Cali Kid Corals

Using a Kessil A150 as a fuge light?

IOnceWasLegend

Frag Swap Coordinator
BOD
Setting up my first refugium pretty soon and learning what I can about it. Would there be any issues with using a Kessil A150 as a refugium light, given there's one on hand?
 
h80 has a dial that you can run red/blue combo. red is better for macro algae. a150 is mainly blues and i dont think youll grow it any faster. it will grow but unsure how much it will take care of your no3/po4 in long term.
 
Get the $30 Amazon grow light. The chaeto in my frag tank grows great under it. Not as good as my H380 but still well.
 
Yea like Eric mentioned, is better to get a grow light. Remember ur chaeto need good light to out compete the lights in ur display tank or else ur chaeto will grow slow and algae will start to grow in ur main tank.
 
Kessil A150 will work great. The refugium lights are better only in the sense that they don‘t waste any wattage on spectrum that doesn’t grow macroalgae. Reef spectrum lights put out most of their PAR in the same spectrum as grow lights, but also have some PAR in the whiter spectrum. So an A150 will grow algae better than an H80 for example.

There are better off-brand grow lights on Amazon, but sometimes the best solution is the one you already have in-hand.
 
I’d say sell the A150 and use that money to get the right tool for the job. Also I’ve always liked isolating my Chaeto in a blacked out box or by using a reactor. I’d donate almost a 2.5 gallon tank full to LFSs (or toss out) about every month when I previously ran a refugium before getting out of the hobby a couple years back
 
If you do decide to go the Amazon grow-light route, there are several good options. Depends on your form factor and space. One that I’m using now instead of the H380 that I used to use is this flat-panel light:


I have it shining in sideways from the front side of my refugium. I also have an H80 shining in from the top because I had one too, so lighting from multiple directions. The brighter H380 would burn the chaeto on top and was too focal with too much shading of the deeper algae. Also I had to buy a new power supply for the H380 when it died, and the replacement cost more than the whole Amazon light…
 
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