Chaeto vs Caulerpa

chaeto IMO is better

 

I used to keep cheato and caulerpa in my fuge but the caulerpa never really took off, eventually I took it out, I prefer cheato anyways. I also use to run my fuge light 24/7 but after a few months I notice the cheato started getting white on the surface. I switched to a reverse schedule to my tank lights and it's doing much better, I have to trim it once or twice a month. I also have halimeda in the fuge, but it sucks up Ca which is not a problem yet. Recently I notice blue algae growing in the fuge too, not sure where this stuff came from, looks cool but I can't find much info on it.

 

Cool thanks for the replies. Always good to hear from first hand experience. Bye bye caulerpa.

 

Thanks 2in10 and map.

I had heard that it would LIKE a rest period but it wasn't required LOL.
We've had ours a couple of months now.

map, I have blue-green cyano (I assume) in my fuge...that's actually blue-green. Very velvety and mostly on the sand. Along with the dark red, of course, that's on the rocks, sand, and walls. We know where there's no or less light it's not growing (as we flip & move the chaeto around), so I had actually starting turning off the fuge light when I turned on the main lights, and that has helped. I've heard it won't hurt anything in there (there's no algae at all in the DT), but we spend more time looking in the fuge than the DT right now, and it's just getting on our nerves! I think my "handgrenade" snail likes it when there's a dark period too, seems more active when the lights are out.

 

What is the rationale for running the fuge on an opposite schedule from the tank? Why not at the same time?

I'm planning on building a fuge here shortly and had not run across that advice yet...

 

I'm gonna ruffle a few feathers here.

Photosynthesis does slow down when there is no dark period, but on the other hand your plant is working twice as long. Also in contrast the less light a plant receives the faster photosynthesis takes place.

To quote my college botany professor," plants do not need a dark period except for sexual triggers."

Plants grow just as well if not more with a longer period of lighting. plants are not animals, they have no brains that require sleep...

Caulerpa has one advantage over cheato, it grows faster. I would only run caulerpa in a 24 hour lit fuge.

 

It helps prevent nighttime ph swings.