Refugium Lights

A refugium is a refuge or hideaway. In aquariums it means an additional tank that is connected to your main salt or freshwater tank. This supplemental tank contains items such as sand, plants and algae which help to filter the water before it is cycles back into the main tank. A refugium light is vital to ensure that the sensitive plants and algae have the optimal growing conditions.

Macroalgae can be a great option for your refugium. As they grow, the use up a lot of nitrates and phosphates, helping to keep the nitrate and phosphate low in your tank! Depending on your tank, micro algae (one cell algae) could also be a good option. Regardless of the type that you choose you’ll need a good quality refugium light to ensure that your algae is happy and is given the best chance to help filter your tank!

Below we’ve outlined some of our favorite refugium lights on the market today:

Refugium Light Reviews

Kessil H160 Tuna Flora LED Refugium Grow Light

Kessil H160 Tuna Flora LED Refugium Grow LightA Little Bit Fishy Score: 5/5
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The Kessil H160 Tuna Flora LED light is a high quality horticultural light. It is of similar design to the Kessil A160, but has red and blue LEDs only. This setup is perfect to help the algae in your refugium grow efficiently. The light technically puts out 40 Watts, but this is equivalent to a normal 175 Watt light. It is possible to vary the color spectrum by twisting the dial on the top of the device. Overall the product weights just under 1 pound, with the power supply weighting another 0.9 pounds. The device is 4.75 inches x 2.5 inches (12cm x 6.3cm).

Kessil refugium lights are not cheap. But they are brilliant. When it comes to lighting, reliability can often be a concern. Not so for this refugium light. If you are looking to grow macro algae the Kessil H160 Tuna Flora LED light with help, a lot!

Innovative Marine ChaetoMax Refugium LED Light – 9 Watt

Innovative Marine ChaetoMax Refugium LED Light 9 WattA Little Bit Fishy Score: 4.5/5
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This is the 9 Watt version of the Innovative Marine ChaetoMax fefugium LED light. It is small in size at 6.7 x 1.85 (17cm x 4.7cm) but has 90 lights in total:

  • 45 x 0.2W 60mA LEDs
  • 20 x 660nm RED
  • 10 x 470nm violet
  • 10 x 630nm magenta
  • 5 x 420nm blue

The refugium light can be used for either all-in-one aquariums or with a sump. It mounts horizontally or vertically via Velcro strips.

Installation is easy. This light works well assisting in the growth of Chaeto. As far as we can see there are only two small downsides:

  1. The device isn’t waterproof. Not a disaster, but you do need to be careful when handling it around your tank
  2. Depending on the size of your tank (and indeed how much Chaeto you want to grow) you may need a more power light, such as the 18 Watt version.

Innovative Marine ChaetoMax Refugium LED Light – 18 Watt

Innovative Marine ChaetoMax Refugium LED Light 18 WattA Little Bit Fishy Score: 4.5/5
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This is the 18 Watt version of the Innovative Marine ChaetoMax fefugium LED light. It is small in size at 6.7 x 3.7 (17cm x 9.4cm) but has 180 lights in total:

  • 90 x 0.2W 60mA LEDs
  • 40 x 660nm RED
  • 20 x 470nm violet
  • 20 x 630nm magenta
  • 10 x 420nm blue

The refugium light can be used for either all-in-one aquariums or with a sump. It mounts horizontally or vertically via Velcro strips.

Installation is easy. This light works well assisting in the growth of Chaeto. As far as we can see there are only two small downsides:

  1. The device isn’t waterproof. Not a disaster, but you do need to be careful when handling it around your tank
  2. Although the device works well, it isn’t of the quality of the Kessil or other similar products. It is also two of the 9 Watt versions stuck together. Not a problem, but just wanted to point that out to potential buyers!

ACKE LED Refugium Lights 12W

ACKE LED Grow Lights Full Spectrum,Plant Lights，Growing Lamps 12W for Indoor Plants, HydropoincsA Little Bit Fishy Score: 4/5
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One great thing is that the ACKE refugium light is waterproof. So you won’t have to worry about accidentally splashing some of your aquarium water on the light! Further, it has a low heat output, so you can rest assured that you won’t accidentally heat your fish tank water above the desired temperature (and importantly stop water temperature fluctuating depending on whether the light is on or not).

The light is easy to install, has adjustable angles and even comes with zipties if you want to attach it quickly and easily. This light is a great way to kickstart Chaeto growth. It doesn’t come with a built in timer, but this is easy to address by adding a timer at the plugpoint.

One thing to be aware of is the longevity of the product. It comes at a great price point, and appears to be reliable, but appreciate that you are going for a lower cost model and may run into issues further down the road.

JBJ Nano Glo LED

JBJ Nano Glo LED Refugium Light for AquariumA Little Bit Fishy Score: 1/5
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A good quality light. Reliable. But don’t buy it if you are looking for a refugium light. It can certainly help to grow macro algae, but the color spectrum is all wrong, making it very sub-optimal. You are better off with one of the other lights in this article that has light in the correct spectrum.

Luxbird 12W Waterproof Aquarium Refugium Light

Luxbird 12W Waterproof Aquarium Refugium LightA Little Bit Fishy Score: 4/5
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Simple, durable and cost efficient – the Luxbird 12W Waterproof refugium light has a lot going for it. It has 9 red and 3 blue LEDs. Unlike the JBJ light, this provides a good spectrum of light to grow macro algae in your refugium.

This light can be simply screwed into a normal light bulb socket. It doesn’t put out enough power to work well on a 24 inch tank (unless you get two lights) but it works well up to 16 inch tanks. Given the low cost, however, adding an extra light or two may be much cheaper than buying a single more powerful light.

The bulb is also available in 8 Watt and 18 Watt versions

Finnex FugeRay Planted+ Aquarium LED Light Plus Moonlights

Finnex FugeRay Planted+ Aquarium LED Light Plus MoonlightsA Little Bit Fishy Score: 4.5/5
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The Finnex FugeRay Planted+ Aquarium LED Light can be a great way to stimulate plant growth. It can be used for a refugium or as a light for a small (ideally less than 10 gallons) planted tank. It has a combination of 660nm red LEDs, blue LEDs and daylight (white) LEDs.

The light can be clipped onto the tank and puts out 5 Watts. It is known to produce good results. For a straight refugium, however, we would prefer a higher focus on the red spectrum, sacrificing the blue and white spectrum if necessary.

Kessil H80 Tuna Flora Refugium LED

Kessil H80 Tuna Flora Refugium LEDA Little Bit Fishy Score: 5/5
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The Kessil H80 Tuna Flora is a dedicated, high quality refugium light. It gives you the ability to change between four color spectrums at the twist of a knob:

  • Blue
  • Grow
  • Bloom
  • Red

The color spectrum ranges from 360 to 780 nm – perfect for your refugium. enhancing photosynthetic efficiency. Importantly it also has the ability to adjust the intensity of the light. This allows it to be used in refugiums from up to 24 inches in size (or indeed larger tanks if you purchase multiple H80s). The device is around 5 inches by 1 inch in size (approx. 12.5 x 2.5cm).

Overall a very high quality refugium light that will give you great results!

Conclusion

Refugiums are a great way to assist with the filtration of your tank. Refugium lights are a vital part of this process – hleping the plants and / or algae to thrive, assisting with the filtration process. Hopefully you’ve found a light above that matches your needs!

However, if you’d rather skip the refugium and work on your aquarium directly, it could be worth considering a UV Sterilizer instead.

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