gracilaria/chaeotmorpha lighting needs?

hey friends of the community i just received a healthy shipment of gracilaria and chaetomorpha from the internet world. i am currently running a little coralife 18 watt 6500k/actinic on the refugium. i dont want insane growth but enough light to keep this algae actively absorbing nutrients. am i ok with what i have or should i rush out in search of more light? any input is appreciated. thanks

 

You're not going to have INSANE growth with that lighting
Neither one of the Macro Algae's you purchased are noted for fast growth. Unless you have Optimal conditions for them to grow. A reef tank does not provide these type of conditions for macro algae. IMO
What's the size of your refugium? I use a two foot fluorescent fixture over the top of a 20 long with some grow lights running 24/7

Jim

 

Jim is right. Gracilaria won't thrive, unless you have more nutrients then normal, have it tumbling in the current and a good amount of light. Cheato is fine with out most of those, but you still need good lighting. If you doubled what you have, and kept the light source close to the surface, you may get away with the cheato.

FWIW, in the aquaculture world, gracilaria is quite known for it's quick growth and nutrient uptake. Abalone farmers use it in their outflow to strip the outflow, and to produce feed for ab's when local wild harvest isn't an option.

Shrimp farmers use it in their outflow as well.

 

its a ten gallon fuge that i made but the fuge part is probably 15X10 inches. it is pretty full of gracilaria from top to bottom with a good ball of chaetomorpha on top. i just dont want the stuff to die and not remove waste from the tank. so are those lights descent? should i ditch the actinic bulb in one side and just run dual 6700k in the fixture? it would still only be 18 watts total.

 

Yah, ditch the actininc and run dual 6700K daylights.