Help, Chaeto tumbled right out of refugium..

Tampaman · Oct 30, 2019

Im setting up a new/transplanted 150g with a 40 gallon sump and 29 g refugium with baffles. I was hoping the current in the middle chamber of refugium would tumble Chaeto. Well yesterday i bought a bit, it wasent very much, maybe light baseball in size uncompressed. Put it in the refugium and to my surprise, it immediately started rolling in a circular motion...to the extent that it broke apart and most all of it went down and up the baffles, out of the refugium drain and into the pump area of sump, on to DT. Should i grown out more first? Start with a bigger denser piece? Reducing the flow will still have the Chaeto float over the baffel possibly but i do have a valve to reduce flow on refuge side, egg crate seems to open. Any thought would be great! Im going to need more Chaeto either way at this point...thanks for any and all help!

Tampaman · Oct 30, 2019

Still figuring out heaters too, please dont mind the curently exposed wires...i hate visable wires

BeejReef · Oct 31, 2019

Very nice setup!

Having a hard time envisioning what you're describing. Plenty of times you read about chaeto dying or dissolving if chemistry or nutrients aren't right, but having it just break apart upon intruduction?? How crazy is the flow in your fuge?

I'd guess you just got a bad hunk of chaeto and that you'd do better with another hunk from a different source.

Jvesche20 · Oct 31, 2019

I have a large amount of flow going through my chamber where my chaeto is. I put an egg crate underneath the bubble trap so it stops if pieces are to break off. I let my chaeto grow out all the way till it fills the entire chamber then I sell it to my LFS

Tampaman · Nov 1, 2019

Flow is unrestricted by the ball valve currently. Theres a bit more backpressure on the fuge side because of UV it also drains through. So just estimating....Mag 18 (1800gph) plus LG external (1075gph) for return flow, less head pressure , so flowing about 1500gph down the overflow to the T between the sump and fuge...roughly somewhere around 600gph through fuge is my guess, it tumbled great for 3 min. I'll get another, a bigger, piece. Somewhere in Tampa....any suggestions on source? Can be online of course...Thanks!