Chaeto in refugium keeps dying

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nanolover

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So I have turned the center section of my biocube 29 into a refugium, but the chaeto ball (the second one in two months) keeps dying. Setup is Skimmer in 1st chamber, then intank media tower with sponge, reefgen and chempure in second section then refugium tower next to it with some live rock rubble and chaeto, no sand in third section. My only other thought is that I have been killing it by pouring fresh top-off water directly into this section. I am using a par38 led gro light which is supposedly 6500k, and started running it when other lights are off but am now trying 24 hours.Granted it's only been going for a couple months but wanted to see if there are any tips thoughts or additives out there to keep it growing?
 
There's nothing wrong with running chaeto on an alternate photoperiod of the tank. By doing this it is said to actually help maintain a more consistent ph level throughout the day. It's macro's like caulerpa you'd want 24/7 lighting over to prevent it from going "sexual" on it. It could possibly be the lighting as "plants" do like lighting in the lower Kelvin range. Also what are you nutrient levels like? Phosphates, nitrates etc? If they aren't that high to provide a food source for it to grow then it won't. I'd look at the lighting though. :)


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I've been growing it with a 6500k 'grow light' that I bought a lows for less than 5 bucks inside of a utility reflector, and that has worked great.

Not sure about adding the top off water, but that is an interesting idea. Could try changing it to see if it helps anything.
 
I'm pretty sure the light is not the problem as Chaeto will grow in quite a broad range of light spectrum/intensity so would look more into adding of the top-off water directly into this chamber. Could you slowly pour it into first overflow chamber for a time ??? or posibly add a PH buffer prior to addition. How does other algae good or bad do in the system ???


Cheers, Todd
 
really add ph buffer before top off? never heard of that... than again never tested my water ph before and after top off...
 
ive grown macro under those 50/50 bulbs from petco...currently im using 60w sunbeams lol
 
From having an indoor garden I will tell your first hand that LED's blow for anything plant based like chaeto. Go to lowes and pickup a 6000k-6500k CFL and and cheap reflector and place it over the ball.
 
Another thought is how much chaeto are you putting in there? If you have it packed tight and it's not able to tumble around so that all of the sides of it can be exposed to light then quite possibly another reason it may not have done so well.

Just a thought. :)


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The amount of chaeto (was) about the size of a baseball. Not doing much in the way of tumbling. I am going to try a different bulb back there to see if that might be the answer. Thanks for the link to macroalgae dying.
 
what is your livestock? do you have enough nutrient for the cheato to live? when I had ich and my tank was fallow most of my macros died off even though I was lightly feed the tank. when I added the fish they took off like mad even though my nitrates and phosphates still test zero.
 
When you refer to livestock are you talking fish or the corals? Fishwise, I have two firefish, two baby clownfish, a scooter blenny, rainford's goby and a lawnmower. I have since changed out the light and although the chaeto is not growing it does not seem to die as quickly as it did when I was running the gro leds.
 
You would think you have enough nutrients. so, yeah light and flow must be the key. the cheato ball in my display fuge kinda found its own place it likes to be and really doesn't have much flow. the lights are a cheap 36 in t-5 fixture with 2 blue and 2 white bulbs running 14 hours per day. I don't mind the cheato ball where it is and it helps to shade some red gracilaria that likes the shade.

fugeanddisplay.jpg

By kpiotrowski at 2012-03-14
 
Thanks. when designing the system...and at a time when I knew relativley little, many factors came into play for me to choose this large fuge. People where telling me " the bigger the fuge the better". There are soooo many cool macros/feeding algae out there and things you wouldnt want in a display like xenia. its a place I could breed fish, like some rare clowns. I could do sea horses or pipefish and they should have an endless supply of live food along with gentle currents. when I feed micro foods I put most in the fuge and it slowly gets into the display over longer periods ( the fuge dumps just before the intake for the return so nothing is skimmed before hand). the 50g fuge along with half full 40g sump help to add water volume to the system effectivley turning my 120g into more like a 190g minus rock of course. I could go on-and-on about the pros, and can't think of a real con.

In the long run I don't intend on having cheato in it, but it works for now untill I aquire more cool macros and is very effective at removing nitates and phosphates as elos test kits cant pick up a even a trace of nitrate, and hanna checker says zero phosphates.
 
eartaker said:
From having an indoor garden I will tell your first hand that LED's blow for anything plant based like chaeto. Go to lowes and pickup a 6000k-6500k CFL and and cheap reflector and place it over the ball.
Click to expand...

I'm going to dissagree with you here. I have a single white 3w cree on my pico over the refuge area and that light grows more cheato than the 6500 cfl I have in the refuge on my 90, or the PC's in the sump on my 75.
I pull a couple handfulls of cheato out of my pico to put in the sumps on the two big tanks once a month. Its not a plant grow LED though.
 
Last edited:
Hi everyone I am trying to do a planted tank and was wondering if anyone has any macro for sale..... I need everything and I have chaeto so I don't need that..... if ur near Graham puyallup area and want to sell some let me know. 717-538-3329
 
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