Is there a minimum light requirement for keeping over cheato and other fug Algee?i currently have a 75g with just Algee in it,the Algee has slowly been dropping off,I have a very low nuetrient system, I removed my Algee scrubber to try to give the fug some more work.so I was thinking the grass isn’t growing due to lighting. The tank is 48" and I am using 1-36" t-8 with 2 10k bulbs.anybody have any ideas?
That’s your problem Jason, Low nutrient. It has very little to do with different lighting. I use 60w regular bulb under my fuge and it grows fine. Lighting does make it grow, but some nutrient will help it thrive. This is the reason why people keep cheto in their fuge as to help with lowering nitrate.
Ok so is there a solution to this? I know low nutrient is good but if the Algee dies that defeats its purpose!so how do I keep it growing?
Honestly the solution to dying cheato or other macro algae is less frequent water changes or a smaller ball of algae.
If you’re keeping your nutrients low enough for the macro to die off than you probably can live without it.
I had better luck when i switched to a 5k bulb over the chaeto… but like the others said, it didn’t do much when the nutrients were really low
Craig I have done 2 water changes in the last yr,not sure that’s the problem.i figured I don’t need it but it has been in the system and don’t wanna lose it if I can help it,even if its not really needed
Do the plants yellow, just not grow or rot? Is it possible something is eating it? If it dosent grow,
You could feed the corals lots of phytoplankton and zooplankton, bumping up levels of nutrients. Just remember the purpose of the macro is to lower DOC’s. A delicate balance. Too little the algae dies, too much and nitrates creep up.
Most green plants do well with a bulb near 6500K. It has more red in the color spectrum to promote photosynthesis. I found wattage didn’t make a ton of difference over 40w for my TINY fuge. 2 X 54w t5’s is plenty.Have you tried different macro? I found Caulerpa prolifera and caulerpa maxicana to be the best for me. grows fast removes lots of NO3 and a really WIDE temperature tolerance. (It is illegal in CA because of its invasiveness and tolerance to cold water) Good luck.
Scott only fish in the tank is a file fish and yellow coris wrasse.its just not growing
I would feed the corals every night or cut the skimmer off some that will bring them up for everything to grow but once that grows so will all the other algae everywhere else.
[quote=“saltcreep, post:5, topic:6272”]
I had better luck when i switched to a 5k bulb over the chaeto… but like the others said, it didn’t do much when the nutrients were really low[/quote]
Look who decided to chime in mr. Busy pants lol
[quote=“dunk, post:10, topic:6272”]
[quote=“saltcreep, post:5, topic:6272”]
I had better luck when i switched to a 5k bulb over the chaeto… but like the others said, it didn’t do much when the nutrients were really low[/quote]
Look who decided to chime in mr. Busy pants lol[/quote]
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: i barely have time to put them on!
in various fuges of different sizes from 10 gallon to 40 breeder size, i have good results with a mix of 36 w 10K or 65 w 50/50 or 3 x 39 w T5 , 10k, 50/50/ & 420 act. they all seem to do ok. Just make it bright enough and more important, have enough flow and turbulance in each fuge. it really helps feed the chaeito or macro. flow means better nutrient and gas exchange. IE… Better Fuge. so a small powerhead in the fuge helps out a lot.
As people have said, it boils down to a nutrient problem. IME algea scrubbers and fuges are incompatible as the scrubber will out compete the fuge for nutrients. With scrubbers you can get the yellowing algae problem as the algae on top shades the algae on the screen, but I’ve never heard of algae in the fuge yellowing. It will be difficult to kill the fuge algae even in a low nutrient system. The algae ball should shrink slowly over time.
It’s important to remember that if the algae isn’t growing, and nutrients are low, then there is no problem. The algae is using what little nutrients it can get, just to maintain and survive. If algae isn’t growing and nutrients are high, then it’s probably a low iron problem.