How do you acclimate new chaeto to your refugium light?

[Printed Reef Verified Sponsor]

Curious what everyone does when adding fresh chaeto to their refugium. Vote above and drop your routine below!

 

[ndrwater]

Plop and drop method. Very scientific, but also effective.

 

[painter1982]

I just did this a few weeks ago. I placed it in and didn’t worry about it. I went from one type of cheap Petco light on my bta refugium to my reef refugium with a Neptune gro light. Never had a problem. I harvested some a couple days ago.

 

[Mrtakeoff53]

I always struggle with cheto at first. My little ball from Algaebarn was down totally one or 2 strings shortly after buying it. It now fills my sump!!!! Sometimes it takes a bit. The plop and drop method is what I use!

 

[mfinn]

Full light and never thought about it.
Not even sure why the question is asked.

 

[landlubber]

It gets tossed in and it's sink or swim.
I'm not sure Chaetomorpha even has the ability to "acclimate" to light intensity. It takes as much light as it can or it dies off where its too intense.

 

[ReefED!]

I full blast from day one and never have any issues except with @AlgaeBarn chaeto which always experiences massive dieoff

I always had to overspend on their massive ball just to have a little bit left

It’s the best chaeto by far - linium I think - vs the spiralis from other sources - but I think their shipping method needs another look (perhaps don’t ship in water but just use moist containers?)

 

[Printed Reef Verified Sponsor]

I always struggle with cheto at first. My little ball from Algaebarn was down totally one or 2 strings shortly after buying it. It now fills my sump!!!! Sometimes it takes a bit. The plop and drop method is what I use!

What light are you using?

 

[salty joe]

It’s the best chaeto by far - linium I think - vs the spiralis from other sources -

How can you tell the difference?

 

[ReefED!]

How can you tell the difference?

If I had to explain I would say there are two main types in the hobby

ReefPro has the spiralis - I think this is correct - and the consistency is like a green organic steel wool pad

It’s thin and stays tight - takes more effort to pull it apart



Lineum from algaebarn is thicker and not strong tightly interwoven - has more of a pasta thickness



The algaebarn chaeto is my favorite but can be hard to get going

I spent $125 on a big portion - almost all of it died within days of arrival, and then ultimately all of it died after 2 weeks or so. (The image above is from my older tank)


Fast forward another couple weeks and I put the reefpro stuff in which was like $30 and it grew like crazy and now I have some dragons breath and caulerpa in for fun