Chaeto in back with 14w fuge light

[drgolfaholic]

So I followed the thread below to build an external gangbox light setup for chaeto in 2nd chamber of BC29

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...p;#entry1818210

 

After one month of having chaeto with 8-10 hr/day of fuge light on, I don't see difference in slowing down unwanted algae growth on cube display glass. I pulled the media rack to check the chaeto yesterday, it seemed to turn more white. Bad(?) If all water parameters are ideal, what's the clue to look for?

[Magiksurfman]

Nice diy, what version did you use? I prefer the cf version rather than the hockey pucks. So are you getting growth out of the cheato? I have a similar setup just scaled up for a 15 gal fuge on my reef tank. The reason i ask is if you blast the chaeto with light it will grow thinner, yellower and spread out, but it will grow fast. I haven't had it ever turn white on me so im not sure what to say there, but i also have cheato in a dimmer section of the sump and it grows greener thicker and more compact. You don't need much i trim mine down to a handful and two weeks later i end up with two gallon ziplock bags full. Getting rid of gha will take a while it took me around four months to get rid of it, but before i was doing everything wrong which probably tacked on some time. I had a beast of an algae monster. So ill tell you what i did and you can see if you can use any of it and adapt it to your tank.

 

it made it easier that i had very little corals ... i couldn't keep any and more of a fowler

90 gal tank started in october 2010 merged from two tanks i had before a 40 wannabe reef and a 36 fowler

 

Before i

- used tap water to mix my salt and do topoffs

- had a small cleanup crew think it was consisted of probably like 5 ceriths , 4 scarlet hermits and 5 margarita

- did water changes once every two weeks (not bad but it was tap)

- did not do any type of nutrient export

- didn't test my mag levels

- did not test phosphate levels

 

after i

- took my rocks out and shook the detritus out in a bucket of salt water one by one and brushed the hair algae off for the last time.

- switched to nsw (only because i have a local source- san diego) and rodi for topoffs

- bumped water changes to once a week, vacuuming out the sand with water changes- month 5 back to two week water changes

- bumped up my clean up crew detritus and algae crew may still be undermanned probably why my bristle worm pop is so high - 10 ceriths, 10margaritas, 5 astrea, 1trochus, 5 turbos (they go to town) ),2 nerites (go to town on a much smaller scale but are pricey so went with turbos),4 nassarius snails, 3 emerald crabs (fumble everywhere and launch corals out of the way to graze),5 green hermits (will pick away at algea ), lawnmower blenny( loves the green film algea that grows on glass), 2 pecil urchins( eat more coraline than green algea those punks), 1horseshoe crab (that i never see above the sand but i do see him moving his way around the tank), tiger tail sea cucumber also since my water quality went up i put tangs in the tank which are a big help.

-built a diy sump 40 gal breeder -10 gal skimmer section/15gal fuge/5 gal return 10gal are empty for power failure insurance. the fuge has a 8" deep sand bed primarily to keep the cheato as close to the surface as possible , (i guess i could've built a rack ). built a diy light fixture similar to yours that houses 4 26 watt compact fluorescent daylight 5500k bulbs

- bought a mag level test kit mag was very low

- and i ran two media reactors one phos one carbon- just downgraded to one phos carbon mix

- i upgraded my skimmer (i had to bigger system, but i figured it plays a part)

-dose mag as well as calc and alk

 

i think that kinda covers what i did or at least what i can remember of the top of my head. also i run the lights on the fuge 16hrs on 8 off , but on a timer alternating 2hrs on 1hrs off. Dont know if it helps the chaeto grow but i figured its valid to say. the hair algae went away within the first month but my rocks were still green they are now just white and Coraline except for the pet co base rock its red and Coraline.

 

Hope you can use some of it.

 

oh i had a seahare in there too but it died dont know why there was still plenty of algea to eat. maybe cuz i got him big and my tank is 77-80 deg...at the end of his life span? i'm not sure i had one back in the 36 but he could've died cuz of water quality.