Chaeto on 24hr light cycle OR opposite main tank lights.

[Harrisonbored]

Which do you do?

[alaskan84]

Which do you do?

 

For about the first year I ran my chaeto on a 24 hour lightcycle in the back of my NC28 intank mediabasket with a jbj nano glo LED. I had tremendous growth and had to trim it almost weekly. I have been since been running my opposite the main tank lights and the chaeto grown has almost slumped in half.....

[altolamprologus]

I do 24 hours a day, but really only because I don't have room for another timer. It burns out the bulbs really quick, but it seems to help the chaeto grow super fast

[bdaniel5278]

i run mine opposite display lights, never tried 24/7

[Asureef]

I only run mines for 8hrs after main light is off, grew from a baseball to a basketball size in 3 months.

[jedimasterben]

I run mine 24/7 via a 13w CFL. Has grown from a small fistful to about two basketballs. I thought it wasn't doing anything for my nitrate (reading stayed around 100-160ppm ), but the I realized I was looking at the freshwater scale, and on the saltwater scale I'm only 20ppm maximum.

[masami93]

I can't say anything since I haven't had a refugium, but isn't the point of having cheato was not only to reduce phosphate but to also stabalize pH when you turn the lights off in the display tank?

[jedimasterben]

I can't say anything since I haven't had a refugium, but isn't the point of having cheato was not only to reduce phosphate but to also stabalize pH when you turn the lights off in the display tank?

I honestly doubt it would make much difference, with the amounts of chaeto most people keep.

 

Chaeto also absorbs nitrate and small levels of ammonia and nitrite (like all plants do).

[Mr.Nano]

I run two fuges on my 60G cube mixed SPS tank. both are ran 24hrs with lights on. might be over kill but if it ain't broke don't fix it. I will however turn off the light to my HOB fuge 3 nights a week to give my corals a break from the bleeding light and let the moon lights from my AI's have an effect.

[MeepNand]

Why run a fuge light at night at all? In the wild, the sea naturally fluctuates in pH, so a drop from 8.2 to 7.8 at night won't make or break the tank.

[northstar1357]

Alternate hours mainly because i hate to scrape off the coraline algae.

[Alexraptor]

Why run a fuge light at night at all? In the wild, the sea naturally fluctuates in pH, so a drop from 8.2 to 7.8 at night won't make or break the tank.

 

Ummm....

The reason pH drops in our tanks at night is because of the increased Co2 content of our waters at night.

And that happens because we have very small and limited system and a small limited quantity of water.

[grmoore]

Why run a fuge light at night at all? In the wild, the sea naturally fluctuates in pH, so a drop from 8.2 to 7.8 at night won't make or break the tank.

 

The pH swing is simply a result of the actual problem - the absorption of oxygen and generation of carbon dioxide during the dark periods. In a heavily planted tank, this can quickly alter the pH and stress the livestock. This can easily be countered by using a reverse lighting cycle on an adequate amount of Chaeto (seldom is enough available), but in a heavily planted tank, it's easier to simply add a bubbler at night, or use a protein skimmer (as I do) to oxygenate the water.

[cdance]

The pH swing is simply a result of the actual problem - the absorption of oxygen and generation of carbon dioxide during the dark periods. In a heavily planted tank, this can quickly alter the pH and stress the livestock. This can easily be countered by using a reverse lighting cycle on an adequate amount of Chaeto (seldom is enough available), but in a heavily planted tank, it's easier to simply add a bubbler at night, or use a protein skimmer (as I do) to oxygenate the water.

 

Would using a surface skimmer adequately oxygenate the water at night?

[Alexraptor]

Protein skimmers oxygenate water because of the fine air bubbles involved that mixes with the water.

[grmoore]

Would using a surface skimmer adequately oxygenate the water at night?

 

A surface skimmer will help remove the protein film from the surface of your water (thus helping with gas exchange), but will not oxygenate the water during the dark hours. If you don't want to add a protein skimmer to your build, or have a reverse lighting schedule for an adequate amount of algae, I would suggest adding a quality airstone to supply oxygen when your lights are out.

[kevin_f]

I used to run 24/7 with a JBJ nano-glo. Cheato barely grew.. somewhat died. I changed to a custom LED w/ few reds & one blue.. and I had to change it to opposite because of all the growth

[baldbean]

Opposite light cycle with 30 min over lap on both sides. So ON for about 15 hours.

[JR!]

Opposite light cycle with 30 min over lap on both sides. So ON for about 15 hours.

Same. I had to trim every two weeks

[gonzalez78]

For now I run mine the same as my dt until I can buy another timer. I am using a 150W light bulb and in 3 weeks my chaetomorpha has more than quadrupled in size. Gave some away to my younger brother today and waiting for my older brother to reply if he would like some too.

[JamieSheffield]

I run mine from 5:30 in the morning until 9:30 at night, which is longer on both ends than my tank, but not opposite or 24hr.

 

It grows like crazy.

 

Jamie

[jestep]

I was getting worse PH swings with opposing scheduling. If you don't have a lot of algae or macros in the DT, then it seems likely you may experience the same result. IMO you should base your decision on producing the most stable ph.

[nanolutionary]

What about macro going a sexual if on a 12 hour light cycle i heard if it's on 24 hours the risk is reduced, does chaeto go a-sexual, i.e. in other words is it immune to the 12 hour light cycle risk of going a-sexual?

[jestep]

What about macro going a sexual if on a 12 hour light cycle i heard if it's on 24 hours the risk is reduced, does chaeto go a-sexual, i.e. in other words is it immune to the 12 hour light cycle risk of going a-sexual?

 

I don't think there's any risk with chaeto, just with caulerpa and some of the others.

[Subsea]

When using Caulerpa, particularly, fast growing varieties. A 24 hour light cycle prevents sexual events. It works well to do that. In the case of Chaeto, sexual events are not a problem. Save money on electricity. More importantly, constant light is not good for living organism. Everything needs to rest. Many different biochemical reactions. Without having to know all nutrient pathways, allow nature to do the work for you. Run opposite light cycles.

Patrick