Chaeto Reactors compared to Algae Scrubbers

[nyshoots]

If I feed aggressively every week

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[nyshoots]

I have another thread from today showing what's left in my reactor and I'm going to take another picture or next Friday showing how much growth there is over a week

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[nyshoots]

One of the problems I've noticed with macroalgae reactors is that you can be fooled into thinking you can back off of water changes due to the fact that they will keep your nitrates in check however what happens is that certain elements get eaten up quickly like iron and manganese... Pax bellum sends out an additive to replenish these Trace elements however I found that it's very easy to overdose and cause an algae bloom in your display. I found the best way to deal with replenishing whatever Trace elements the macroalgae need are weekly water changes with a quality salt mix. If you're not dosing Trace elements or doing weekly water changes it could drastically slow the growth of your macroalgae or even cause it to die off over time. These are just my observations with this reactor over about a year on my particular system.

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[vio]

I had grape calerpra in my fuge with slow flow the calerpra enjoys for over a year. Switched from 6500k to red blue grow light on half the 55 gal fuge to see which light would work better. To my surprise cheato started to grow and eventually all but took over the entire fuge. The strangest part is I introduced no cheato. So moral to the story is think light temp has more to do with cheato happiness than does water flow

6.500 k never was OK.
2.700 K T 5 HO Yes.
light temp. + water flow , Yes.
I grow list one pick up track in last few years.

 

[nyshoots]

This is also why some of the people who try the Triton method ends up having massive algae blooms because a number of the trace elements included are set up to drive macroalgae growth but if you are not growing enough chaeto or whatever you're using to soak up all those Trace elements you'll end up with a ton of nuisance algae.. Again I have no scientific proof of any of this I'm just going by my own experience.

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[theMeat]

6.500 k never was OK.
2.700 K T 5 HO Yes.
light temp. + water flow , Yes.
I grow list one pick up track in last few years.

6500k was ok and still is. When fuges first came out it was the standard ppl adopted because that's what most plant light wavelengths are.
My observation was that 6500k produces 3-4 5 gallon bucket of calerpra every couple of months. Now with red/blue cheato does the same. With same flow, and as far as I can tell same nutrient removal abilities

 

[vio]

6500k was ok and still is. When fuges first came out it was the standard ppl adopted because that's what most plant light wavelengths are.
My observation was that 6500k produces 3-4 5 gallon bucket of calerpra every couple of months. Now with red/blue cheato does the same. With same flow, and as far as I can tell same nutrient removal abilities

calerpra is OUT of discussion and yes, red blue is 100 X better then 6500K, just to be in same page.

Chaeto......2.700K
Algae Turf Scrubber.....red and blue.

 

[theMeat]

calerpra is OUT of discussion and yes, red blue is 100 X better then 6500K, just to be in same page.

Chaeto......2.700K
Algae Turf Scrubber.....red and blue.

Umm, trying to share my findings. When I put red blue on half my 55gal fuge, calerpra was replaced with cheato, which idk were it came from since I didn't put any. And now the cheato has pretty much taken over and grows just as well and as fast on both red/blue side, and 6500k side of fuge. It grows just as well under either light. Blooms and seeds better under red/blue. Just as most plants do.

 

[theMeat]

And for fwiw, on an ats I did the same experimenting. the algae grew twice as fast on the side with 6500k. I suspect the red blue side had too much wattage, but that's what happened.

 

[vio]

"Just as most plants do."
Is OK, may be your 6.500 K is so old acting like 2.700 K.lol
Amazon , E-bay etc. sale light fix. for M. and plants ,red and blue ?.....and work very well.

 

[theMeat]

The lights are led and not too old.

http://www.t5fixtures.com/best-light-spectrum-for-my-plants/

Spectrum

Per Wikipedia, "The color temperature of a light source is the temperature of an ideal black-body radiator that radiates light of comparable hue to that of the light source." Colors above 5000K are known as cool colors (blue) and closely resemble natural sunlight. Colors below 3,000K are known an warm colors (red). The spectrum of light is important to horticulture because each spectrum triggers different responses from the plants?blue light induces vegetative growth, red light induces flowering. This in turn plays into which type of lighting rig you'll use and when?some types specialize in certain parts of the spectrum while others can span multiple wavelengths.

 

[vio]

I trust more my Refuge , my Light Fix. ,my High Quality Chaetto then that ...link.
I advice members, what i did , NOT what i read, please post some pics. from your Chaetto.
Sorry , i am Out , i have to remove some chaetto.lol.

 

[theMeat]

Well, every tank set up is dif. Dif depth, macro, water clarity, nutrient and trace element levels, so saying and telling ppl you know what's best for everyone, and discounting science, and decades of tried and true usage by an entire industry that depend on wavelength for their bottom line is ridiculous. Not to mention a fellow reefer who has done some experimenting. If you won't listen to what is then maybe you should try some experimenting so you will feel you discovered it yourself

FYI. Macro growing consumes magnesium. So the more you grow, which you seem to grow a lot, the more important it is for you to keep an eye on your mag level.

 

[nyshoots]

Not just magnesium it also sucks up iron, manganese, iodide and probably others... If you grow chaeto aggressively it can deplete your system of certain trace elements and will eventually slow the growth of the chaeto itself unless you keep up on water changes or dosing

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[nyshoots]

Sorry if this is a double post I know I wrote it somewhere recently but a lot of people recommend dosing iron and manganese when using these reactors but when I tried that I had a major algae bloom in my display. I find weekly water changes are best and when doing those weekly water changes you definitely need to pull your chaeto from the reactor and rinse all the detritus off it using tank water. If you let it sit in the reactor to long without rinsing it will either die off because it's covered in gunk or hair algae will start to grow over the chaeto and then it will die back.

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[theMeat]

True. Magnesium will have the biggest impact. It will make calcium and alkaline unstable, and even if you can maintain stability in cal and alk, it will stunt corals's ability to absorb the two. Which leaves you wondering why even when your cal and alk levels are good your corals are suffering. When mag starts to get low it also tells you that the other trace elements you mentioned, which most don't regularly check for, are likely also out of range.

 

[vio]

Not just magnesium it also sucks up iron, manganese, iodide and probably others... If you grow chaeto aggressively it can deplete your system of certain trace elements and will eventually slow the growth of the chaeto itself unless you keep up on water changes or dosing

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+1, just add Potassium also, yes , i dose all above, next to my Calcium reactor, just to keep up my # right (i have Vertex Libra), i add also "Stump Remover"(mix, w/RO/DI) my Nitrate was undetectable, i like to see 2 to 5 ppm Nitrate, but this is in my case, when i grow lot of Macro Algae, i put back my A.T.S , i remember the last time solve my Green Bubble even B. algae, i take 10-12 pics. today i will see in few weeks the dif.

 

[SantaMonica]

Nice comments. NYC seems to be leaning towards chaeto.

 

[fritz]

I'm thinking that flow rate, while important, may not necessarily be "key" for chaeto growth. I'm growing chaeto in an Aquamaxx media reactor. The chaeto barely moves to the flow but it grows well. While this is not scientific it looks to me like light coverage and nutrients are more important than aggressive flow, unless the aggressive flow is meant to increase exposure to light by tumbling. I've seen where the chaeto directly next to the LED light strip I use to wrap the reactor seems to experience light burn.

Totally agree! I have a fuge that is roughly 1/3 of a twenty long. It is only in 7" of water. I remove half of a kitchen garbage bags worth every two weeks. Roughly a five gallon pails worth of cheato. It grows until it fills the space and then starts to get pushed out of the water where it gets light burn. I've even had to cut down on the amount of light. It only gets 290 GPH according to my apex. Cheato isn't an SPS coral, it'll grow in just about anything. It needs nutrients and light.

 

[vio]

Totally agree! I have a fuge that is roughly 1/3 of a twenty long. It is only in 7" of water. I remove half of a kitchen garbage bags worth every two weeks. Roughly a five gallon pails worth of cheato. It grows until it fills the space and then starts to get pushed out of the water where it gets light burn. I've even had to cut down on the amount of light. It only gets 290 GPH according to my apex. Cheato isn't an SPS coral, it'll grow in just about anything. It needs nutrients and light.

So, you got 7" water level , 7" long and ? "deep and remove "half of a kitchen garbage bags worth every two weeks" that something , i guess you hold some for the next 2 weeks, wow.

"it'll grow in just about anything. It needs nutrients and light" .......and water ....and salt.lol
just joking lol.