chaeto is turning not so greenish....

[agoutihead]

I didn't have a light on my fuge for a few weeks and had some chaeto in it.

Now the chaeto is starting t have brown spots all through out its' foilage.

I added a light less than a week ago and have been running it around 8 hours a day. It is only an 8 watt fluorescent.

Will the chaeto turn itself around and start doing good now?

Or once it goes down hill, it's hit?

And if it will regenerate, does it usually do so quickly?

[poppin_fresh]

I have never been able to keep it. Mine always turned brown and fell apart. I would be surprised if it turns around, but just keep and eye on it. If its starts to break up, ditch it.

[andrenym00]

Mine had no growth for the 2 month had it, purchased the light that was recommended by melvsreef and I'm starting to see growth after only 4 days.

[carlso63]

Originally posted by agoutihead
I didn't have a light on my fuge for a few weeks and had some chaeto in it.

Now the chaeto is starting t have brown spots all through out its' foilage.

I added a light less than a week ago and have been running it around 8 hours a day. It is only an 8 watt fluorescent.

Will the chaeto turn itself around and start doing good now?

Or once it goes down hill, it's hit?

And if it will regenerate, does it usually do so quickly?

You don't have enough wattage...

You need at least a 28w PC light, depending on your refugium size. They sell several at Home Depot that do a great job and are not too pricey. I bought a "Lighting of America" brand (I think) 28w outdoor light for around $25 and I run it 16 hrs a day over my fuge. My chaeto grows so fast I can't prune it fast enough!

[agoutihead]

Thats what I was afraid of. The problem is, I need a slim line type of fixture like the fluorescent light that I got.

I will take it back and see if I can find a low profile light with much higher wattage.

I need a slimline light because I have limited space above my fuge.

[Hop]

Ideally I believe it's better not to be able to grow it Although agoutihead's problems are different, I always scratch my head when people want their macro to grow. Remember what we want the macro to do is export nutrients, if it's growing like mad, we have excess nutrients like no3 and po4. So slower growing or dying macro might be a good thing if you really stop to think about it

[ClayWagner]

Is a 60W spiral/halo bulb okay?

[agoutihead]

Heh thats what I thought too, but I don't have any fish in my tank yet, but I was feeding my sun coral a bit heavy over the last few weeks and got an outbreak of diatoms and them a little bit of cynao.

Plus I didn't have a light on my fuge, so I figured it was only dying off because of no photo time?

[Hop]

That is likely it agoutihead. I was just referring to the posts, not necessarily in this thread that speak of people being upset because their macro isn't growing

[shootist]

You may be able to find a one bulb t-5 fixture at the hardware,would be low profile. Throw some real light on your macro and Id bet it will come back around though you may want to pull out the dead stuff,especially if its turning black.

[carlso63]

Originally posted by Hop
Ideally I believe it's better not to be able to grow it Although agoutihead's problems are different, I always scratch my head when people want their macro to grow. Remember what we want the macro to do is export nutrients, if it's growing like mad, we have excess nutrients like no3 and po4. So slower growing or dying macro might be a good thing if you really stop to think about it

Except that in this case his lack of growth is caused by insufficient lighting, not a lack of available nutrients. Remember that you will ALWAYS have "excess nutrients" initially; that is why we have developed techniques like skimming, macro use, water changes to reduce / remove the "excess"... Furthermore, excess nutrients are not necessarily a problem if the means used to export them (macro, skimming, water changes) are able to reduce them to the desired levels (usually 'zero') and not leave a "base" level of nutrients in the water all the time to fuel unwanted activities like nuisance algae growth... In my case I use an 'underpowered' skimmer (relative to water volume) so there are still some nutrients in the water that make it past the skimmer into the refugium. However, my return water (after the fuge) as well as my display read "0 / undetectable" on the 'bad' nutrients like nO3 and pO4 - so the combination of some level of skimming combined with fast - growing macroalgae is enough to export any "excess level" of undesired nutrients that may arise...

[agoutihead]

Well I don't have a single fish and just a bunch of corals and inverts right now, so I think it is a combo of no lighting and not many excess nutrients.

I was under the impression that 8w of fluorescent lighting is really like 40 watts of incandescent lighting?

So am I fine then with this 8w of fluorescent lighting, or do I need a minimum of 28w of fluorescent lighting?

[claymc]

do you keep yours tumbing..?? I put a 480 powerhead in there, and it blows my clump apart. I'm curious how others have maintined their's tumbing..

anyone?