Refugium Lighting

[Jas0863]

How long should the lighting be on a refugium? I'm running 2-32Watts 50/50 PC's and a 15Watt 50/50 Flor. on a 35 Gal. fuge. It was setup yesterday; work and changes in progress. This is the first time that I'll be using a fuge. Inputs are needed and welcomed.

[cuongvynguyen]

IMHO... If you house the refugium out of sight of your main tank some people prefer to keep the lights on reverse cycle to keep the oxygen levels up throughout the night to keep the PH stable.

I would prefer to do that too, but since it is viewable like the main tank I keep the light on it slightly longer than the display tank.... about 10 hours for the macroalgae.

[DaveC]

I pretty much do the same as Alan does, my refugium is outside my stand, so I like to give my fish some total darkness at night, so my light over my refugium goes out at about mid-night, lights out on the tank about 9:30pm....I use only cheato so it works fine, if you used caleurpa they you may need the 24/7 lighting to keep it from going asexual, I recommend cheato, alot better IMO

DaveC

[tbrennan]

I have a 50 in my fish room so I run it from 10 Pm to 10 Am My display lights from 12 to 10