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

[randyBRS]

Hey randy, how often do you guys trim your fuge on the 160 and what % do you pull out? I've been experimenting with letting mine go a little longer and dying off at the top a bit to release those tasty coral treats triton talks about. Having said that, I realize it's a delicate balancing act. Just curious what you guys do?

I probably pull a soccer ball size of chaeto out once every couple of months and maybe turn the entire mass over at the same time. I couldn't say that it's a very fine tuned or precise task and really feeds into the ULM approaches we've been talking about, because there's less oversight needed while it is more than effective enough to handle my heavy feeding hand. In fact, (a little inside baseball), we've lowered the lighting schedule of the fuge light to only Mon-Wed-Fri and still see nearly undetectable nutrients.

 

[randyBRS]

Thanks randy.. just wondering though.. i have a heavy .. heavy stocked 700 gallon tank.. i overfeed... keeps the angels and wrasses fat and not to aggressive.. so lets say doing 15 cubes a day... if i had the kessel light and lets say a basket ball sized Cheato.. are we thanking that could handle that much ?

I do believe that a refugium could easily handle that level of nutrients and fish waste, however it may require more than just a single H380 and a basketball size of chaeto. To put it in perspective, the BRS160 uses the H1200 refugium light and the mass of chaeto roughly fills the entire chamber from top to bottom/side to side/front to back. That's a mass of algae about 23" x 17" x 14", however the H1200 is definitely overkill and only runs at about 10% intensity.

 

[Raindog3030]

Awesome video, great experiment! I have been a proponent for Chaeto since my first reef aquarium (well over 10 years ago?) I even have a good size ball in the display of my current 20g long, since I don't have a sump. I used this same setup over a decade ago to great success! Long live the Chaetomorpha!

 

[chicago]

so do we think the H1200 at higher intensity and that same space.. 23 x 17 x 14 ... will handle 15 cubes a day... that is about the space i have available in one compartment of my sump..
next question .. is it rotating or just sitting.. do you stirr.? thanks

 

[randyBRS]

so do we think the H1200 at higher intensity and that same space.. 23 x 17 x 14 ... will handle 15 cubes a day... that is about the space i have available in one compartment of my sump.. next question .. is it rotating or just sitting.. do you stirr.? thanks

It's tough to say with certainty the exact scalability of what we have in the BRS160 and how effective it could still be at 3X the water volume.

Personally I think it's fully capable of keeping up with a larger system, as I normally feed 6cubes of various foods as well as a small handful of dry algae pellets AND BRS Reef Chili on a feed timer three times each night. Not only that, but we've changed the fuge lighting to 12hrs only on Mon-Wed-Fri and we still see undetectable nitrates and very low phosphates. Perhaps we could see the same results with (2x) H380 instead of the gigantic H1200, but Ryan just had to have that light.

I turn the mass of chaeto maybe once every month or two and the underside is always dark green. I also remove about a soccerball size amount every month or two!

 

[chicago]

so are we thinking i could double the growth with 2 of the kessell h380 .. running 12 hours a day.. ? if the cheato fails... me do these lights work for ATS.. sorry little of topic.. thanks

 

[randyBRS]

so are we thinking i could double the growth with 2 of the kessell h380 .. running 12 hours a day.. ? if the cheato fails... me do these lights work for ATS.. sorry little of topic.. thanks

More like a single H380 wouldn't be the most effective on a refugium that large and deep, where two would likely provide ample PAR and spread. This is where the overpowered H1200 at a very low intensity setting works for the BRS160 with similar refugium dimensions.

You might be able to DIY these into an ATS, however given the much smaller surface area as compared to a large fuge I'd imagine you could potentially run into issues of them being overpowered for that application not to mention being mindful of keeping them dry and away from splashes or salt creep.

 

[chicago]

NOW WE have a tough decision. ATS or Cheato fuge..

 

[chicago]

now i have a tough decision to make ... fuge or ATS.. fuge sounds easier to keep up with..

 

[jhuntington12]

It's tough to say with certainty the exact scalability of what we have in the BRS160 and how effective it could still be at 3X the water volume.

Personally I think it's fully capable of keeping up with a larger system, as I normally feed 6cubes of various foods as well as a small handful of dry algae pellets AND BRS Reef Chili on a feed timer three times each night. Not only that, but we've changed the fuge lighting to 12hrs only on Mon-Wed-Fri and we still see undetectable nitrates and very low phosphates. Perhaps we could see the same results with (2x) H380 instead of the gigantic H1200, but Ryan just had to have that light.

I turn the mass of chaeto maybe once every month or two and the underside is always dark green. I also remove about a soccerball size amount every month or two!

I have been running mine 24/7 with explosive growth and no die off under an H80. Any benefit to cutting back the photoperiod other than stablaizing the pH at night a little bit?

 

[Anotherplanet]

What was the best PAR level to grow cheato? What PAR was the H380 outputting?

 

[Anotherplanet]

What was the best PAR level to grow cheato? What PAR was the H380 outputting?

 

[Reef of Fillory]

I was running the fuge light on my EVO 13.5 24/7 and recently cut it back to 12 hours/day to increase nutrient levels, but the chaeto now grows even more quickly. I'm taking out around 2/3 of the chaeto every weekend

 

[Anotherplanet]

Hey guys!

Today we're updating you on the Chaetomorpha test that we have been brewing for the last few weeks. What we found about fuge size and PAR really surprised us, so we couldn't just stop there!

As you can tell from the title, we are going to be changing it up with this test and will continue the investigation. So check out this first installment of the Chaeto test and let us know your thoughts!




-Randy

Did you record the PAR output you had the H380 set at?

 

[Mark Gray]

Thank you guy's for this study this was for sure the best thing I have ever added to my tank, It took awahile but all my Algae in my DT is gone. Thanks Again

 

[randyBRS]

Did you record the PAR output you had the H380 set at?

In this video, at this timestamp, we discuss the PAR of the lighting options. The H380 is not adjustable, so the PAR levels referenced here would have been the same during the Part-I testing documented at the start of this thread.

 

[Anotherplanet]

Thank You - this is for everyone to reference.

 

[KCSUMPS]

A follow up question for all of these - how LONG do you light the chaeto - I am currently lighting with an LED grow for 12 hours. If I up to 24 does that help or does the Chaeto need a 'rest' time?

 

[Mark Gray]

A follow up question for all of these - how LONG do you light the chaeto - I am currently lighting with an LED grow for 12 hours. If I up to 24 does that help or does the Chaeto need a 'rest' time?

I run mine for 12 hours at night it helps keep my PH up some at night. I don't think it needs rest but for me I think if I ran mine 24 hours a day I would for sure have 0 NO3, that being said I may have to cut mine back to 3 or 4 days a week have to think about how I can get my Apex to do this.

 

[Whipples]

You will have to write your own complex code to do it a few days on/off, instead why not just cut the photoperiod so it’s on every day but the equivalent of 4ish days light?