Chaeto tumbling

[paphater]

How necessary is it to make sure my chaeto is spinning?

 

[NinnJinn]

If it does not tumble the area that is on the bottom away from the light will die. So you will have to manually "flip it"

 

[GK3]

I disagree with this. My chaeto does not tumble and completely fills my refugium every couple of months. I clean it by pulling chunks out and trimming some off, but I’ve never found that the bottom part, not exposed to light, dies. I have also never, in a year+on this system, flipped it.

 

[Christopher Parish]

How do you get it to tumble? I’ve seen it on videos, but can’t tell how it’s done.

UTG

 

[teller]

I disagree with this. My chaeto does not tumble and completely fills my refugium every couple of months. I clean it by pulling chunks out and trimming some off, but I’ve never found that the bottom part, not exposed to light, dies. I have also never, in a year+on this system, flipped it.

Me too.

 

[lariat8099]

Me too. My sump is packed full and every month or two I have to harvest some and sell it. Grow light is on at night about 8 hours

 

[teller]

Me too. My sump is packed full and every month or two I have to harvest some and sell it. Grow light is on at night about 8 hours

I do like the 8 hours.
People have to realize that the number of hours you use for macro algae depends on your bioload, how much you feed etc....
Even BRS160 is lightning its refugium only 3 or 4 days a week because they feel the macro algae refugium can be to efective. I agree, like you can overdose GFO, carbon dose (also biopellets) , zeolites, etc you should manage your nutrients sinkers in a way you do not outcompete the corals.

 

[Bayareareefer18]

+1 what makes the chaeto tumble?

Mine just sinks. The balls that I received felt pretty dense

 

[Reefer Reboot]

No disrespect to the other opinions but couldn't manually flipping and harvesting also be considered a type of tumbling? Curious, how deep is your chaeto chamber? Mine is 24" deep and when not tumbling and packed solid with chaeto, no light penetrates to the bottom. That is when it starts to die off. As for how to keep it tumbling, it is just a matter of creating flow in the right direction. A power head can accomplish this. (Lots of videos on You Tube.) In my sump I teed off the pressure side of the main pump and directed some flow into the chaeto chamber. I used eductors (bottom right in video) to increase the quantity of water flowing within the chamber. This helps in keeping the circular flow pattern. That way you will have more water travelling in a circle than there is flowing in and out of the chaeto chamber. This will aid in keeping the chaeto in the chamber and away from the exit point (top left in video).

Side note; there is actually two eductors. one is hidden from view.

 

[jefra]

Spray bars create the perfect flow for tumbling chaeto IME.

 

[mfinn]

I use a small tunze powerhead in my refugium for extra flow.
When the mass of macro algae is small it actually does tumble/spin, as long as there is nothing else in there for it to hangup on. ( rock)
But it grows pretty fast and as soon as it starts getting friction from the refugium walls it stops spinning.
So I only make sure the flow is there.
As far as the bottom of the mass dieing, I think that is wrong. For me the macro on top that gets exposed to air is the part that suffers. So I manually turn that over every week or so.