Nice, glad someone started this thread, Im facing the same dilemma.

Home depot has phillips, 6500K daylight cfl. Thats what I use.

I know London Drugs also stocks the Phillips Daylights CFLs. I bought a bunch of 42 watt big ones that are super bright. The Marine & Byrne Road one in Burnaby has them on special for $9.99 for the 42 watt. On my refugiums, though, I use the 23 or 27w ones.Anthony

i picked up a 2 pack of 6500 23watt at home depot for 9.98 , clamp on light was 14 .98 , have about 3 inchs of sand in the refuge . next should i be putting some live rock in there as well? now who has some chaeto for seed?

I got 6500k CF Phillips from Home Depot and cheato does not grow at all.
Incandescent "Grow Light" is very hot so i don't want it.

I also tried that super bright one with reflector recommended on mevlevs reef page and cheato or any other algae did not grow ether.

I wonder is there anything else?

My 6500K from HD grows lots of cheato. Want some?
Seriously though, there must be something wrong as you say.

Thanks yes i do want some.
may be i will get some from J&L when i am there. And try one more time under 6500k since i switched salt lately.
if it will not grow again i will get 5500k bulb and see what happens then
thx for the offer but driving to surrey is more money then driving to J&L these days LOL...

You have better self control than I do mate. :lol:

Does your cheato 'tumble' around your refugium or just stay in one spot most of the time. Because another important factor in growing cheato i found is making sure that the water current isnt strong but just enough that the cheato just rolls around all over the place or 'tumbles' around. And I found that 100 Watt light bulbs work and sometimes 10000K T5 works to, just have to find what it takes for your cheato to grow i suppose. But yah, make sure that the cheato rolls around the refugium all the time.