae remove nitrates and phosphjates, just like cheato, but they are red....

[monocus]

led strip won't work.there is very little radiant energy.i make my own leds using 1 watt red,blue and a few whites to grow algae

[Amadod2]

if its a led strip thats rated for a reef tank to grow corals wont it grow algae? i was looking at stunner strips

[jordsyke]

just go buy a cheap desk lamp from home depot or somthing, throw in one of those spiral 60w ligth bulbs and booomm, macro algae grows like crazy under crappy lights

[Amadod2]

that sounds good and all but i dont have room under my stand thats why im thinking LED

[monocus]

yes it probably will grow using the stunners,red led really helps algae grow

[straightrazorguy]

I bought a UFO LED one an it grows incredible algae. Just search LED UFO lights. I bought mine on ebay pretty cheap.

[hfp75]

The light you were initially looking at is 5w... Not that much light...

[Amadod2]

im leaning more to the stunner strips by ecoxotic.com, i just am limited with space, and i dont want to waste my money if the things wont even grow algae

[nrosdal]

if you are looking to get the same growth as you have now go with leds at just over half the wattage you have now in your cfl bulb. If you are looking to improve growth go with wattage around the same as you have now and it will be a very noticeable difference. Just make sure you have a grow type spectrum with mostly red , a little blue and a little white (a uv or 2 would not hurt either).

[Amadod2]

when are you going to have those bulbs in stock?