Rethinking My Fuge

[Buzz1329]

I’ve been trying to cultivate a fuge in a section of my sump for the past 6 months. I threw in some live rock, a bag of pods from Reefs 2 Go, and every few weeks added a bag of chaeto or other macro algae purchased on RC. I also added a 24 watt PC fixture. The macro is barely surviving, while the live rock is now sprouting tufts of hair and pink algae and aiptasia anemones. I added a small powerhead for some additional flow and this seemed to perk up the caulerpa for a while but now it’s fading again. In sum, it ain’t working. So what I’m thinking of doing is removing the sump, cleaning it, and tossing everything that’s now in the fuge. I would replace it with a ball of chaeto, using the powerhead to keep it in motion. I would also replace the 24 watt PC with a 72 watt T5 fixture. The goal obviously is to grow and harvest chaeto, which I have not yet been able to do. Am I missing something? Any advice/suggestions appreciated.

 

[bb]

I've been trying to cultivate a fuge in a section of my sump for the past 6 months. I threw in some live rock, a bag of pods from Reefs 2 Go, and every few weeks added a bag of chaeto or other macro algae purchased on RC. I also added a 24 watt PC fixture. The macro is barely surviving, while the live rock is now sprouting tufts of hair and pink algae and aiptasia anemones. I added a small powerhead for some additional flow and this seemed to perk up the caulerpa for a while but now it's fading again. In sum, it ain't working. So what I'm thinking of doing is removing the sump, cleaning it, and tossing everything that's now in the fuge. I would replace it with a ball of chaeto, using the powerhead to keep it in motion. I would also replace the 24 watt PC with a 72 watt T5 fixture. The goal obviously is to grow and harvest chaeto, which I have not yet been able to do. Am I missing something? Any advice/suggestions appreciated.

What spectrum bulb are you using? Is the cheato able to float(roll):spin1: around or is stuck in one place?

 

[Buzz1329]

What spectrum bulb are you using? Is the cheato able to float(roll):spin1: around or is stuck in one place?

24 watt daylight CF. After rummaging around my fish room in the basement, I found a Par 38 18 watt LED bulb (5500k) that I'm going to add to the mix. Do you think this is sufficient?

I first tried floating the chaeto in a little white plastic basket directly under the light, but it slowly melted away. I could not get it to float or tumble on its own. Any suggestions as how I can float/tumble the chaeto?

I next tried spreading a ball out on the surface, but that did not work either. I placed another ball on top of the rocks directly below the light and ran a powerhead over it while directing flow from the DT under it but that didn't work either. I also tried grape caluerpa, halimeda, and several other species of macro (attached to the rock work in the fuge) but none thrived.

So tomorrow, I'm removing all the rock work from the fuge and will be adding adding a ball of chaeto using a small powerhead and increased flow from the DT drain to try to keep it moving.

 

[jgsensor]

I'm having the same issue. My phosphates are screaming high (1.5ppm) nitrates are around 5ppm. I have a 375g tank with a 75g sump and 20 gal refugium with sand and reef rock. I use a 10k Kessil 150 LED for light and a Eheim 500 provides flow. No luck growing cheato and just started try culerpa about a 5 days ago and not looking great so far. I just started dosing florish to see if that would help.