Setting up a fuge......light ?'s

[jbpig]

Hello all,

I will be stealing my daughters 20g and making it my fuge for my 150. Here is my question. My 150 sits in my bedroom, I have read that you want to have a reverse lighting because of 'swings' in such a ph etc. My tank light cycle is from 7am-7pm. Could I set my fuge lighting from like 2pm-10pm? Or will this still cause the swings in the levels? Also what type of lighting is best? I ahve heard of people using walmart grow lights. I currently have an old NO fixture i could use for that. Ant help would be appriciated.

TIA
Joe

 

[Len]

Hey Joe,

A refugium photoperiod of 2-10pm will unfortunately still result in the same problem. The reason these swings occur is because the processes and byproducts of photosynthesis can drastically change water chemistry. To offset this, a lot of people prefer to run their lights on the refugium when the lights on the display tank is off so photosynthesis occurs at a more stable rate. Running your refugium lights a few hours later doesn't correct the imbalance. But honestly, I don't think these swings are a big deal.

Good news is any lights will do fine for a refugium.

 

[jbpig]

thanks Len, How about if I Covered the tank wih some sort of paper so we can still sleep?

 

[radcast2]

how about building a possible canopy that blocks the light out??

 

[Len]

That's a good idea. Since the refugium can be completely out of sight, you can build a nice decorative box around the whole thing.

 

[Anonymous]

do you have room in the stand for the 150? you could easlily keep it dark under there.

B

 

[jbpig]

No, no room under the stand, I probally would if I re arranged stuff, but with the way the stand is built I couldnt get the 20 in there