figure this one out

the cyan wasn't in the fug till recently, when i gave up on other algaes. i do have some decorative red pieces of macro i see from time to time in the fug on the urchins back. the urchin was banished to the fug when i seen 2 small hazy spots with scratch spots in the middle, on my acrylic dt. the urchin looks to be a happy fug guy. i throw algae down there from time to time to feed it.

i always hear people running the 6400k in the fug with cheato and it doing well. but its the only answer i see. is lighting. and yes my tank lighting is more crisp white and bluer.
i will have to look into another bulb for the fug light and see if that makes a difference

the setting my radion is on i was told was close to 14k buy a ecotech when i called to get help setting it up

 

What kind of creatures do you have in the Fuge? My emerald crab used to eat my Chaeto but would leave my Caulerpa alone. Also, you said you've got rocks lining the bottom, do you have any sand? They need to root in somehow....

 

just the urchin and i seen a snail in there not sure how it got there.

no sand in there i had mud and removed it after it was crashing, and became toxic. so i decided to go bare bottom in there. threw extra fragging rocks in there and thats it. cheato i figured was a good one since it doesn't root.
i have tried caulerpa reg and also feather, and red gracilaria , none make it oh and the ulva, i have a small piece of the ulva floating around the bottom of my display, its been there a while i thought it was food but no one wants it. the large piece in the fug melted away to nothing. i figure I'm doing more harm than good in keeping trying. since that has to be effecting water quality. and i have to figure out what this problem is before adding more macros in there.


guess my question is what is the lighting you have over your fug? and does it grow macros well?

 

guess my question is what is the lighting you have over your fug? and does it grow macros well?


Got a 75 watt equivilant florescent bulb and I grow Caulerpa and some chaeto, I thought I got rid of all the chaeto, since it wasn't growing when I first set up my fuge, but I was looking the other day and saw a big clump in the back. It had to grow from one of the strings I missed. I have a reactor I run Phosphate(r) resin in, and do weekly water changes. There are only traces of P04 and Nitrate, but still the macros grow fine.

Not having sand down there for roots to grow in would answer 90% of your question, but the chaeto you're dead right about, doesn't need sand, so I would have to go with your lighting down there. CHaeto gets particular on the lighting it recievs. But I would stick with your last comment on leaving things be. "If it aint broke"

 

my light is 25 watt 6400k 75 watts is a lot more than what i have. wonder how many run 25 watts.

 

Are you sure the urchin isn't eating the cheato?

Anyways, assuming not, what works in one system, may not be the best for another. Just because someone is growing chaeto with light X, doesn't mean light y won't be better in your tank. If the urchin isn't eating it ( ), and it grows fine in the display, then try a light similar to the display. A lot of people just use 6500K cf spirals because everyone else does, but maybe under certain conditions, cheato like 14k better...

Also, many macros probably do need some blue and red light. not all 6500Ks are created equal. Some may not have much blue, or others not much red, but are still all labeled 6500K. That's a problem with kelvin ratings, is they are used as marketing terms, they aren't held to standards and you can have two 6500K lights that are very different. Looking at the spectral plots is better, if possible.

 

the urchin is a very hungry little guy. lol so you never know. but seriously no he wasn't down in there at first. before i try adding any macros into that fug again I'm going to research lights for it. only algae added will be urchin food for now

 

Does your water run through any filtration between the time it leaves the DT and enters the refugium? i killed the macro algae in my refugium once by adding a bio-pellet reactor upstream of the refugium.

 

No No, my light is 75 watt equivilant. For flouresant that's about 14 watts, so I'm running less than you. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I failed English class....lol

 

yes it does it was originally being feed by my uv's outlet, than i added my reactor outlet to feed it also to up the flow. i was thinking flow might be an issue. my reactor has a carbon mix ( clear blue pro) and gfo in it