xabo October 18, 2009 Share October 18, 2009 I have a 75w/5100K bulb over my refugium that burns 24/7 and my macro algae (cheato?) doesn't seem to grow. Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanman October 18, 2009 Share October 18, 2009 PLenty of flow through the refugium?? While caulerpa will grow with almost no flow at all, chaeto likes some water movement. And don't even get me started on that red stuff... it likes LOTS of flow. bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xabo October 18, 2009 Author Share October 18, 2009 PLenty of flow through the refugium?? While caulerpa will grow with almost no flow at all, chaeto likes some water movement. And don't even get me started on that red stuff... it likes LOTS of flow. bob Fuge is being fed by a Quiet One 1200. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami October 18, 2009 Share October 18, 2009 Try reverse lighting your refugium so that it goes dark 12 hours of the day. Most biomass production in photosynthetic organisms occurs during the night. You may be suppressing growth with 24 hour lighting. Also, it's possible that there's a nutrient deficiency, such as iron, for the macro. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Lazar October 18, 2009 Share October 18, 2009 Do you have any measurable nitrate in your tank? If not, your system may be processing all the nitrate on it's own, without help from the chaeto. If that's the case there may not be enough nitrogen to fuel the chaeto, and growth stops. That's a good thing, actually, unless you're trying to grow and sell chaeto or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k October 18, 2009 Share October 18, 2009 plants not growing with light and water flow? impossible unless there is no food or slow, barely perceptible growth from too much light. plants do need darkness in order to grow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabrego October 18, 2009 Share October 18, 2009 FWIW, I am running my fuge 24/7 and I have not had any issues with my cheato/caulerpa growth. What kind of bulb are you running? Is it fluorescent? I can't recall any 75 fluorescent bulbs. I noticed a large growth spurt when I added an additional bulb to my fuge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xabo October 18, 2009 Author Share October 18, 2009 (edited) Do you have any measurable nitrate in your tank? If not, your system may be processing all the nitrate on it's own, without help from the chaeto. If that's the case there may not be enough nitrogen to fuel the chaeto, and growth stops. That's a good thing, actually, unless you're trying to grow and sell chaeto or something. Nitrates are at 0, Phosphates 0.10 Edited October 18, 2009 by xabo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xabo October 18, 2009 Author Share October 18, 2009 FWIW, I am running my fuge 24/7 and I have not had any issues with my cheato/caulerpa growth. What kind of bulb are you running? Is it fluorescent? I can't recall any 75 fluorescent bulbs. I noticed a large growth spurt when I added an additional bulb to my fuge. Bulb is a TCP 19W=85W Compact Fluorescent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami October 18, 2009 Share October 18, 2009 Just FYI since I mentioned your light-cycle: An abstract from Science, July 22, 2005: "Circadian clocks are believed to confer an advantage to plants, but the nature of that advantage has been unknown. We show that a substantial photosynthetic advantage is conferred by correct matching of the circadian clock period with that of the external light-dark cycle. In wild type and in long Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate October 18, 2009 Share October 18, 2009 (edited) plants not growing with light and water flow? impossible unless there is no food or slow, barely perceptible growth from too much light. plants do need darkness in order to grow. Gonna have to disagree with ya Rob. I run my fuge light 24/7 and the chaeto grows like crazy. Here is 2.5 months of growth. August 01, 2009 VIDEO Today: I also upgraded the light. Here is the old one: Edited October 18, 2009 by Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami October 19, 2009 Share October 19, 2009 Plants continue to grow under light. They just grow faster with a lighting cycle that matches their natural diurnal rhythms.... You gotta remember, it's not all about photosynthesis. Plants respire light you and me at night. That is, they take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide. The food (sugars) that are created and stored up during the daylight hours (via photosynthesis) are consumed at night during respiration and are used to fuel growth, effect cell repair, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bshriver October 19, 2009 Share October 19, 2009 What is your magnesium level? My experience is that chaeto will not grow well if mag levels go much above 1500. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happyfeet October 19, 2009 Share October 19, 2009 While I was cycling my tank I was running my fuge lights 24/7 and I got almost no algae growth and almost no chaeto growth. I decided to switch things up a little and turned my lights on the fuge off for 2-4 hours per day. It was an explosion of growth and literally dropped all of my params to 0 over night mid cycle. I've read about people's cycles taking 3-8 weeks and mine took only 1 week 2 days for every param to be 0. This may have happened anyway if I kept the lights on 24/7, I can't know for sure if changing the lighting spiked the growth or if conditions were just perfect in the tank. I'll continue to keep my fuge lights off for 4 hours a day though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xabo October 19, 2009 Author Share October 19, 2009 What is your magnesium level? My experience is that chaeto will not grow well if mag levels go much above 1500. Mag is 1350 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Lazar October 19, 2009 Share October 19, 2009 Plants, including aquatic plants, need nitrogen to grow. Our plants get nitrogen mostly through ammonia and nitrate. If there's no nitrate available to your chaeto, it will grow very little if at all, no matter how much light and water movement you throw at it. Some aquariums can grow algae great even though the test kit reads zero nitrate. That's because the chaeto is consuming all the free nitrate. You can find a zillion examples of this in threads titled "Help! I have hair algae everywhere but my nitrates and phosphates are zero!" In these cases the denitrifying bacteria in the anaerobic parts of your tank and turn nitrate to nitrogen can't keep up with the nitrate production, and the algae eats the leftover nitrate. Your chaeto is probably consuming all the nitrate that your cycle bacteria can't eat...and that's excellent. It means your system is in balance, so don't mess with it. You can trim a portion of the chaeto if it's looking ragged, but I would not change anything significant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sen5241b October 20, 2009 Share October 20, 2009 I've noticed that many people do not have strong enough light for their fuge. My chaeto did not grow for 6 months with 15 watts and then I put 30 watts on it and it started growing. I suggest 10 watts of florescent or Halogen light per fuge gallon and make sure the light is very close to the chaeto. BTW, the halogen generates heat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefkeeperrob October 23, 2009 Share October 23, 2009 (edited) I too once had zero Chaeto growth. I finally gave up on it and got rid of it and the light I was using to grow it. About a month later I decided I wanted it again. When I went to replace the Chaeto and the light I found out a few things. Chaeto comes in many varieties and this thin hair like Chaeto I have now grows like crazy. The initial Chaeto I had was the thickness of spaghetti and didn't grow at all. There was another element I changed though. I now use a 5000k 23w fluorescent Home Depot flood light and it puts out an impressive amount light. The first time around I was using a light that was similar in appearance but I believe around 15w or so and 6500k. When I got into the Chaeto thing the second time I had planned on using two of those to see if that would help but I stumbled upon this higher wattage 23w lamp when I was at Home Depot. This light puts out a lot of light and I'm getting great growth. Hope some of this helps. Edited October 23, 2009 by reefkeeperrob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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