Chaeto in refuge

[madlynb]

Have I read correctly that there should be some water movement in the refuge area for the chaeto? The only movement I have in my refuge is the water flow coming from the piping feeding water into the refuge. Is that sufficient or should I put a small ph in the refuge area?:question:

 

[project5k]

all i have in mine is the water flow of the incomming and outgoing.... no PH or anything else...

 

[ZOOT098]

I have the same...just the movement of my incoming water
however i have read several times that chaeto does best when it is tumbling
i have a very small pump (60g per hour) that i thought about sinking in my fuge to create a little bit of tumble

 

[winyfrog]

I just have an in and out as well, my chaeto does fine. I do tumble it myself every week or so, that way the chaeto underneath gets light to.

 

[project5k]

what are the benifits to this chaeto vs the long leaf calurpa that i have?

 

[Ted]

Chaeto wont go a-sexual and release a bunch of stuff back into your tank.

 

[project5k]

oh. um, really, ok, so, um, crap!

is there some way i can tell if its doing that?

 

[daugherty]

yea it will all turn yellow or a clear white and your tank will look like poo. there is no way to tell until it has done it and it will do it in just a couple hours. i have had it happen to me once. i love the look of it but just dont want to have it screw up my water again.

 

[project5k]

hmm interesting, i'll have to make a move then, what i have now has kinda a clearish white on the edges of the leaves but thats just where the new groth is comming in...

 

[daugherty]

yep that is just growth it will all turn like that when it dies or goes a-sexual as it is called

 

[winyfrog]

If you keep good water flow and light to all of the calurpa you have a better chance of it not turning asexual.

I have also had a tank crash because my calurpa went asexual, I only use chaeto now.

 

[Bifferwine]

I only use chaeto also. I do have some caulerpa, but it's left over from when I started my fuge, and I get a few tendrils growing here and there.

 

[ZOOT098]

xenia is also good in a refugium

 

[madlynb]

Xenia for refuge. First time I have heard this. Anymore opinions on Xenia in refuge?

 

[project5k]

mine is growing like mad, but its in good water flow and gets 24hour grow light. mine is actually in one of the bubble trap sections in my sump, and it works wonderfully so far...

 

[winyfrog]

xenia does pull out nitrates (it likes it dirty), but use with caution. If it stresses it can cause a whole other line of issues, I have a friend that uses xenia as part of her filtration or should I say use to use, it stressed and crashed her whole system which had 4 tanks hooked through it. It was sure a stinky mess.

 

[Bifferwine]

Like any softies, xenia will pollute the water with their toxins. So if you keep a lot of xenia (or softies) you usually will not have much luck keeping LPS and especially SPS corals in the same system.

 

[daugherty]

i was reading something the other day that was saying people that ran cal reactors never had the problem with it going a-sexual and their thoughts about it was because of all the added co2

 

[winyfrog]

I ran cal reactor and still had issues.

 

[daugherty]

well than its not that than