Refugium Lighting: Feit Electric Grow Bulb

[chunkylovah]

Just wondering if anyone has tried to grow chaeto with this light? Would this work for a 12"x12" space??

 

Feit Electric 65w Equivalent

 

Thanks!

[Subsea]

Maybe.  I am not that familiar with targeting only blue & red spectrum.  I know that the ATS crowd is big on red.

 

I have been doing this for a long time.  When I used red lighting, I did not see faster growth.  With red lighting, it was difficult to see colors as an indicator of health.  I have found 5000 kelvin to be best for photosynthetic organisms.  With respect to led technology, to produce white requires red, green and blue.  I have found that macro and coral can thrive at 5K.

 

I use these from Home Depot along with damp proof rubber socket.

 

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Cree-65W-Equivalent-Daylight-5000K-BR30-Dimmable-LED-Light-Bulb-3-Pack-SBR30-06550FLFD-12DE26-1-13/207086712

 

 

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Rubber-Weatherproof-Outdoor-Light-Socket-for-Medium-Base-Incandescent-Bulbs-124-D/301667507?keyword=Light+bulb+rubber+socket&semanticToken=21240+++>++++st%3A{light+bulb+rubber+socket}%3Ast++cn%3A{9%3A0}++socket+{product}light+{productName_nostem}++bulb+rubber+{rest}++dln%3A{569853}

 

[Sailingeric]

I have a Phillips grow bulb and my chaeto has gone from about the size of a golf ball to now taking up about half of my 20 gallon long tank sump. 

[Clown79]

On 7/6/2018 at 2:42 PM, chunkylovah said:

Just wondering if anyone has tried to grow chaeto with this light? Would this work for a 12"x12" space??

 

Feit Electric 65w Equivalent

 

Thanks!

Brs did an experiment with chaeto growth. The videos are on YouTube.

 

The end result. Red and blue is the best for growth.

[chunkylovah]

3 hours ago, Clown79 said:

Brs did an experiment with chaeto growth. The videos are on YouTube.

 

The end result. Red and blue is the best for growth.

Yeah I've watched those. I just wanted an led bulb that wouldn't burn my house down or cost me $70+. This one is pretty cheap and says it peaks in the blue and red spectrums, so I thought I'd give it a shot. If not I can always move on to Chinese house burners or give in to the call of the kessils. But brs was getting 0 nitrates with regular white lights and my refugium is small, so I assume I'll probably be alright either way. But we will soon find out!

[Clown79]

I'm using a 5000k led bulb from walmart.

  

[lpsouth1978]

On 7/6/2018 at 11:42 AM, chunkylovah said:

Just wondering if anyone has tried to grow chaeto with this light? Would this work for a 12"x12" space??

 

Feit Electric 65w Equivalent

 

Thanks!

I actually tried that exact light and was VERY disappointed with the results. I saw no improvement in chaeto growth and could not make out color at all. I ended up finding a different, Kessil looking, light on Amazon that has made my chaeto grow from the size of a baseball to the size of a volleyball in about 3 weeks. this is the light I got:

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078T6YW7D/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[chunkylovah]

10 hours ago, lpsouth1978 said:

I actually tried that exact light and was VERY disappointed with the results. I saw no improvement in chaeto growth and could not make out color at all. I ended up finding a different, Kessil looking, light on Amazon that has made my chaeto grow from the size of a baseball to the size of a volleyball in about 3 weeks. this is the light I got:

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078T6YW7D/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Yeah I have had it on for about 3 weeks now. My display algae has decreased considerably, but the growth has not been baseball to volley ball size. I'll probably keep it on and maybe put the light closer to the chaeto. If my chaeto doesn't pick up growth in another couple weeks I'll probably start the search. Might go @clown79 's route because paying so much for led lights hurts my soul.

[Toxic enigma]

I had the smaller version for a bit over a month and it didn't really seam to do much of anything other than grow tons of dino. I switched it out for a 5000k bulb to see if that works better. I don't know about the one your talking about but the one I have says it's 3300k in fine print on the side. 

[chunkylovah]

So I have been using the Feit 65w electric grow bulb for about 3 months and thought I'd give a final update for anyone else who ever looks into it. Alas, it works well.

 

Before I started using it I had 20 ppm of nitrates. At first I had it on for 10 hours a day and was getting some pretty terrible results. I decided to move the light closer to the surface of the water and things finally started working. I got 0 nitrates and was getting about a football size of chaeto to throw out every 2 weeks. I have since lowered my schedule to 4 hours a day and I am still getting 0 nitrates. The chaeto is a healthy dark green and fairly loose.

 

To conclude, I don't think the Feit light bulb grows chaeto any better or worse than a generic 5k bulb. The only benefit with this light is that it's a LED bulb and is also water resistant. If this bulb lasts a long time I might consider getting it again, if not then I will probably just grab a cheapo 5k led bulb.

 

If you decide to use a Feit grow bulb don't go below the 65w version. I think anything less than the 65w won't be strong enough.