Slow Chaeto Growth

I have had my sump for about a year now and have noticed very little growth of my chaeto. I do have some nitrates from around 5 to 10. I'm just wondering why my chaeto is not dropping them down to 0. I have a 5500k ZooMed Flora bulb on it and I also will run a 40 watt halogen on it as well. My three mangroves are growing real nice, their root systems have tripled in size and they are taller. The chaeto though not so much?

Travis

 

Is it getting direct light? What is the wattage on the 5500K bulb. The halogen will do you no good the spectrum is all wrong. The Flora bulb is for terrestrial plants not aquatic. Bad spectrum again.

 

Ahhhh that makes total sense, the wattage on the 5500k is like 12 watts. Its a T8 bulb. What would be a good lighting setup for my fuge then? I would really like to know this, its probably been doing me little good for quite a while now. Oh yeah the light is directly sitting above the Chaeto, no more then 5 inches away.

 

Lighting position is OK. Get a 5500K daylight bulb. You could use one of those screw in compact fluorescent bulbs in a bell shaped reflector. Get one that is equivalent to 100 watts or higher.

 

You can buy an aluminum cone reflector fixture from Wal Mart and get a high wattage CFL grow bulb for it. That's the cheapest and best solution for a fuge light. What kind of flow do you have in the fuge?

 

Wow so I need to dramatically increase the wattage on that fuge then. Thanks for the info 2in10, time to go shopping and spend more cash on the ole tank. I might just buy a small T5 setup for it then, its a 20 gallon clear for life tank I made into a fuge, that should probably do the trick.

 

flow also has made my chaeto grow very fast where the chaeto grows in my sump (separate from fuge )the flow is very fast

 

Well I have a Koralia number 1 that moves the water pretty decently, not too much flow though. CFL? I'm assuming thats compact florescent? So I guess I need to hit Wal-Mart up, I have a ton of cone reflectors, due to my huge reptile collection, so thats not a problem. And its a grow bulb? When I head to Wal-Mart and ask for a grow bulb for my fuge, they are going to give me the ole "what a stoner!" look.

 

The bulbs will be either in the light section or plants area. If they look at you that way then give them you best stoned look.

 

LOL yeah I surely will, I'm on walmart.com but not seeing anything yet.