cheato tumble or not?

[big deddy]

For some reason my cheato just doesn't grow. It doesn't have power head on it. Would it be better if it tumbled? I have read that is the key to growing it. Also read it doesn't matter. But my biggest concern is if I ran a wave maker in the refugium it would be way to much flow for pods to survive and reproduce. So would it be good to tumble to grow cheato? Will the added movement mess up my pods?

 

[hybridazn]

When they say it needs Tumble they mean a very slow roll. From my own personal experience I never got it to roll and it always grew very quickly. I believe it has more to do with what light you are using.

 

[m88a2]

what light do you use for your cheato? i read led's in the 660nm spec worked well

 

[big deddy]

CFL 6600k 13 or 15 watt

 

[mfinn]

I had reasonable growth from chaeto in my refugium with just the flow through from my return pump, plus I was using a 51k cf bulb.
At about the same time I added a powerhead and switched to a led spot bulb with a clamp-on fixture. The led bulb was a 5k Utilitech bulb from Lowes.

My growth really exploded from what it was before.
With the powerhead in the refugium, I was able to actually get the chaeto ball to roll, for a day or so, but would eventually stop. But the growth really took off.

 

[d2mini]

A slow roll is the way to go. Like a rotisserie chicken!
Anything else in the tank, even substrate might give the chaeto something to catch on and stop the roll.
It doesn't need to roll, but this seems to give it even growth on all sides and really helps as it gets bigger, getting light to penetrate.
It also helps keep the cheato ball open/airy which also helps light penetrate to all sides.
This helps prevent it from getting nuisance algae mixed in.

And as mentioned above, the light is probably the most important thing.
Treat it like any other plant. I use a really low kelvin, high powered HPS grow light and the growth is insane.

Here's some more info and vids of my chaeto setup.
http://www.everydayreef.com/blog/2015/6/6/chaetomorpha-algae

 

[big deddy]

So do I need another bulb?

 

[Cleo642]

A slow roll is the way to go. Like a rotisserie chicken!
Anything else in the tank, even substrate might give the chaeto something to catch on and stop the roll.
It doesn't need to roll, but this seems to give it even growth on all sides and really helps as it gets bigger, getting light to penetrate.
It also helps keep the cheato ball open/airy which also helps light penetrate to all sides.
This helps prevent it from getting nuisance algae mixed in.

And as mentioned above, the light is probably the most important thing.
Treat it like any other plant. I use a really low kelvin, high powered HPS grow light and the growth is insane.

Here's some more info and vids of my chaeto setup.
http://www.everydayreef.com/blog/2015/6/6/chaetomorpha-algae

Makes me want some chicken now. Lol

 

[jeffp1]

I turn mine by hand every few days. I use a 100 watt cfl (26W) and have good growth. my bulb is 6500k

 

[mfinn]

So do I need another bulb?

I got better results when I went away from the cfl bulbs. But I also added flow around the same time.
So, for me it was a combination of 2 improvements.

I added a tunze 6045 to my refugium. I tried a maxi-jet 1200 for a while, but the narrow opening of the intake would clog fairly fast.
The larger intake of the propeller style pump ( tunze 6045) doesn't seem to clog nearly as fast.