Best Kelvin for Chaetomorpha Algae.

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Zacco

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Thank you everyone for the input. Well HPS lamps are out for me because im trying to run as cost efficient in electricity as possible. So LED all the way. I will be experimenting with both 3300k and 5000k LED's.
 

DominicanReef

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Here it is when I put it in, with zero nitrates registering on my test kit.
And yes, the pic is color accurate.

i-B6scbnp.jpg





Here's the Death Star of chaeto 19 days later.

[video=youtube;vyc9fdCe244]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyc9fdCe244[/video]

Hello, what kind of light please?
 

gtbarsi

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d2mini, can you tell us what the light you are using is. I know from your thread it is a 150w something, just not what the something is.

Thx!

*NM, since I started typing that reply I see your post about it...
 
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d2mini

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Well here is the direct link for everyone else. :)

HTG Supply - FLORALUX 150w HPS Mini Grow Light

SPotter on RC just mentioned he got one too, and his chaeto went from golf ball size to soccer ball size in two weeks.
Puts everything else to shame! :)
 

wangspeed

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When I had a small refugium, I ran a 15W par38 mostly red LED bulb, and grew chaeto like crazy. 12x1 watt red, 3 blue/white. Ditched the fuge for biopellets :)
 

d2mini

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The 150 watt HPS is 2,000 Kelvin. JFYI

Yep, i figured it wasn't more than 2400k. :)

Whatever it is, it's a chaeto growing monster!
 

vladandlilith

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I tried the 5000K LED bulb that I got from Wallyworld and my Chato and Chlorpa (SP) didn't seen to grow.A friend of mine said don't use LED and to use a CFL in the 2700K range.Well my Chlorpa (sp) died pretty quickly and my Cheato (SP) doesn'i look different. I think that I am going to put the LED back in and get more of both Macro Algea. I have been told that the Cheato has to spin like in the video to be efficient. Who knows, it could have easuly been something I did or didn't do.
 

mclane

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How much chaeto should be used as starter, as it grows I under you remove but at what point when its double, so many days what are some thoughts out there? Any one used a sub floor to keep off the floor of refugium?
 

d2mini

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How much chaeto should be used as starter, as it grows I under you remove but at what point when its double, so many days what are some thoughts out there? Any one used a sub floor to keep off the floor of refugium?

Doesn't really matter what you start with, just try to get a nice little clump. I started with softball sized ball and the HPS light grew it to a beach ball size in a couple weeks.
I let it grow a bit further until it was so big it was no longer able to rotate in my 22"x22" refugium.
Then just pull out another softball sized clump and toss the rest or give it away. And repeat.
 

thejuggernaut

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Fortunately there are other cheaper options that grow macro algae.

Cheaper options that keep it alive, or that make it quadruple in mass every few weeks. It is hard to out-compete algae in your display when it has much stronger light than what is over your fuge.
To me, $67 for a fixture that includes the bulb is cheap!
 
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mfinn

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Cheaper options that keep it alive, or that make it quadruple in mass every few weeks. It is hard to out-compete algae in your display when it has much stronger light than what is over your fuge.
To me, $67 for a fixture that includes the bulb is cheap!


If your only goal is to grow macro algae's then by all means throw the biggest light you can afford on a refugium.

A refugium is just one of several tools that I use for nutrient control. Water changes, skimmer, using a good salt with ro/di water and controlling the amount of nutrients we add as food.
I have found over 25 years of using macro's as a nutrient export tool that just about any light will work. Even the $5 big box store lights.
I have been using the cheap ones for many years and never really saw a problem, except remembering to change them at least once a year. I usually would notice one of them not working and then it would dawn on me that it had been way too long since I had changed them.
I switched to a Lowes led spot light bulb last year, because of the longer life in them.
I thought the $28 for each of them was pretty excessive, but if they last 3-4 years, I'll be happy.
One of the changes I did notice is my macro's are growing at a much faster rate than they ever did.
The tank still looks the same, everything is still growing nicely and I really don't see any change in the corals, which tells me that the more expensive bulb isn't making the display tank do any better, just that it's making the macro's grow faster.

I did not say that the light you picked was not a good one.
I simply pointed out it's not necessary to spend that much if you don't want to.
 

d2mini

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I did not say that the light you picked was not a good one.
I simply pointed out it's not necessary to spend that much if you don't want to.

If you are growing "macros", like a display refugium, that's different. A lot of them like a cooler spectrum.
But IMHO, nothing out there beats this HPS light for growing Chaeto.
And no other macro exports nutrients as well Chaeto due to it's fast growth rate.
So if your goal is to export nutrients, a ball of Chaeto tumbling in your fuge with this HPS light overhead is pretty much unbeatable for the price.
So no, it's not necessary... if you don't want to maximize nutrient export with Chaeto.
 

GreatWhiteTang

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U. Got a cheap China led. For. 140 a few years ago for. A small tank, needless to say I got what I paid for! When my fuge lamp wemt out I decided for a few days to throw the led down there until I could replace my bulb, and man o man the cheato grows at the same rate as my hps but my red gracilaria grows a half inch or more a day and becomes tang and Angel fold when I. Trim it. Rather than trash. And I run the led in the 3000k range on white channel and about 3/4 on the blue channel. I know this is a more expensive option that I had lying around.. But it. Works. Very well
 
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