Refugium Light Fixture

C

cruzer

Looking for suggestions for a light fixture for refuguim. Anybody have suggestions? Something that clamps to rim of tank or over top????
 
You can get those $50 light fixtures that are like 9"-19" long by Coralife, or you can just get a cheapo shop light with a clamp over it and put a grow bulb in it too. :oops: That's what I did, I'm still looking for someone to sell a used strip light so I can have a nice pretty refug light.

Fish tanks are like computers, you always want to tweek this there, upgrade this here. Mine are always a work in progress even fully set up and running :).
 
I also use the Home Depo lights and I got some egg grate and cut it to fit the top of my sump and I just set the lights sit on top so I don't have to depend on the clips.
 
The HD clip-on reflector is very commonly used but I made mine by mounting a waterproof socket from HD to a chunk of white plastic for a reflector. I could have done the same with 1/4" plywood covered with aluminum foil. The socket has 8" leads so I cut a cheap extension cord to get the plug and proper wire length and spliced them. With one screw I mounted the thing to the underside of the stand which is about 12" above the sump. I used a common spiral daylight fluorescent bulb (100W equivalent, 32W actual power used) marked 5500K.

I leave it on 24/7. There was a small amount of caulerpa in the chaeto but I've been slowly removing it when possible.

My chaeto has almost doubled in 3 months and I'm even growing halimeda down there. As an experiment I sumped a coupla xenia frags and they did very well too, one of them migrated and attached itself to a halimeda branch. All under a single $3 household bulb.

Bill
 
Thanks guys. Took you advise. I had a clip on light but the reflector wasn't large enough and the bulb stuck out of the reflector. So I had a large shallow tupperware bowl and i cut the bottom out of it and used it to set the light on. Cut out a pc. of eggcrate to set on the top of refugium section of sump. Worked out great. Using a 5500k bulb that Marc Melev had recommended, Had bought 4 of these bulbs about 2 yrs ago. So now good to go.
 
Sounds great cruzer! So much of this hobby requires moderate to extreme ingenuity, prolly part of the fun.

What's gonna be in your fuge?

Bill
 
There's about 60 lbs of aragonite sand, rock with some good sponge and cryptic growth and chaeto. Tryin to keep everything on the more natural side and as low tech as possible. Was doin the vodka and mb7 dosing thing just not real keen on it
 
I use the same clip-on light from Home Depot as has been discussed above, but I eventually took the reflector out (it was too big and was a pain to keep clean from salt creep) and just went with the compact fluorescent floodlights which have built-in reflectors. It's much easier to keep clean and works just as effectively.
 
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