Setup new refugium but cant grow chaeto

[zwhite13]

Setup fuge in left overflow chamber of jbj45 aio. Have imrefugium light on back of tank running opposite of my light cycle and nitrates and phosphate stay right around 10ppm and .6 respectively. What am I missing to grow chaeto lol?

 

[Jvesche20]

Are you dosing anything that kills algae? Can’t remember the exact names but some people dose things and it melts the chaeto. Do you have decent flow where the chaeto is?

 

[Jvesche20]

Welcome to reef2reef btw!

 

[zwhite13]

Not dosing anything for algae. I bought an intank brand media basket for the jbj45 specifically and removed the middle shelf so the chaeto has all that space to grow and then filter floss on top shelf so it gets the flow from overflow

 

[ccombs]

Welcome to R2R! How long have you had the chaeto?

 

[zwhite13]

2 weeks. It's pretty much withered away to nothing by this point. I'm also dosing chaetogrow from brightwell and that isnt helping either

 

[laverda]

You may be low on iron. You don’t want to dose to much, so test it first. It does not take much iron to make a big difference.

 

[Hemmdog]

Welcome to reef2reef! Chaeto in aio’s is tricky, good luck!

 

[w2inc]

Test your water and see if it has any food. You may not need it yet.

 

[Lasse]

Start with the light. Can you describe it. Imrefugium light do not say anything to me. I have been growing chaeto with help of mostly red light for 2.5 years now. I could be good to say - your light is strong enough - but the information you give of the light is not enough to judge if it good or not.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[w2inc]

Start with the light. Can you describe it. Imrefugium light do not say anything to me. I have been growing chaeto with help of mostly red light for 2.5 years now. I could be good to say - your light is strong enough - but the information you give of the light is not enough to judge if it good or not.

Sincerely Lasse

I have found a lot of variance in my light that grows it. I have a 9 watt "plant spectrum light" from my LFA on one tank that works, but I never harvest from that tank, and I have a 150 watt pink dope growers light from amazon on another tank that dominates. I harvest 50% of it every 7 to 12 days. I just feel like it is overkill and wasting power. I run them both reverse daylight for a 14 hour cycle. ICP test show the same nutrient levels on both tanks.

I had a third tank with a black box on the cheato tank. The system had low alkalinity issues and the Cheato would get taken over by some mustard colored slime if I didn't keep it in check.

All tanks had 500 gph+ flow through the Cheato area. It would be helpful to hear other experiences about wattage, spectrum, size of grow area, water flow and hours of light, as well as a 2 hour break during the grow cycle for it to recharge.

Thanks for posting the question.

 

[zwhite13]

You may be low on iron. You don’t want to dose to much, so test it first. It does not take much iron to make a big difference.

The brightwell chaetogrow is an iron supplement

 

[zwhite13]

Start with the light. Can you describe it. Imrefugium light do not say anything to me. I have been growing chaeto with help of mostly red light for 2.5 years now. I could be good to say - your light is strong enough - but the information you give of the light is not enough to judge if it good or not.

Sincerely Lasse

This light here. Comes with a way to mount it on back glass so its lighting that back chamber

 

[Lasse]

It is only 9 watts and it is 0.2 W 60 mA LED - no power LED´s. IMO - this is to week in order to grow Chaeto in a good way. I have a channel that is 15 * 80 * 15 cm ( W*L*D). It is luminated from the above with around 40 W Power LEDs. It grows Chaeto very well.

But I can be wrong - is it anyone else that have succeded with this type of LEDs?

Sincerely lasse

 

[Jvesche20]

I use a 19W PAR38 led light. Grows super fast. Light cost me less than $10. It’s waterproof so when I get it wet sometimes then it’s not an issue.

 

[w2inc]

Here is the 9w low power set up that I have. I haven't harvested it in months but the tank only gets food when the fish look malnourished.