Refugium and cheato

[AJ460]

I am running cheato and miracle mud in my refugium. I am using a 6500k CFL light. My cheato has not really grown much it has alot of green algae in it thst I cant really get out but the cheato is really brittle just wondering what I have going on and what other people are using. Not sure if I should just replace my cheato with fresh cheato or should I replace it with something eles

 

[jdezek]

Do you have good water flow through it? I had trouble growing chaeto for the longest time, kept dissolving away on me. Now it's made a come back and is starting to grow pretty good. I had the wrong light on mine. I was using a small aquarium fixture with a 10,000k bulb. Now I have two cheap 90w 2800k bulbs. It's not growing super fast like a lot of people claim but I also don't have a lot of flow through it.

 

[AJ460]

I have around 800 gallons an hr

 

[jdezek]

You could try a lower k rating bulb. I have the same fixture your using just a different bulb. I got my bulbs at Walmart and it was like a filler for 4 of them.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I had very slow growing cheato for the longest time, like 2 years. I had no other algae issues and even a decorative algae in the anemone tank was growing slowly. I just assumed it was very low nitrate and phosphate levels. Then 10 months ago a friend gave me some of his cheato and I put it in my refugium. It grew faster than mine did. Nothing else had changed. The cheato still grows pretty well and I do harvest some every couple of months.

 

[AJ460]

I had very slow growing cheato for the longest time, like 2 years. I had no other algae issues and even a decorative algae in the anemone tank was growing slowly. I just assumed it was very low nitrate and phosphate levels. Then 10 months ago a friend gave me some of his cheato and I put it in my refugium. It grew faster than mine did. Nothing else had changed. The cheato still grows pretty well and I do harvest some every couple of months.

That cheato is 8 months okd and hasnt grown one bit

 

[Ron Reefman]

How big is your refugium that you have 800gph flowing through it? I have about 4-500gph and my refugium is 45 gallons.

I think the lower K bulb may help. I had one and switched recently to a full spectrum led fixture. But my 45g DSB is right next to the fuge and I keep some corals in there and they need the light.

You might find a local club member who has some cheato to give away and give a new strain a try. We have people offering up free cheato every month or so.

How are your nitrate and phosphate levels? If there isn't any food for the macro algae, it won't grow. But if you feed much and have any fish bioload, you should have enough food. It doesn't take much.

 

[zachts]

I think your biggest issue is not enough Light. Spectrum is an issue also with screw in CFLs. Most of them have pretty crappy spectrum's designed for providing white light for people, not the red and blue spectrum needed by your cheato.

You might consider using one of the LED plant bulbs, like a par38. My cheato never grew under 2 x 26 watt daylight CFLs but when I switched to 4 x 3watt screw in LED bulbs (the cheap ebay kind) the growth took off like mad! Now I have to harvest every couple weeks and it grows into a solid cube of cheato in my sump. I use a combo of White, Royal blue, and Deep Red.

 

[AJ460]

I think your biggest issue is not enough Light. Spectrum is an issue also with screw in CFLs. Most of them have pretty crappy spectrum's designed for providing white light for people, not the red and blue spectrum needed by your cheato.

You might consider using one of the LED plant bulbs, like a par38. My cheato never grew under 2 x 26 watt daylight CFLs but when I switched to 4 x 3watt screw in LED bulbs (the cheap ebay kind) the growth took off like mad! Now I have to harvest every couple weeks and it grows into a solid cube of cheato in my sump. I use a combo of White, Royal blue, and Deep Red.

Could u send me a link to the bulb

 

[homegrowncichli]

Calurpa prolifera grows so much faster than cheato, a leaf can grow half inch a day and I can have 20 or 30 new sprouts every day in my 38 gal glass tank refugium (3 square feet of growing area). I know when to change the lights because they stop sprouting.
I also had cheato in there, but it was completely outclassed in growth. (I orignially seeded my refugium iwth cheato, prolifera, racemosa and the toxifolia looking calurpa)
The hair algae is also prevently light penatration and thats a major problem. Things you can do after you get the new bulb to control all micro algae from over growing your plants is
1. get tiny blue legged hermit crabs, who can get to all climbing surfaces, good for chaeto.
2. If you get calurpa prolifera, you can get a bristle tooth tang, Ctenochaetus species who can graze micro algae, but can't eat macro algae. It wouldn't be able to graze effectively off cheato though, but I keep one in my refugium with calurpa.
3. Feeder shrimps, are more effective than hermit crabs, since the crabs will eventually grow too heavy to climb calurpa leaves, but after the eat everything up, they start eating each other.

 

[kiv9721]

Do you use live sand in refugium ? if yes, where do you put it ? under mud or on a top ??

 

[AJ460]

Do you use live sand in refugium ? if yes, where do you put it ? under mud or on a top ??

No live sand just mud

 

[zachts]

Calurpa prolifera grows so much faster than cheato, a leaf can grow half inch a day and I can have 20 or 30 new sprouts every day in my 38 gal glass tank refugium (3 square feet of growing area). I know when to change the lights because they stop sprouting.
I also had cheato in there, but it was completely outclassed in growth. (I orignially seeded my refugium iwth cheato, prolifera, racemosa and the toxifolia looking calurpa)
The hair algae is also prevently light penatration and thats a major problem. Things you can do after you get the new bulb to control all micro algae from over growing your plants is
1. get tiny blue legged hermit crabs, who can get to all climbing surfaces, good for chaeto.
2. If you get calurpa prolifera, you can get a bristle tooth tang, Ctenochaetus species who can graze micro algae, but can't eat macro algae. It wouldn't be able to graze effectively off cheato though, but I keep one in my refugium with calurpa.
3. Feeder shrimps, are more effective than hermit crabs, since the crabs will eventually grow too heavy to climb calurpa leaves, but after the eat everything up, they start eating each other.

Caulerpa, despite it's fast growth is not a good choice in my experiance as it has the tenancy to "melt" and then all those nutrients go back into your tank. Cheato does not do this and grows just as fast if not faster than caulerpa in my sump (I have both, but the cheato has pretty much chocked everything else out)

 

[Sonicboom]

Go to Lowes, pick up the 800 lumen par 38 LED flood light, it's around 32.00. I had a ball of chaeto about 4 inches wide sitting in my 10 gallon QT tank. It was dying and breaking apart under 6 tiny crap led's. I wanted it to do this as this was my test. It sat in there for over almost two months. Within 6 days in my refugium it has quadrupled in size. It is now 14" tall and wide.

I believe there is an 1100 lumen bulb as well but i think that would be too bright for my liking.

 

[Timber77]

are you running a nutrient poor system. I cant grow cheat no matter what, small bulbs or if i put halides on it. cheato needs nutrients and light to grow... do you have nusiance algae in your display.

 

[Sonicboom]

Not sure how nutrient poor, I have a fat tang that I call Dusty because he looks like a crop duster over the corals when he poops. The rest of my fish are small community fish and are fed once in the morning, flake at noon and once in the evening. No nuisance algae.

 

[asid61]

I've never had success with chaeto, but other macros grow fine for me.

 

[DrewBrees713]

Blast it with as much light as you possibly can. I got 2 lamp in my refugium and my chaeto grows like it's on PED ;0)