Chaeto put to the test: Going beyond our expectations! (Part 1)

[cperry7467]

Something I'd be interested in is how chaeto grows under different nutrient conditions. I dose kalk and my phosphates are always near 0 and chaeto and other macros seem to melt in my tank. However my nitrates are usually 5-10 so it seems like it needs both to live. Also the first time I tried chaeto I had high nitrate and phosphates and it was overrun by hair algae. Like it grew on the chaeto and choked it out.

 

[leptang]

Ok I did chaeto in a large HOB for a year. My reef was well established 7 years+. I always toyed with water changes stretching them out. I even used natural seawater (filtered) from the National Institution of Oceanography, I would drive once a month for 55g of seawater. My findings of chaeto are awesome at pulling out phosphorus and nitrate, but that's not all it strips from the water. I found it also rapidly pulls out iron and potassium and probably other elements I could not test for from the water collum. When I held off on water changes, within 2 mouths the chaeto would white out and not grow. I dosed potassium and iron and was able to see a bit more growth but it always hit its peak with white tips at the end of the chaeto. With grooming of the chaeto and water changes I managed to keep the chaeto green without the iron and potassium dosing. I have to also include I never changed the light source, using only the nano LED Fluval Aqualife & Plant

 

[ReefBeta]

We do have a test on the docket for ATS's and I just added the Chaeto/Algae "Reactor" to it. I know many of us want to just how effective they are in comparison to a full fuge. From my experiences with an ATS, I foresee it being a really good test!

So exciting! I look forward to the ATS test the most, not in terms of nutrition export, but in effect on PH, because ATS was said to have grow advantage because capable of using CO2 from the air. So by that sense, it's very interesting to see if ATS will have less impact of water PH because it relies less CO2 from water. I actually think raising PH/lowering CO2 is far more useful than nutrition export from your tests. There are many other effective nutrition export methods out there. But for lowering CO2, the only other alternative is CO2 scrubber, which is super expensive to run in comparison. From your previous video on CO2 scrubber about how much growth increase by just raising PH by 0.2, the result from chaeto with Kessil light sounds extremely appealing.

 

[leptang]

So exciting! I look forward to the ATS test the most, not in terms of nutrition export, but in effect on PH, because ATS was said to have grow advantage because capable of using CO2 from the air. So by that sense, it's very interesting to see if ATS will have less impact of water PH because it relies less CO2 from water. I actually think raising PH/lowering CO2 is far more useful than nutrition export from your tests. There are many other effective nutrition export methods out there. But for lowering CO2, the only other alternative is CO2 scrubber, which is super expensive to run in comparison. From your previous video on CO2 scrubber about how much growth increase by just raising PH by 0.2, the result from chaeto with Kessil light sounds extremely appealing.

This is why I'm going to add chaeto to my 20 g nano system I'm about to create, with a calcium reactor.

 

[david p.]

good video!!
i use a 40b with 2/3 full of cheato with Evergro Nova S" 90w LED light for my 85g build. it's fun to see real data in comparaison with other option. i think my ligth is hight output (rly hight) and it keep my N and P undetectable. Cheato grows like crazy, even if N and P are undetectable , since it's a 'natural' way to get nutrient out of the system, cheato will not deplete all N and P in the system compared to chemical reaction obtained with other options, it will adapt it's growth to nutrient or rate limiting element in the equation.

can't wait to see the rest of the serie to see what are the conclusion and compare with what i see in my system!!

keep up the good job! amazing series!

 

[mps026]

Love the videos... about a month ago i added a refugium. I had some minor hair algae at the time. One month later chaeto and dragons breath tripled in size and no hair algae in the tank.

 

[TNT32D]

I use to dose Kalk in the same compartment as the chaeto and it never died off? My most recent experiment I did run it 24-7 and it grew like crazy till I cut it back, then it all melted away?

 

[redtigrinus]

I'd love to see this same experiment done with an ATS.

 

[RamsReef]

I loved this one!

 

[cracker]

That was a lot of info !

 

[Fishlee]

where did you guys get the par 38 light? / is it for sale on your website and same with the socket for the light / mounting

 

[bif24701]

It would be awesome if BRS also integrates Chaeto reactors to these tests and discussion since space is limited in many sumps and with other equipment already installed, a refugium is just not feasible. Would definitely love to see your results on these reactors' effectiveness as a nutrient export method.

True it could not hurt to try but I think this study has already shown enough to say that they work.

 

[bif24701]

Randy,

Thanks for the testing great job and very informative and peaks my interest. I'm currently using a reactor with refugium light strapped to the reactor to grow out my Chaetomorpha. I'm courses if this setup would yield different results since it forces water to flow directly through the chaeto ball? It certainly seems to grow out within less than a week and requires pruning more often vs a refugium where it has more room to grow out. With that being said eternal reactor takes up way less space. Most reefers I've seen online doing this use a flexible led refugium strip wrapped around the reactor. I used what I had, which was a 12" Refugium LED 4w finnex, and two little fishies reactor 150, 10 w rio return pump, Display is 20g jbj cube reef mix.

Andrew Snyder Wichita Falls TX.

I think it's not need. If they can prove results in this test then why wouldn't results carry over to other methods of growing cheato?

 

[leptang]

which setup grows the biggest pod population. did you see a difference between one or the other?

One that doesn't swirl.

 

[leptang]

Ok I did chaeto in a large HOB for a year. My reef was well established 7 years+. I always toyed with water changes stretching them out. I even used natural seawater (filtered) from the National Institution of Oceanography, I would drive once a month for 55g of seawater. My findings of chaeto are awesome at pulling out phosphorus and nitrate, but that's not all it strips from the water. I found it also rapidly pulls out iron and potassium and probably other elements I could not test for from the water collum. When I held off on water changes, within 2 mouths the chaeto would white out and not grow. I dosed potassium and iron and was able to see a bit more growth but it always hit its peak with white tips at the end of the chaeto. With grooming of the chaeto and water changes I managed to keep the chaeto green without the iron and potassium dosing. I have to also include I never changed the light source, using only the nano LED Fluval Aqualife & Plant

I forgot to add, also I found the symbiotic algae has to compete with the chaeto for key elements in the closed system. My corals color diminished to a extent when the chaeto hit its white out stage.

 

[bif24701]

I forgot to add, also I found the symbiotic algae has to compete with the chaeto for key elements in the closed system. My corals color diminished to a extent when the chaeto hit its white out stage.

When it's turning white like that means there isn't enough nutrients in the water, time to trim it back.

 

[leptang]

When it's turning white like that means there isn't enough nutrients in the water, time to trim it back.

That's my best guess, I trimmed back to gain a balance that the chaeto over took. Whit water changes to restore the elements.

 

[bif24701]

That's my best guess, I trimmed back to gain a balance that the chaeto over took. Whit water changes to restore the elements.

It's a lack of nutrients or flow, once my cheato gets too thick some will turn white near the light because there isn't enough to sustaine the growth

 

[WandaMay]

Very interesting, can't wait to see the next video

 

[Pola0502ds]

This is AWESOME!!! Great job. I can't wait to see your long term results. My tank has been running with no skimmer and only a fuge, chemipure blue and polyfilter since day one (1.5 yrs.). I've made some rookie mistakes that created nutrient spikes but mostly my nutrients are low enough for me (N = 5ppm w Red Sea ; PO4=.05 w Hanna ulr). I feed one cube hikari mega marine algae and one cube cyclopeeze daily. Plus feed 1" square of mysis to my anemone every other day. Very high bioload.

I found a thread on another forum that discussed a "duplex" refugium set up. I found this to be very effective at eliminating the detritus build up in the fuge and my algae growth really stepped up when I implemented the duplex set up.

I've also found that dosing 2ppm daily of sodium nitrate helps keep my phosphates lower. I have it on one of my dosing channels. My tank has nitrates even without dosing, which is kinda confusing to me. I wonder if that specific form of nitrate is more easily utilized by whatever algae or bacteria that is consuming phosphate.

What is the duplex setup?