Chaeto Lighting

[mpyers]

I have a 65 gallon mixed reef with a 30 gallon sump. in one stage of the sump I have a refugium consisting of roughly a handful of chaeto, and a light I bought on amazon (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GNWK2XO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

I use a seaweed clip to keep my chaeto from drifting into the next stage of the sump and getting sucked into my return pump.
The light I bought had excellent reviews for this purpose, but I am questioning either the light or my set up.

In stage one of my sump, there are two filter socks with an adjustable slide gate, that keeps the water level higher than stage two. This means that there is about a 1-2 inch waterfall from stage 1 to stage 2 (the fuge). I thought this would be beneficial for aeration and therefore my chaeto and pH.

The light from the link above sits about 6-8 inches above the water level in the fuge, and I have experimented moving the chaeto around in water depth with the clip it is held to.

I have a coralife 125 skimmer, which is producing plenty of dark brown skimmate. About 30lbs of live rock. (I know I need more I'm working on it. Long story short I got ahead of myself in this hobby. Fixing mistakes as I go, but my ammonia is 0 so I'm not too worried about it. I have some marine pure on order to put in the sump.) I have plenty of flow in the DT, I have one clownfish (used to have 4 fish, but had a monster crab go crazy and eat them so he is gone now). I feed VERY sparingly because I only have the one fish. Pellet by pellet until he isn't interested. I have a birds nest, a hydnophora, a LARGE devils hand, a blue ridge, a sinularia, yellow star polyps, some mushrooms, a monti, and a hammer. All of my coral are doing FANTASTIC. At least IMO. They came from a friend who is having troubles right now with some crashing and I'm keeping them as a possible backup for if he loses everything. Most of them were half bleached when I got them and I am bringing them back to life if that is any idea of how they are doing. I'm new to the hobby but I think they are showing what looks to me like full PE. I have 30W of blue LED and 30W of 6500k white. I have 100W of what was supposed to be 20000K blue, but is white so I really have no idea what temperature it is.

Alk, 3.9 meq/L
Calc 440ppm
pH 8.2.
Sal 1.024
temp 79
Phos and nitrate I don't test much because I know they are there. Usually they are around nitrate ~5-10. Phos just under 1.

My chaeto is turning brown in spots, and not growing. I haven't noticed any growth in the two weeks I've had it. Also new algae is growing in the DT. While I had an algae problem in my old tank, I thought maybe I could leave it behind by moving everything to this new tank with fuge. (Also set up two weeks ago) The algae growth isn't heavy, and I'm trying to stay ahead of it. just some green patches in the sand, and my rocks have turned green, but not hairy yet. Like a neon green. I've only seen a few very small patches of cyano (that was my big problem in my last tank). But I'm not satisfied so far with the effectiveness of my fuge. So here are my questions:

1. What should be my lighting schedule on the fuge? (Currently I am running 24/7)

2. How should I suspend my chaeto. (currently suspended by a clip on the glass, which makes me think the ball is getting uneven light covereage.

3. Should I have the waterfall just before the chaeto to increase aeration? I thought this would provide good CO2 but now I'm thinking maybe it is decreasing it, and providing more oxygen. I don't think this will make much difference as my overflow has quite a bit of aeration.

4. What kind of flow does it need? Should I consider a cheap powerhead down there?

5. Should I remove the filter socks? Are they possibly trapping nutrients that the chaeto could be consuming?

6. Am I being unreasonable in my expectations of a fuge? Should I wait until I have a larger portion of chaeto? Will it start getting better?

7. How fast should my chaeto grow?

8. I've seen videos of people's chaeto spinning in their fuge. Is this needed? How do they achieve this?

9. If chaeto/fuge/low feeding isn't going to erradicate algae, then what should be my next step? vodka? Zeo? Algae Scrubber? I'm already planning on getting a GFO reactor when I have the money.


Thanks ahead for your advice. I love this hobby and the challenges it brings.

 

[ReefEco]

Hey there - I wouldn't expect that your small ball of cheato to really act as a significant nutrient export for your tank. It might help a little, but with nitrates in the range you mentioned, there are certainly enough nutrients for it. Its growth rate will vary, depending on what is competing with it. Algea in the display is likely getting a lot more light, so you'd expect it to grow better up there, all else being equal. Your cheato, and the other organisms in your fuge need their sleep too (they need a period of darkness), so I would either light opposite the tank, or I run a 18 on, 6 off cycle - with fuge light off during the day - essentially a reverse light cycle with some overlap to try to get more growth. Do not run the fuge with 24/7 light.

Looks like the bulb should work - you might switch it out for a standard light bulb (or LED daytime bulb) to eliminate that as a potential variable.

Filter socks are likely not an issue (other than being dirty and contributing to your nitrates and phosphates) as the Cheato is absorbing dissolved nutrients in the water that aren't trapped by the socks.

If you can position the cheato so the flow into the sump spins the ball - that is awesome - but it just allows for even lighting of the algae. You should still get growth without the spin. How much growth is hard to say - 2 weeks is not a lot of time in "tank time" so not sure what to expect. I would wait another month or two to determine the efficacy of the cheato and fuge - give it some time. I'd upgrade the skimmer first before worrying any more about the fuge as a nutrient export system...

 

[mpyers]

I figured my light cycle would be too much. I'll need to get a timer.

I think I might buy a few more patches of chaeto, because I'm going to have a hard time getting such as small ball to stay put with my setup without the clip.

I change my filter socks out religiously and wash them in the washing machine without detergent. That was my first concern.

What skimmer would you suggest? I got this one with my old tank due to its HOB option. I don't have a lot of room in the sump though, its long and narrow. I haven't measured. I'd say 10-12 inches.

Thank You

 

[Ron Reefman]

I don't think running the light 24/7 is a bad thing, but running it 12 to 14 hours and opposite your tank lights would probably be better for the chaeto and the pH of your system.

That led is VERY weak at just 12 watts. Depending on how deep the chaeto is, how big it is, how much the light has to spread... I think this light may be an issue for you.

The waterfall is OK, no big deal. keep the filter socks, they don't trap nutrients that the chaeto use. Chaeto is algae, it will grow in any kind of flow. I had a 45g refugium and the chaeto would grow into a big square block! Having the chaeto tumble is nice if you can do it. In my experience, about 10% or less get that to happen. And it's not a big deal. Just turn the chaeto every time you change the filter socks.

I suspect with such a small refugium, your expectations are too high. When anybody on this board asks, "How big should my sump/refugium be?" The answer is inevitably, as big as you can fit! I'm starting up a new 125g and the sump is only 40g. It's OK for a sump. But I want a refugium, so I'm building a 2'x2'x20" glass tank that will sit next to the aquarium and be a 50g display refugium.

 

[mpyers]

I would love to do a display refugium. I am building a DIY light for the DT I'm going to have extra components, so I'll probably use them in the fuge to get some extra light.

So I need to start looking for a better skimmer.

 

[maddmaxx]

from my personal experience plus reading on this forum several times. chaeto doesn't do that well under these type of grow bulbs. they are geared more for calp macro algae. chaeto does better under 6500k light spectrum..

for me personally this type of bulb did nothing for my chaeto but did a ton for stupid nuisance algae lol

 

[mpyers]

I have a 30W 6500k chip on the DT right now. I'll use that when my new lights are done and see how it does. Thanks!

 

[Ztous]

I'm gonna ask my question here since I don't want to start another chaeto thread.

Does Chaeto prefer a specific light spectrum? I've seen some people running purple or red light in there fuge.

 

[minus9]

This is what I use on my chaeto chamber in my AIO nano. Grows chaeto fast. I also use a Noctua fan to keep it cool while it's on.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012C4QJ06/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Oceanutz]

Garlic


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