Fuge lighting... the final word?

ninjafish

ninjafish

New member
I just finished a search for the best refugium lighting schedule but do not feel that I've found the answer. Many favor the reverse daylight cycle between their main and fuge tanks. It seems to me though that in less you could ensure that you have an equal amount of plant material in each tank, processing light and nutrients at similar rates, you would still get fluctuations when the lights went out in one tank and came on in another.

For this reason it seems that the 24/7 schedule would be a "fool-proof" (what ever is?) method of keeping ph stable. The point has been raised though, that a light/dark cycle is more healthy for plants and I am inclined to agree with this because that is the way it works in nature. Any thoughts? Experience?
Thanks in advance
 
dont know man but what about the sexing thing i dont get it but i read the 24/7 keeps it from doing that what ever it is to the plants
 
going sexual. many will do a better job but i will try. I have been told that the fern type calupa will go sexual if left unattended. What i understand if it has no more room to grow it will go in reverse direction. dieing off and make a real nasty mess in your main tank. anyone want to educ me more on this. did my best.
 
Kayl, I like the quote in your signature!

I don't know if its possible to hijack your own thread but since I have people reading and thinking let me also ask this:
Why do people recomend low flow through a refugium? Can I have a macro algae fuge in my 20L sump that has the same turnover rate (20X) as my 20H main?

If anyone has thoughts on life or the flow and lighting of refugiums, i'd love to hear them.
- Chad
 
My fuge has been running for 3 weeks now- it a 29 gallon glass tank that is fed from the return and has a bulk head drilled high on one of the small sides that over flows into the sump- anyhow the first two weeks I had the lighting on 24/7 and some minimal growth from the macros which I have 4 different species of, and a lot of brown algae growth though because of the lighting(6 astrea snails took real good care of that) I decided to try a reverse cycle on the lighting the lights in the refugium go off from noon to 8pm from the first time I did this cycle the growth has been amazing, the calurpa is sending off runners and the halimeda is growing new leaves every day. Plus the pod population has exploded! As for circulation I have a maxi jet 900 (230gph) in it for extra turnover which I added about the same time I switched to a reverse lighting cycle and there is a nice even flow ( not sure on the turnover rate) from the return into the refugium. So from my few weeks of experience ( hold back the laughter) and many months of research my opinion is to do a reverse lighting cycle with moderate to heavy circulation and or turnover. Just my .02
If you try something else let me know your results because the safest assumption I believe so far in this hobby is that what works for one person may or may not work for another.
Good luck and have fun experimenting.
 
Thanks kybreos,
It makes sense that plants would do well under more "natural" conditions. I was just wondering because others have reported the opposite results.
I also agree about the moderate to heavy circulation. It hasn't been explained to me why low flow through a fuge is recomended but I think that 20X turnover probably IS a low flow compared to what these plants experience in the wild!

Maybe its so the pods don't all get blown into the main tank...
 
People recommend low flow to give the macroalgae time to absorb the nutrients in the water. IMO and others that I have read, the flow has little to no effect on the nutrients absorbed. It does have an effect on the slime algae being produced (less!!) which prevents the macroalgae from dying due to suffication.

If a plants is overcrowded it will go asexual to spread out. Some species of caulpera are known to do this easier than others. Many caulperas can be kept without any fear of this as long as you have plenty of water circulation and room to grow. I've kept racemosa (grape caulpera) for over a year without an issue. In this year there were days that the lights were on 24 hours (I forgot to turn the lights off) and days that the lights did not get turned on and months where the timer did this job for me. I've used reverse lighting and same lighting as the display tank without seeing a change in the pH.

When the refuge is about half to three quarters full, I prune it to less than half. Pruning does two things - removes some of the unwanted nutrients from the system and gives the macroalgae more room to grow. The faster it grows, the more nutrients that are removed. As it becomes crowded, the growth slows down.

Vickie
 
Vickie,
I've read that too about the macro needing slower flow so that it has time to absorb the nutrients. To tell you the truth this never made much sense to me because the ocean seems to produce some wicked flow rates :) also, in my system it's the same 40 gallons of water racing around so really those nutrients aren't going anywhere. Very interesting comment about slime algae suffocating your macro. Maybe the traditional advice about 'fuge flow rates doesn't necessarily apply to macro 'fuges.??

(By the way, have you had any luck getting chaetomorpha in Canada? All of the places I have tried have told me that they are not permited to ship it across the border. Maybe they're scared it will take over our rivers and streams :p )
 
haha sorry kayl, I have heard people recomend low flow rates (ie 5x) through refugiums and was questioning that. I never observed any negative effects on the macro in my main tank from having a higher turn over. And sjvl51 raised the point that a low flow rate may actually be harmfully to macros. Maybe it depends on what flavor your 'fuge is. Maybe if you have a DSB or are trying to raise pods you need less circulation???
Want to know what people are doing as far as lighting and flow so that I can get it right the first time. Not like that trickle filter I built one time....
 
Ya, my caulerpa used to go sexual every month or so and cloud the entire tank. After discovering this site and learning how bad that can be for other tank inhabitants I've started to thin it out everytime I do a water change. It hasn't gone sexual since then (about 6months) but I am still trying to remove it all and go with a different macro in my fuge. Maybe Chlorodesmis, I have a clump of it and it seems to really be taking off.
 
ninjafish said:
Vickie,
I've read that too about the macro needing slower flow so that it has time to absorb the nutrients. To tell you the truth this never made much sense to me because the ocean seems to produce some wicked flow rates :) also, in my system it's the same 40 gallons of water racing around so really those nutrients aren't going anywhere. Very interesting comment about slime algae suffocating your macro. Maybe the traditional advice about 'fuge flow rates doesn't necessarily apply to macro 'fuges.??

(By the way, have you had any luck getting chaetomorpha in Canada? All of the places I have tried have told me that they are not permited to ship it across the border. Maybe they're scared it will take over our rivers and streams :p )
Click to expand...

Ninjafish, I don't have any chaeto in my refuge. I know many people get it from other reefers. Maybe a post on Canadian forums (ie http://aquariacanada.com/index.php) will get you some. You will probably have to pay shipping. I know that I have shipped some macro algae (tang heaven & racemosa) without issues via Express Post.

My flow rate in the refuge is limited to the size of the gravity feed drain - we made it too small. I have added a powerhead as well to keep the water moving with a resulting decrease in slime algae buildup. This summer, we hope to take down the refuge and redrill for a bigger bulkhead.

One thing that I did notice - when I increased the flow (added power head) in the refuge, the racemosa was moving more (tumbling for lack of better word) with less of the "pale stuff" when I forget to stir it up. I think this helps increase the growth (more racemosa being exposed to the light) with a resulting decrease in the possibility of it going asexual. Since I have never had any macro algae go asexual, this is just a guess. Remember though - the more growth, the more nutrients are removed. I have recently recently changed my lights to 2 x 19w PC from Home Depot. This increase in lighting has resulted in my having to prune more often. :D

I did notice an increase in pods (in the refuge) when I started throwing 5 or 6 shrimp pellets in each night after the lights come on. I'm sure this has made my mandarin happy. :rollface:

Vickie
 
Kayl, it's Wardley Shrimp Pellets Forumla. I buy it at my local Walmart in with the tropical fish food. The reefer that I got my racemosa from showed me how all the pods came out when he threw in a few pellets. I do know the bristle worms like them as well as the peppermint shrimp.

Vickie
 
I'm currently going to try going growing Maco algae too..
but I'm not sure what type of light should I use.

I'm wondering can I just use a 9W PC lighting will do or I need to use a gd 10K T5 lighting..??
 
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