Chaeto question

[Anonymous]

Hey All,

I have chaeto in my refugium that isn't doing very well. I originally had a small 30g 'fuge with the chaeto in that and it did very well, always growing.

2 months ago I upgraded to a 50g Rubbermaid refugium. Since then, the Chaeto has stopped growing.

The refugium is lit by 2 65W 6,500K bulbs. I used to have it lit 24/7, but about a month ago I switched to a 12on-12off cycle. I switched becasue it had stopped growing, but it hasn't been any better since then.

Flow through the refugium is very low. And flow inside it is very, very low. There's little-to-no circulation inside the fuge. (Water is dumped in one end from the skimmer, and pulled out the other end by the return pump.)

The bio-load in my tank is high, and I'm getting more algae growth in the display as the chaeto has been so anemic. So it's not like the chaeto is starving.

Any ideas? Should I add a powerhead inside the refugium to give more flow?

Many Thanks,
Jh

 

[Anonymous]

Forgot to add: I don't want to add a powerhead unless people really think it will help. Heat is a major issue here, especially as the damned summer has arrived.

Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

Sheeesh, I guess I should have posted this in the Sump with a title like "Why I love Global Warming". That'd be sure to get some replies...

Anyone?

 

[Anonymous]

Mine started growing slow and I upped the flow though the fuge. That helped and it took off again and started to grow. I would also go back to 24/7 for the lighting. I like having a bit more flow through my fuge, it has always done better.


































Now you will get alot of post from other people telling you how wrong my post is/was............... :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Why don't you just put an air stone in it? That would increase flow within the fuge without increasing temperature, along with giving the algae the gases it needs to grow.

I doubt your flow is so slow that the algea is pushing out totally nutrient free water. Test the water coming out of the fuge and see if it is totally clean. If it is clean of nitrates completely, then you need to increase flow through the fuge. If it isn't, then that means there is some other limiting factor, such as circulation or imbalance of gases. An air stone would fix those two without adding heat.

If anything, the air stone would help cool the system a little.

 

[npaden]

My cheato seems to like flow.

I have 6,000 gph in my refugium although it is pretty large. (1,100 gallons)

That is just flow inside the refugium, I feed it with the output of my skimmer (about 800gph)

FWIW, Nathan

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you SO much everyone!

I think I'll start with just adding an airstone and see if that works. If it doesn't I'll throw in a powerhead.

Best,
Jh

 

[owenz]

This probably isn't it, but when did you last change the bulbs?

 

[Chubosco]

The cheato is sitting there planning a full invasive attack on your main tank. I hate the stuff. It's the devils weed. However, I will admit weed is good stuff sometimes.

 

[Anonymous]

Huh!?!?! :roll:

Chaeto is the least invasive algae I have ever seen. And I have had quite a few varieties of algae. It HATES clean tanks and loves flow and loves getting rolled/moved around.

The algaes that I am learning to hate are the gracillerias. Talk about invasive. It will grow right through stony corals.

 

[brandonberry]

It seems to me that it is most likely a limiting nutrient that is keeping the chaeto from growing. Often a nutrient imbalance will give something like hair algae a competitive advantage over macroalgaes. Check and see if you have low nitrates and slightly high phosphates. That would be my guess. If that is the case, consider reducing the phosphates rather than increasing the nitrates. I don't think anyone would recommend adding nitrates to a reef tank, however, with freshwater planted tanks, it is quite common to add nitrates to give the higher level plants a competitive advantage over algaes.

Also, do you have any type of biological media like bioballs, sponges, etc? If so, you may want to consider removing them, as macroalgaes can more easily absorb ammonia from the water than the nitrate that is produced from nitrifying bacteria living on media.

I have grown chaeto in very little water movement with no problem, so I really don't think that would be the issue.

 

[Chubosco]

Let me put my glasses on 8O So sorry, thought it was caulerpa you were talking about cknowto. My mistake. I just had to breakdown one of my tanks because of the weed. Put the rock in a sealed rubbermaid with flow for thirty days to kill the stuff. When I opened it up the caulerpa laughed at me. How the heck can a plant live w/o light for a month? Anyway, took the rock out and sit in in a empty tank where it has been for six weeks. The weed is now long dead, I think... By the way, great blog!