lighting ? for a fuge

[monty]

ok, so i havnt added the fuge yet, but i did throw a bunch of chaeto in my sump yesterday for the fun of it. I dont have a light in my sump, and hadnt planned on building an actual fuge until i had more time to change a lot of current plumming. Is it necessary to have a light to keep this tpye of macro alive and effective? also, i think i may have an old basic flourescent light somewhere in my garage from my past days with cichlids...will that work, or do i need something stronger like PC?

[t11t5]

Without a light source the algea will die and rot. This will raise your phosphates and nitrates from it decaying. Try to find a bulb with a 5100-6100k rating. You can find these at Home Depot or Lowes. The bulb will use like 19w of power but it will be a 75w rated bulb.

[monty]

ok, ill take a trip there tomorrow. what would i use as a fixture for the light? just any fixture that will fire it up?

[HellboundX]

I use the 19w bulb with just a clip on reflector in my refug, cost under $15 for everything. Works better then the 65 coralife light i had down there.

[monty]

really? ok, so im going to go to Home Depot and look for a 19w bulb with the k rating that you mentioned...and i can just clip it on to my sump and shine it at the macro? how long do you leave it on per day?

[hans1976]

I use one of those Lights of America flood lights. Run it from 9 PM to 9 AM - opposite of when I have lights on my tank.

[monty]

ok - i just found some old lights in my garage from the freshwater days. My sump is actually an old 55g tank, and i found the two lights that went on each side of it. the are 19w flourescents, each about a foot and a half long. what i did was just put them both on the side of the sump where i have put the chaeto, and have it set on a timer to come on at 1am and off at about 2:30 pm. My halides are on the main tank from about 5pm to midnight. Is this going to work out alright, and are these lights enough...they're actualy quite brite, and look pretty nice i must say

[monty]

my last question is this. is it a problem that i have done this in my sump, as opposed to having a seperate tank for this? i just figured why waste space? i have a few pumps and my skimmer off on one half of my sump, and on this have i just have this algae and about 40-50lbs of liverock

[compulsivebasta]

thats exactly how I run mine, and I have not had a problem yet

[monty]

well then...problem solved