Chaeto

[hawkinsrgk]

Does anybody need some chaeto? Been dosing nitrate and growth has been crazy

 

[coralosity351]

Yes can you ship?

 

[hawkinsrgk]

Sorry. Would prefer not to ship

 

[Newbie reefer]

Hey I'll take some off your hands depending on the price...I live in Birmingham so I could meet you

 

[hawkinsrgk]

It's 48 cents for a handful

 

[jfb2]

I'll need some on your next thinning out. Could you post a picture of your rubbermaid sump. I'm setting one up as well, and might give me a guide to follow, if you don't mind.

 

[hawkinsrgk]

Sure

 

[hawkinsrgk]

 

[hawkinsrgk]

 

[hawkinsrgk]

These pics are a little old. Since these pictures I have added an upgrade to the ATO and have a 15 gallon drum. Added a kalkwasser stirrer. Added a slx to the reefkeeper, but it's enough to get the general idea

 

[jfb2]

Thank you for the pictures, will help me in my planning on what to do for my rubbermaid sump.

 

[hawkinsrgk]

Thank you for the pictures, will help me in my planning on what to do for my rubbermaid sump.

Your welcome. I have a build thread in this forum called "Randy's build thread in BHM" if you want to get more details on the build.

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Hi Hawkins, I just started a 20 gallon nano in the bham area. Can/Should I put this into a filter sock? If so I'd love to meet up and get a handful from you.

 

[hawkinsrgk]

Hi Tuffy. It should not go in a filter sock. It needs to room to expand and I'm not sure how the lighting would work over a filter sock. Not sure how well it would work with cleaning the filter sock either.

Would love for you to stop by and get a handful of chaeto.

 

[hawkinsrgk]

This is the interest I have so far.

Tuffy -
Newbie Reefer - If it doesn't cost too much.
Semisonyx
Jfb2 - Next go around

Anybody else? I'm going to have to thin this out soon. Dosing 70ml of Nitrate daily and Nitrates are at 1ppm.

Thanks
Randy

 

[hawkinsrgk]

Last call. For the time being anyway. Going to transfer some of this to the 10g on the back porch tomorrow. Now I am dosing 100ml of nitrates a day and system is only up to 1.5 ppm.

Oh wait. I have a 10 gallon show tank for sale if anybody is interested. It just has a little chaeto in it. :)

 

[David Engh]

What do you use for lights over that to get it to grow so well?

 

[hawkinsrgk]

What do you use for lights over that to get it to grow so well?

Its a home depot 5500K LED light. It puts out 1200 lumens if I remember correctly. Several years ago this guy did a study between a 5k and a 2k to see which would grow it better. The 5k grew it a lot faster. The center light is a 5e reef radiance light. It looks really cool and has 2 red leds in it, but I don't think it grows chaeto as well as the HD light. The lights run 18 hours a day. The timing has more to do with trying to keep a stable PH than it does growing chaeto.

What I am seeing from growing chaeto is that it likes the right about of nutrients. Meaning if you have 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates it will die very slowly. If you have high nitrates (80 and up) it doesn't seem to grow very fast. It likes some phosphates and nitrates between 5 and 60ppm. If you are dosing Iron as well, it will really take off. The mistake I made when dosing Iron several years ago is that I dosed too much at once and had hair algae problems.

Thanks for asking
Randy

 

[David Engh]

Thanks for the info

 

[jfb2]

Is your rubbermaid sump the 150 or 100 gallon size. I got the 100 but wondering if I should have got the 150. My skimmer is huge and takes up a lot of real estate.