Whats wrong with my refugium?? Cheato wont grow!

Reef_a_holiks · Feb 5, 2015

So I am bringing this thread back, as I am still unable to keep cheato alive. I came across an issue someone else was having with their cheato in which he found the cause. According to him his ATO was pouring RO water in the chamber next to his cheato which was causing frequent hypo-salinity in the refugium. The hypo-salinity was killing off his cheato. I was wondering if maybe the same is happening to me, as I just cannot understand why I cannot keep cheato. What do you guys think ? Where do you guys have your ATO pour your RO for top off?

reefndude · Feb 5, 2015

Its a possibility. My ato dumps in chamber after refugium

N1Husker · Feb 6, 2015

My ato comes into my chamber right before the refugium where my protien skimmer is located and the aquarium water comes into the sump. I use a Tom's Aqualifter to put water from my ato container. I wouldn't think that the amount of RO freshwater would be the problem. If your parameters look okay, I would suspect lighting. I use a garden variety, full spectrum light bulb, that is in a clamp on style of shop light fixture, nothing fancy. I grow chaeto like a weed and I have to trim it out once a month. I been using this for 5+ years and I have never had a problem. Lately, I had this 20 gallon Aqueon light lying around and I put a plant bulb in it for my other sump and I was going to use this temporarily until I could get a new fixture, my old one crapped out on me. It also is working very well. I tried an LED fixture and didn't see near the growth.To me it just seems something is missing in the LED's that a florescent provides. I hope this helps. It is cheap enough to try out.

erk · Feb 6, 2015

I used to have chaeto and it grew super fast. But the caulerpa grew faster. They fought tooth and nail, but when the dust cleared, the caulerpa was left the victor. The chaeto lingers, but a shadow of its former self. My ato pours in near my drains. I have noticed people use these fancy bulbs and such, but 6500K CFLs work the best IME for growing plant life. I use them over my freshwater planted tanks and in my sump. Never any issues with growth. 5700K don't work as well, at least not in freshwater planted tanks. Too much red or something.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 6, 2015

erk said:
I used to have chaeto and it grew super fast. But the caulerpa grew faster. They fought tooth and nail, but when the dust cleared, the caulerpa was left the victor. The chaeto lingers, but a shadow of its former self. My ato pours in near my drains. I have noticed people use these fancy bulbs and such, but 6500K CFLs work the best IME for growing plant life. I use them over my freshwater planted tanks and in my sump. Never any issues with growth. 5700K don't work as well, at least not in freshwater planted tanks. Too much red or something.

I agree. Caulerpa (at leqast Caulerpa racemosa) is more efficient than is chaeto since it usually can outcompete it.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 6, 2015

Reef_a_holiks said:
So I am bringing this thread back, as I am still unable to keep cheato alive. I came across an issue someone else was having with their cheato in which he found the cause. According to him his ATO was pouring RO water in the chamber next to his cheato which was causing frequent hypo-salinity in the refugium. The hypo-salinity was killing off his cheato. I was wondering if maybe the same is happening to me, as I just cannot understand why I cannot keep cheato. What do you guys think ? Where do you guys have your ATO pour your RO for top off?

Depending on how much the ATO adds at once (impacting the salinity in the refugium), that could certainly be a possibility.

Any way you can add the water downstream from the macroalgae?