refugium light for growing chaeto and fragging xenia

[chips]

I am in the middle of setting up my refugium. My uses are going to be for growing chaeto and fragging xenia. I may get into fragging some other corals but know I would need more like than what I can afford now so that would be later. My question is what light should I use for the chaeto and xenia? My sump is made from a 20 gallon long tank with a water depth of about 8 inches. That gives me about 11 gallons of water. I have a 48" light fixture from a 55 gallon tank with the marine 50/50 lights in it. It is actually 2 24" bulbs. If I hung that over my sump would that be enough light to grow macro algaes and keep my xenia going while I attach it to rock rubble? If I hang this over the sump how close to the water should it be? It only would need to penatrate about 5-6 inches of water in the fuge. I'm just trying to use what I already have before I get kicked out for spending an arm and a leg on this tank.

 

[travelerjp98]

I have an 18 Watt PC light right against the glass in my refugium.. and it works pretty well.
Ideal? No. Economical and Cheap, and works? Yep.

 

[chips]

Where could I get somthing like that cheap if my idea of using the 50/50 light won't work

 

[travelerjp98]

I like your idea of using the old light you had on your tank, too.
The light I have on my refugium is a Tensor VisionMax 13 Watt PL lamp....

 

[travelerjp98]

I took some pics of my refugium to give you a better idea of it:

 

[chips]

That looks simple and like something that would fit my style

. I think I will take one bulb out of my 48" fixture and give the 24" 50/50 a shot laying up against the side of the fuge. I just worry about the 50/50 bulbs not being enough light. If these don't work I will copy your setup if you don't mind.

 

[travelerjp98]

Haha.. no problem! I want pics of your regardless though!

 

[chips]

traveler,
I tried to put my 48" 50/50 light by or over the fuge and found that there really isn't a good place that I can put that light over the 20 gallon sump. I just don't have enough room for it because it is beside an end table in my living room and close enough to the wall that if I hang it, the divider between the two lights is what would be over the fuge. Most of the light would be over the return section and where the overflow dumps into the fuge. I think I am just going to end up getting a PC light and put it over it. I heard about people getting lights at the local home improvement store but I think I would end up spending as much money on that system as I would a JBJ macro light or CPR Aquafuge or something. I ended up having trouble with the temp of the tank and have been working on ways to get that up. I had a cheap walmart heater that worked ok with the smaller wet/dry bio ball sump I use to have but it didn't get the temp up past much more than 76 with the lights on. Now that I added a new sump and 11 gallons more water I can't get the temp up past 74. I added a little heater that I use to get my makeup water up to temp and am getting the temp up to 75.5 with the lights off now. Strange thing is that when the lights come on, the water temp drops about 1 degree.
Ooops, got on a tanget there and got off subject. That is why I haven't put any pictures up, been working on more pressing project and ordering a new heater.

 

[btldreef]

You don't need much. I'd look into a cheap LED light like the MarineLand. I've used the MarineLand single bright over refugiums without an issue. Xenia isn't going to require much more lighting than macro algae will.
They make clip on lights for cheap. You could use one of them with a grow bulb in it. I've used them as well.
Over my 55 refugium/frag tank, I run 2 GLO T5 ballasts. Each one runs 2 T5 bulbs. The ballasts ran me about $20, and they have water proof end caps. The bulbs used to lay right over the top of the tank without an issue, now they're mounted in a canopy because it's a display fuge. I could have went with less than 4 bulbs, but I have an anemone in there with a pair of clowns I plan to breed.
DeepBlue makes small, cheap T5 units that would work. I had a 24" 2 bulb model over my seahorse tank and it grew soft corals and macros just fine. The light cost me $30.

 

[beaslbob]

I use a 6500K spriral incadescent replacement bulb from wall mart. In a round clip on spot type reflector. 2-13w bulbs are like $8 or so.
try for 3-4 watts/gallon of refugium gallons or for an ats type setup 4-6" from the screen covering as much area as possible.
my .02