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Thread: Sylvania LED Refugium Light--How can I dim it?

  1. #26
    Frequent Visitor MatroxD's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by clsanchez77 View Post
    I can't argue with your results, but bottom line is you can't do that without nutrients in the system. A nutrient rich system will produce growth under even poor lighting conditions.

    I run photo red LEDs with a single royal blue as the chlorophyl A spectral response is approximately 410-450 +/- and then 650+ range. The latest developments are showing better performance with hyper violet instead of royal blue due to decreased photo saturation. Chaeto and other algae have no use for lighting in the 460 to 620 range so this lighting is adding heat to the tank but doing little for the chaeto. I have argued this for many years but only the algae turf scrubber community has really accepted this. BRS is doing a new series of videos that I suspect is going to clarify this tremendously.

    Absent of building your own unit, any LED bulb that has good spectrum in the 650+ range will perform well. LED bulbs that are heavy in yellow and light in red will perform poorly. That is why you will get people with mixed results on similar "color" bulbs. Actually not familiar with either bulb you all are using but they clearly hit the red peaks.

    As for my tank, I have a 110 LPS reef that only has 4 fish in it and is fed 1/2 a cube daily. No light will fill a 5 gallon bucket on my tank and I only run my skimmer part time. LPS colors are great.


    Ive been in this hobby for close to 20 years and it is comical to sit on most of these boards and watch the consensus get herded into one belief system and then the next. I remember the jump from plenums to deep sand beds to bare bottoms and I remember a time when people thought growing algae in your system on purpose was the most ridiculous thing. The general mass lost credibility to me a very long time ago. Personally I have been running [/COLOR]caulerpa because well, its what I always did. The success you and others have had with chaeto is encouraging me to make the switch, but I need more fish in the tank I think.

    Watch for that BRS refugium series. If you have this must interest in fuge lighting, I don't think you will be disappointed.
    Yes, I already watch the series.. And it's refreshing to see them finally addressing something I have messed with for a very long time.. So long, that many of the time your saying about spectrum, I passed by long ago..

    The thing is I have my background in hydroponics (aeropinonics and not in particular), and did a lot of experiments on lighting, nutrient levels, etc.. Even on regular 50 tds water and less.. And the nutrient level is a very subjective thing that, because of my experience (over 20 years in hydroponics, over 25 in saltwater) and experiments, I have a good understanding of extraction of nutrients, light (in an indoor and outdoor setting, and it's effects on growth, and much more), and water for growing plants..

    And with being subjective, the thing that escapes most is our levels are much higher than I've grown with.. Lighting has a fundamental effect on plant growth, and if you know what your doing (which most don't), you can indeed grow plants in rodi water, because I've done it.. Which, saltwater has a ton more elements in it.. The subject of nutrient and elements can go all day, and you can't just say nutrient. It's just not that simple.. And you can't just boil down to a certain spectrum, and any botanist will tell you this..

    Also, you can manipulate (which I enjoy doing) to get the results you want. And honestly, most people have enough nutrient in their washer to grow some form of algea, it's just lacking light.. Not the spectrum, but the required level.. It takes a ton of light to effectively grow a plant, and make it effectively respire under water.. And then, to grow a large amount of it, and have all of it recieve sufficient light to the base (of you want to call it that).

    And personally, I wouldn't mess with calerpa.. It's a very dangerous plant in an enclosed environment.. But to reach their own.. I just read on RC, a guy who had an explosion of it, and couldn't understand why.. It's an opportunistic plant that can and will shock you(and not just because of the sexual aspect).

    And yes, my results speak for itself. I kinda have a decent idea about what I'm doing.. Lol, I've done it long enough and experimented long enough.. And no, a nutrient rich system will not produce the "correct" growth under poor lighting conditions.. You will get a typr of algea, but not the route you want.. My studies and hobby are about control and specifics, not random..

    There are things like flow also that can and do dissuade one algea toys to grow over another.. Along with that, there are ways to control..

    Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

  2. #27
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    Another point on the caluerpa that I need to change it over. On many things, Im still in the old ways lol. Except the DSB, I always thought that was stupid.

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