Fuge Lighting

[dkedrowitsch]

I'm new to the hobby so please bear with me. :roll: My tank is a 6 week old 75g in the finishing stages of its cycle. Water A/N/N parms are 0/0.25/20, pH 8.2, temp approx 78-80. Spec grav 1.025. See below for the reason nitrates are 20ppm. :?

Here are the specs:

75g AGA w/AGA stand
DIY canopy w/2x 175w 5500K Venture MH (to be replaced with 10,000K) and 2x 40w 6500K ultra daylight (to be replaced with actinic 420 bulbs..waiting for high power T8 ballast to arrive). Cooled w/2x computer fans.
4-5” Southdown DSB w/20lbs “live aragonite” over top from LFS to help prevent sand storms from new Southdown. Approx 200lbs total sand.
CPR 800gph overflow
Home made 3 chamber acrylic sump/fuge. Guessing 40-50 total gal cap. Fuge is approx 10gal. Keep 3/4” of Southdown in fuge.
Supreme Mag 9.5 return pump feeds fuge and returns water to display tank via 3/4" PVC.
Berlin Turbo skimmer (skims about 1 cup/week dark green/black slime…stinks!)
Generic 200w submersible heater

I’m currently using well water with no measurable phosphates but 20ppm nitrate out of the tap. I will be buying a RODI unit soon. Salt mix is Reef Crystals from LFS.

Live stock is 3 yellow tail blue damsels and a 7lbs piece of cured live rock from LFS. Live rock has various worms, button polyps, a feather duster, and little ugly “glass” anenomies that I have been killing with injections of boiling hot _strong_ salt water as I find them.

I think that sums it up pretty well.

ANYWAY, I just installed my new sump/fuge 2 days ago and I’m not sure what the best method of lighting it is. I have very limited space due to the hugeness of the sump pretty much filling the stand (had to temporarily remove the front center support to fit it in and it hangs out the back of the stand by 6” around the rear center support). I’m currently using one of those clip-on utility lights with the parabolic aluminum reflector with one of those energy saving 20w screw-in power compact florescent bulbs that makes approx 100w of light. 1200 lumens to be exact. They claim it’s a cool white bulb so I’m guessing color temp to be no higher then 5000K. It lights the fuge VERY well but I’m not sure about the color temp. I’d like to grow macro algae in the fuge to try to bring the nitrates down that my well water introduces while I wait for the time and money to setup an RODI system. I like the idea of the clip-on lamp for the simplistic of it and the ability to aim it else-where to aid me seeing into different areas of the sump system. Could anyone recommend another kind of PC screw-in bulb with a higher color temp that still outputs about 1200 lumens? Or should the warmer color be OK for the marco algae and any other little critters I may want to add to the fuge?

Any comments on my setup? As I said I am very new at this, although I kept very nice FW tanks most of my life.

Thanks!

Dieter Kedrowitsch

SCO : A new Quantum particle : All spin and no momentum.

 

[Anonymous]

Dieter, welcome to RDO, and a very cool hobby.

You've done your research and you're taking your time.

HD sells a "Daylight" version of the same bulb you have. You have to look for it to say daylight on the package.

Sounds like a cool setup, do you have any pictures?

B

 

[dkedrowitsch]

Unfortunatly no pictures yet. I took some pictures of the sump the evening I finished assembling it, but I'm waiting for my friend to email them to me as I used his camera. Hopefully soon. I'm too lame to own my own digial camera, but I'm learning that it's almost a must if you want online help to identify different things in this hobby. I should invest in one soon. I like the tiny Cannon "Power Shot" cameras, those look pretty cool and I dig the compact size. The optical zoom would help to zoom in on little critters in my tank.

I KNEW I should have waited to buy the bulb til I looked at HD first, but I got impatient and got the only > 1000 lumen bulb I could find at Walmart. :roll:

I have to give the sump design credit to Marc Levenson (http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/tank/55sump.html) and his "Super Sump" used under a 55g Reef. My sump is the exact same design as his newer version with the 1/4" acrylic and fuge drainpipe, just different dimentions to fit properly under an AGA 48" 75g stand. If you want to see what my sump looks like, it's a wicked design, check out the link above and scroll down to the bottom to the new version (you'll see what I mean).

As soon as I get some pics of my setup I'll be sure to post them. My acrylic jounts are not nearly as nice as his but they are strong and hold water! 8)

 

[Anonymous]

I think if you can get some macroalgae(s) established that will help greatly with nitrate issues.

 

[ADS]

The LOA flood light at HD is 65W(=500W) w/ high output at 6500K.
The hydroponics section on ebay sells Flourex 500W PC fixtures ~$40
supposedly 6500K also.
Adam