Refugium Caulerpa Woes

[carpediem]

I have a 72 gallon setup with 65 pounds of live rock, a red sea skimmer, and a 20 gallon sump refugium with 5 - 7 pounds of miracle mud. Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate are zero, pH 8.3, calcium is good. All fish (Hipo tang, yellow tang, flame angel, gobies, clowns, damsels) and limited inverts (stars, mushrooms, snails) are fine. Thriving actually... 130 watts Display light is programmed on for 12 hours a day.

My problem, I cannot get blade caulerpa (or any caulerpa for that matter) to survive in the refugium. There are a couple of tubeworms that are thriving in there but the blade caulerpa just looks pathetic. It has been in there for 3 months now and is slowly disappearing. I have a coralife Aqualight mini (9 Watt 10,000K Daylight And 9 Watt True Actinic 03 Blue Compact Fluorescent Lamps) sitting directly on a glass cover on the sump, on 24 hours. Is this too much light? Am I burning it out?

Thanks in advance for help, I appreciate it...

(EDIT) Also, now that I think about it, the protein skimmer runs 24/7. Would it benefit the caulerpa to run the skimmer 12 hours a day?

 

[Len]

Caulerpa is extremely hardy IME. I really hate Caulerpa and can't kill the stuff fast enough I'm guessing your Caulerpa is not liking something in the mud, even though the mud and Caulerpa are advertised as complimentary products. There might have been a quality control issue with your particular batch. Running the skimmer less is unlikely to help.

As for lighting a refugium, here's a very interesting thread for year's back:
http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=105985

Personally, I'd just give up on Caulerpa and use a better macroalgae like gracilia or chaetomorpha instead

 

[carpediem]

Thank you Len, that was an awsome read.

I've been running the fuge under 24/7 principles and have no luck getting the macros to grow. I'm not sure, even after reading that thread, what benefit switching to 12/12 would give me. Perhaps I'll just look for a nice batch of chaeto and call it a day :?

 

[mr_X]

use a lower kelvin bulb. try a 6500k bulb. works like a charm for me. i saw a peak in growth since i took off the 10k bulb. i also run the lights on the fuge only 10 hours a day.

 

[carpediem]

use a lower kelvin bulb. try a 6500k bulb. works like a charm for me. i saw a peak in growth since i took off the 10k bulb. i also run the lights on the fuge only 10 hours a day.

Yeah, that was what I was really hoping to hear because that was the only thing I could think of to try. It really looks kind of burned out.

 

[mr_X]

i have this one....
http://www.littlegreenhouse.com/accesso ... ardenlight
see the funny looking 6400k 125 watt bulb?..i use that. it's a grow light bulb. what would be more on target? :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

As for lighting a refugium, here's a very interesting thread for year's back:
http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=105985

Personally, I'd just give up on Caulerpa and use a better macroalgae like gracilia or chaetomorpha instead

That was a very good thread, I had almost forgotten it.

 

[chef3tsp]

This months issue of (March 2007) Aquarium Fish, Charles Delbeek Discuses this same issue

 

[JKDMan]

i also only light my fuge for 10-12 hours a day
and my caluerpa seems to be doin very well i use one of those swirly florecent uv lizard baskig bulbs it works well

 

[carpediem]

I just ordered some chaeto so I'm going to give that a try. A lot of good opinions in that thread.

I'm going to stick with the current 10K light with the chaeto and see what happens. If that doesn't work, I'll lower the kelvin on the light and try again.

 

[saltank]

I have the same light system over my 14gal sump (for about 4 months now), chaeto will not grow!

Some grape caluerpa is just starting to grow - I too have wondered about the lighting (10,000k and actinic blue)

Let me know if you notice a difference by switching the bulbs out.

BTW I run mine on a reverse cycle (about 12-14 hours)

Also the same macro grew like wildfire in my display(6500k 50/50 pc bulbs) before I installed a sump.

 

[Chubosco]

Just say no to caulerpa. I almost went mental on the stuff. Just say no dude.