Chaeto Question

[Redfish]

What is best here, Leave the lights on my refugium on all of the time or turn them on at nite when the DT lights are off, what is best for the Chaeto?

[C-21 USAF]

Don't think the Chaeto will care either way. I used to have the sump light on opposite of the DT lights to counteract PH changes at night.

Now I have them on at the same time because I want the sump lights on when I'm up and doing maintence and so forth.

If you leave them on 24/7 better have control of your nutrients or you'll have a whole lot more than Chaeto growing down there

[Zoohead]

^ What he said.

[Gz28]

I personally leave mine on 24/7. And everything is perfect.

[Gerwin]

and we have seen the size of his Chaeto balls he brings in! (hmm I would normally edit that but its kinda funny)
of course to grow that much you have to have nutrients to export , so one could guess he is over feeding, crowding or additive dosing.

[Gz28]

yeah what can i say...i do have the biggest cheato balls around....
one thing i forgot to mention is. I researched the same question when i was setting up my refuge, what cf-af21 said about ph is true and also if you have chalupera (the grape looking stuff) if you leave your lights on 24/7 it prevents or more likely prolongs the time it takes for them to go sexual, this is a good thing because when they do, they release all of those nutrients back into the water at once.

[Gz28]

one other thing, gerwin asked me to reply to someone's post about having problems with their cheato not doing well, and suspecting that it was because of GFO well i cant find that post so i will post it here. Here is what my system consists of right now. refuge lighting 2x 26w "swirely" CFL 6500k bubls, 2 of those canister things that look like the canisters on our RODI filters 1 has carbon and the other has GFO, i use polyfil between the bubble trap for my empty protein skimmer compartment so i dont think it would be because of the GFO. and as far as nutrients to export. I only have 5 fish none of them are more than 2" i feed every other day and i put only enough for the fish to geat with very few if any brine shrimp hitting the sand, i spot feed corals 2x a week. i only have 2 corals in the tank right now. so i dont think any of those conditions you mentioned are true, but i could be wrong. i am wondering if it could be lack of mechanical filtration?

[Gerwin]

one other thing, gerwin asked me to reply to someone's post about having problems with their cheato not doing well, and suspecting that it was because of GFO well i cant find that post so i will post it here. Here is what my system consists of right now. refuge lighting 2x 26w "swirely" CFL 6500k bubls, 2 of those canister things that look like the canisters on our RODI filters 1 has carbon and the other has GFO, i use polyfil between the bubble trap for my empty protein skimmer compartment so i dont think it would be because of the GFO. and as far as nutrients to export. I only have 5 fish none of them are more than 2" i feed every other day and i put only enough for the fish to geat with very few if any brine shrimp hitting the sand, i spot feed corals 2x a week. i only have 2 corals in the tank right now. so i dont think any of those conditions you mentioned are true, but i could be wrong. i am wondering if it could be lack of mechanical filtration?

I do not think so, what about additives, ? fuel, invert foods, etc., hell maybe its thriving from photosynthesis alone.......

[Gz28]

up until just very recently i have not dosed anything!! i just started dosing fuel 3 inner cap full 2x week. and just started using oyster feast 1-2x a week. remember i only have 2 corals to feed in that tank. One thing i can think of is i used to turn my macro algae avery other day so the macro on the bottom could get light if i did not it would start to turn brown, I got tired of always fipping it over so that is why i bought the second swirley light and i have it on the side of the refuge shining in from the side and one shining down from the top, now i do not have to flip it and none of it every turns brown.
and if i had alot of nutrients in the water wouldnt i have a bad algae problem? or could the macro suck it out of the water so fast that the algae doesnot have time to grow? i run my main lights 10 hours a day and i only have to clean the glass once a week, i get a very light coat of brown algae on the glass, none noticible on the sand. another thing of interest with my tank that i have noticed is compared to Elvis's tank my tan grown purple coraline algae really slow, compared to his, and if i get a piece with darker purple on it and put it in my tank after a while the color fades or lighten's up. I thought of this because it has been pointed out that my macro is lighter in color than normal. in my bc29 tank it grows slower but darker, in that tank i grow chalupera better, same feeding as the 90 except i dose calcium,and purple up every 2-3 days, and i stil always have low calcium about 380. in my 90 my calcium levels are at about 440. probabally too much info so sorry about that.