Because of long term Dino's today I cleaned out my brs reactor and chucked the carbon, no worries the carbon was nearly a month old. That being said I went to a lfs and got some chaeto, stuffed it in my reactor and thought.... LIGHT! don't really have any so I cut off the bottom of a plastic cup to hold a flashlight... I know... But it was worth a go on a dime like that, even took picks of it and would like suggestions on better lights, maybe a LED strip on the side? Who makes them? I know nothing about them. Anything helps thanks.
Chaeto light
- Thread starter Stanzo13
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Flippers4pups
Fins up since 1993
Because of long term Dino's today I cleaned out my brs reactor and chucked the carbon, no worries the carbon was nearly a month old. That being said I went to a lfs and got some chaeto, stuffed it in my reactor and thought.... LIGHT! don't really have any so I cut off the bottom of a plastic cup to hold a flashlight... I know... But it was worth a go on a dime like that, even took picks of it and would like suggestions on better lights, maybe a LED strip on the side? Who makes them? I know nothing about them. Anything helps thanks.
Well first of all, you need room for chaetomorpha to grow in it, packed isn’t going to help. Second you need more light. A clip on light fixture with reflector at one of the big box stores. Cheap. And then a light bulb.
Walmart sells led grow bulbs cheap. Works.
Now, are you trying to use it as a way of nutrient reduction?
Flippers4pups
Fins up since 1993
If you have a sump, a refugium would work better.
Dinos are from too low nutrients so that is unlikely to help.
It could help if you had sufficient nutrients and a good chaeto reactor. Yours is too small though. have you checked your nitrate and phsophate? if you have dinos then they are probably very low.
I was running 1/4 pound of rox.8 carbon w/ a little bit of gfo mixed in, and 15÷ water changes 2X a week with light feeding and kinda high skimming. I'm 100÷ sure it's safe to say nitrates and phospates we're rock bottom
To update I found a absolutely blinding light from harbor fright someone got me for Christmas, being a complete ace in cob jobs (I mean that appropriately) I took a plastic cup and cut it to hold this light up and set it beside my reactor. Did I mention how blindingly bright it is?
What size tank are you running this on?
If it is a smaller, nano sized tank, this wouldn’t be much different from running a chaeto reactor on a larger tank. Granted, the blue color is less ideal as it will reduce the light intensity, but I do not see why it wouldn’t work.
The light intensity is not the only lighting factor that is important. The spectrum matters as well. Chlorophyll utilizes light predominantly in the red and blue spectrum. Keep a close eye on the growth during the first week or so. That light might not provide sufficient intensity in the proper spectrum. If you are having issues with growth, a plant bulb might help. A plant bulb would also be a more efficient use of electricity as you won’t be crating light that the cheato is not using.
Most algae (typically the non-desirable types) are very adept at outcompeting higher organisms when there is a nutrient imballance. They can take hold when one of the macro nutrients is deficient or near barely detectable levels, when higher organisms are struggling to sequester these nutrients. The algae can assimilate nutrients from other source under these conditions that the higher organisms are unable to utilize, or are unable to utilize at a rate that is fast enough to compete with the algae.
Dinos are very adept at assimilating nutrients under conditions where algae struggle. They are able to out compete algae in the same way that algae can out compete higher organisms. When nutrients are barely detectable, or one nutrient is deficient, the dinos are able to outcompete algae.
When nutrients are raised slightly, but not out of control, and are in appropriate ratios (working on figuring this part out), higher organisms are able to out compete algae and dinos, minimizing their impact.
From what I’ve seen so far, when people try to completely strip the water of nutrients, the dinos start taking off and utilize a different growth mode where they clump together utilizing mucus to shield them from light that is too intense. This is when they start smothering corals and really causing problems.
I am working on dealing with this myself. I have between 5-10ppm nitrate, 400ppm potassium (people tend to ignore this as it isn’t a waste byproduct, but it is one of the macro nutrients required by higher organisms), and non-detectable levels of phosphate (my old kit was indicating high phosphate, but undetectable nitrate, the opposite of what I am dealing with). Nitrate and potassium are at ideal levels, but the phosphate is far too low and is what I believe is driving my dino issue. I am starting to take different filtration methods offline to raise the phosphate and hopefully allow me to outcompete the dinos with cheato (I still need to grab my microscope from storage so I can verify that it is indeed dinos that I am dealing with).
Chaeto is good at outcompeting dinos and other less desirable forms of algae, but if your water is stripped clean, the chaeto cannot outcompete the dinos.
If it is a smaller, nano sized tank, this wouldn’t be much different from running a chaeto reactor on a larger tank. Granted, the blue color is less ideal as it will reduce the light intensity, but I do not see why it wouldn’t work.
The light intensity is not the only lighting factor that is important. The spectrum matters as well. Chlorophyll utilizes light predominantly in the red and blue spectrum. Keep a close eye on the growth during the first week or so. That light might not provide sufficient intensity in the proper spectrum. If you are having issues with growth, a plant bulb might help. A plant bulb would also be a more efficient use of electricity as you won’t be crating light that the cheato is not using.
Most algae (typically the non-desirable types) are very adept at outcompeting higher organisms when there is a nutrient imballance. They can take hold when one of the macro nutrients is deficient or near barely detectable levels, when higher organisms are struggling to sequester these nutrients. The algae can assimilate nutrients from other source under these conditions that the higher organisms are unable to utilize, or are unable to utilize at a rate that is fast enough to compete with the algae.
Dinos are very adept at assimilating nutrients under conditions where algae struggle. They are able to out compete algae in the same way that algae can out compete higher organisms. When nutrients are barely detectable, or one nutrient is deficient, the dinos are able to outcompete algae.
When nutrients are raised slightly, but not out of control, and are in appropriate ratios (working on figuring this part out), higher organisms are able to out compete algae and dinos, minimizing their impact.
From what I’ve seen so far, when people try to completely strip the water of nutrients, the dinos start taking off and utilize a different growth mode where they clump together utilizing mucus to shield them from light that is too intense. This is when they start smothering corals and really causing problems.
I am working on dealing with this myself. I have between 5-10ppm nitrate, 400ppm potassium (people tend to ignore this as it isn’t a waste byproduct, but it is one of the macro nutrients required by higher organisms), and non-detectable levels of phosphate (my old kit was indicating high phosphate, but undetectable nitrate, the opposite of what I am dealing with). Nitrate and potassium are at ideal levels, but the phosphate is far too low and is what I believe is driving my dino issue. I am starting to take different filtration methods offline to raise the phosphate and hopefully allow me to outcompete the dinos with cheato (I still need to grab my microscope from storage so I can verify that it is indeed dinos that I am dealing with).
Chaeto is good at outcompeting dinos and other less desirable forms of algae, but if your water is stripped clean, the chaeto cannot outcompete the dinos.
Then thats it take out the carbon/GFO and problem solved.
Because of long term Dino's today I cleaned out my brs reactor and chucked the carbon, no worries the carbon was nearly a month old. That being said I went to a lfs and got some chaeto, stuffed it in my reactor and thought.... LIGHT! don't really have any so I cut off the bottom of a plastic cup to hold a flashlight... I know... But it was worth a go on a dime like that, even took picks of it and would like suggestions on better lights, maybe a LED strip on the side? Who makes them? I know nothing about them. Anything helps thanks.
Maybe this will help?
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/large-algae-reactor.349190/
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