Bulk Reef Supply I’m glad your opinion on refugiums have changed over the years. Your approach to feeding more and dosing the necessary nutrients from a too strong refugium is definitely more cost effective than water changes and adjustable from multiple aspects(light period, feeding, and dosing nutrients)
If you get chaeto from someone else, do a few dips on RO water, any pests that require saltwater will die and come off, just do it for a few hours as 2-3 dips. That's the tip I would like to share
This advice just helped me out a ton. Got some chaeto from my LFS a few days ago and sure enough, it had bristle worms and other hitchhikers on it. An hour soak in RO water cleaned off the chaeto.
Haha. Me too. My chaeto actually get chock full of micro brittle stars. I literally put it in a shallow tray and try to pick them all out. I just can't pitch them!
Reef Dork that is the toughest part. Today I did my annual sump clean. I had accumulated silt/ detritus that had to go. Unfortunately I am sure I lost a very large percentage of my pods. Sigh. The good thing is my cheato has allowed my to go a very long time without interfering with the system.
You guys are awesome, I been reefing since 1994, I have a purple tang that’s 28 years old, and a few corals the same age. My clown fish lived 23 years, outlived my cat. Keep up the great content, over the years I have become maintenance lazy, your content brings me back in touch with the art and is greatly appreciated.
Aiptaisia is a lot more expensive than $70 to fix. AEFW can easily kill $70 worth of coral. You're paying for making sure it's clean and safe. If you don't care about that; chaeto can be had for free at any reef club.
Tried caulerpa? Grows fast, I'm assuming fast growth means excellent nutrient removal. Most of my tanks have grapeseed calurpa, a couple have the fern caulerpa, which is a little more sensitive. Tried Cheato a couple times, no luck.
Hey. I'm a new sub. Wanted to say I have only watched this video and your best led reef light, but you guys are so informative and I love how you guys describe everything. I've been in the hobby for 9 years and I feel like I learned so much more for your videos. I can't wait to see what else you guys have available. 😊 Keep up the great work!
Would love to see some brs investigates into different types of macro algae. Cheato is great for sure but other macros are good to and have other benefits. I recently added some ulva to my fuge and loving it. My tang eats it and don't have to buy norgi anymore.
You do not need expensive lights to grow Chaeto!!! As long as you have nutrients in your system that stuff practically grows with no light. I bought a cheap $30 light off of Amazon and it grows Heaps of chaeto algae.
I highly recommend trying different species of macro algae. I grow sea lettuce (ulva) and it is as effective as chaeto, easier to clean/harvest and can also be used as a free food to tangs/other herbivores.
Been growing chaeto for about seven years. I use a 100W equivalent LED flood light from Home Depot on 6 to 8 hours a day. I placed my chaeto inside of a plastic mesh like a taco. The mesh is actually used to keep fish from jumping outside the tank, this is so I can clean the chaeto every water change by just pulling the net out after I let it drip due to detritus build up. The only other factor that really affected me was red slime starting anywhere the chaeto has too little flow or when I went on vacation and the chaeto touched the surface of the water. When the chaeto touches the surface even a little bit the red slime would spike, so I would know it’s time to just cut it out (halfway) since it only grows on the superficial portions of my chaeto and doesn’t affect the whole body of chaeto.
Re: light spillage into the skimmer - I stand a piece of black egg crate vertically beside my skimmer and my fuge light can’t directly shine on the skimmer body. Works great!
Hahaha, awesome... fail #2: STDs. Sharing transmitted diseases. Btw,, that's really wild artwork on the wall. I like it. This was a wonderful vid guys, thanks!
#17 - Flow: You gotta have flow through your sump/fuge especially if you're growing macroalgaes. My chaeto never seemed to do well in my sump until I added a dedicated powerhead to blow on/through it. It doesn't need to tumble in there, just get some water moving through it so it has access to enough nutrients to grow.
Im pretty sure Randy almost said big ass skimmer xD Anyway what should I do to help keep cyano from growing on my chaeto? ive tried adding a pump to my fuge, but it just ends up clogged with macros
With regards to # 7: What about the Triton method with regards to mechanical filtering They say: no mechanical filter before the fuge Can you elaborate on that pls?
The theory there is that filter socks and other mechanical filtration might be taking things out of the water that the macro algae would normally use to grow.
My fail was #4 .. put cheto in to soon. It died n all the nutrients are in my tank causing algae.i just let it go for a couple weeks. Did some water changes. Now I'm gonna try some more n see if it gets there nutrients out. Wish me luck lol
I think the point is that if you use a light like the Kessil, you can have a much smaller refugium that will perform just as well as a much larger one.
Some of what you say is contradictory of the Triton method.... I was under the impression to let the uneaten junk filter straight into the chaeto, not to harvest it and let it run its natural cycle,
And also if one is doing the mudbed, I was under the impression that was also how it was to be done. I suppose it's relative to the tank load, but I'm not one to overfeed.
I had a pretty successful 3 year mixed reef 55 that utilized a sump with a chaeto tumbling section, a deep sand bed section, slimmer and filter socks. I fought the occasional hair algae flare ups in the main display until I added GFO and carbon reactors. The tank really took off after that. In hindsight, I think I could have achieved similar results without the reactors by simply dialing back my feeding.
Im watching this again right before a trip to LFS to buy chaeto has me apprehensive. Man..It’s really too bad there hasn’t been any stock available from you or Algaebarn selling for months now! Reefcleaners is also out of stock. What’s going on? Too busy with servicing commercial customers perhaps? So far I’ve kept my new reef build pest free... but seems I’m going to try my luck on QT treatment for Chaeto sources from my local LFS. Damn...please wish me luck! I hope starting this new fuge is worth the risk.🤞🏻 Wish there wa also solid answers on R2R for Chaeto QT it’s all over the map.. Maybe that’s a future BRS video idea (?)
Both work: Triton method insists on in front. One of the upsides of fuge first of that is you can have much deeper (aka bigger) refugium since you are not constrained by skimmers water level. I have Fuge-> skimmer-> pump section setup and my fuge level height is at 32 cm while skimmer is at 22 (i do a get a bit of water splashing due to height difference so I put an acrilic sheet to cover the fuge/skimmer baffle area). While I do see pods everywhere in my sump I do not see them in the skimmer cup - just fish poop
Split the drain pipe. The faster drain flow goes to skimmer chamber; while the slower drain flow goes to refugium. Both chambers overflowing to the return chamber. This way you don't skimmed out the overflowing critters from refugium. They go directly to return chamber and into the DT.
hipargero Aquarium Lights-100 watt 5 Channels Sunrise Sunset Moonlight Reef Lights for Corals SPS LPS Saltwater Tank (Black) WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK OF THIS FOR REFUGIUM LIGHTING????
I set up a refugium and it zeroed out my nitrates but did nothing to control my phosphates. I have a 40 gal breeder and use a Kessle H160 for my refugium on the blue setting at 24 hours a day run time. I dialed back the run time to 12 hours on a timer but don’t understand how my phosphates were untouched. I throw away chaeto like crazy. The refugium is thriving but like I said it only consumes nitrates. Is there something I’m doing wrong ?
You said if you run gfo it wont grow cheato. I am worried about removing it though untll levels start coming down so my plan was to remove little by little? is that not going to work? How long before it starts to remove a fair amount of nutrients? My po3 ranges 0.03 to .08 with gfo. Why would i have/need to throw shrimp and heater into the fuge if I am treating the tank for alage? First you said throw it out then you said you can put it back. Did you mean to save the cheato to throw shrimp and a heater! Also would my nutrients sky rocket if I threw it out to treat? What about bacteria like MB clean and MB7? I treat with both. Also what is that bottle of Brightwell sitting next to fuge. I dont think u addressed that.
Some reefers may use a substrate in their fuge, but not having one isn't going to be a dealbreaker. Personally I would choose to not have substrate as the fuge is easier to clean without it in there.
While they're usually good clean up crew members, most reefers try to avoid them for one reason or another. They're no fun to accidentally touch and are considered an eye sore by some.
Just wish there was a sweet spot for refugium lights that don't break the bank, why does the light that grows algae cost about as much as the same powered light that grows corals? I man I get it if you had a 4' x 4' refugium, but most people probably don't even have 2'x2' and it seems that "reasonably priced" refugium lights are just woefully underpowered e.g. H80.
Mike B I agree and often say there is no replacement for par. I’d often recommend to people to get multiples of the lights if possible. It’s easy to turn down but you more often then not can’t increase par.
The Kessil H380 grows chaeto well for me but the caveat is that it grows green hair algae well too and that green hair algae clogs my filter sponge often restricting flow. Although the H80 is much less powerful, my chaeto grows steadily and I don't get the green hair algae issue in my sump. In the end, no matter how fast or slow it's growing for, if the numbers are under control and the algae is under control, I am good.
If you're looking for a nice middle ground between cost and performance, check out some of the refugium lights from Zetlight. Their E200 and E200s lights cover a good amount of area, but don't break the bank in comparison to some of the premium brands. www.bulkreefsupply.com/e200-macroalgae-cultivation-led-light-zetlight.html
I use a 5 dollar purple plant light, on a 4 dollar manual dial timer on an old school clamp lamp about 12" above my fuge timer set on ~ 12 hours per day during the night cycle of DT for ph balance. And my caulerpa and chaeto grow amazingly well. For less than 20$. All 3 products can be bought at walmart.
Clean chaeto, great advice, there is nowhere to be found in Europe. How could I clean it if I take it from someone/store? It might be something easy in USA but does not apply to the rest of the world. Also, "not putting filter sock before chaeto", what about Trition method? It specifically says NOT to add socks.
I always rinse my chaeto under the kitchen faucet, it kills the pests and worms and such just lets go and gets rinsed out. You can also soak it in tapwater for awhile. Works great and doesn't hurt the algae. Just get the temperature right.
I want to run chaeto in my nano but not now in time. And like u said, it may be too effective for the softies. Also, what would work like chaeto in a Ranchu tank? The refruge´ looks like a pain in tbe balls though. Thanks again.
I will say I have an oversized fuge because I had the space and it’s for later additions and my 7 year old is helping me with it so I can’t have it hard to get into. I am probably going to link over 1000 gallons on it someday but it’s around 60-100 gallons split between two 75 gallon rubber livestock tanks on a 2000lb rated shelving unit because children and glass mix about as well as alcohol and fireworks.
Probably got them from the chunk of chaeto that we got from another tank here at the office. Bristle worms can show up just about anywhere from your macro algae to your rockwork.
ha ha I just got to section 11 - OK not worrying about refugium and pod population. but I do spend a ton of time worrying about pods as I LOVE my mandarins : )
Aloha!...so question, I am getting back into having a tank as allot of people are limited on funds for a saltwater tank: 1. Is it better to spend/invest the money on a UV light or a protein skimmer? 2. Is it better to invest in a "hangover" surface protein skimmer OR a submerged protein skimmer? 3. Should one invest their money into a professional sump or a "do it yourself" sump with a plastic tote and 3 dresser drawer? Mahalos and aloha from MauiWaui!!
1. Skimmer. 2. Properly sized submerged skimmer is best but don't oversize it. If you need space get one with pump built into it. 3. DIY is great if you have patience and a good idea. Some are cheap though and if you wanted a wet/dry filter those tend to be easier to just buy. I use a 40 breeder that I got for like $50. Auto filter roller is probably the best investment you can make! For beginners best thing you can do is get 2-3 inches of live sand in your display. Plenty of rock is good too. I suggest real reef or Carib sea life rock for best results. DIY is okay but just remember that you get what you pay for. Sometimes a little work can save you big bucks but a cheap light or other equipment will cost you in the long run. Outside of custom sump/baffles I would advise going with 4-5 star reviewed products until you get a better idea on what you want from the hobby. Once you have success with what everyone knows works you can start to experiment more :) hope that helps and good luck!
All right reugium, but you forgot the number 1 mistake: Thinking you have to have a separate water box because you forgot you can have the macro algae growing in your display box.
That's a tough choice. While not everyone in the office may agree, I'd personally opt for a refugium. With a refugium, there is no feed pump, no screen cleaning, and in most cases, doesn't require any additional plumbing/installation. Just drop in some clean cheato, add a light source, and you're off to the races.
You'll usually want an easy way to remove and clean out the rotifer culture, so leaving the tank empty (aside from water, of course) is usually the easiest way to go.
I bought an h380 and I’ve tried about 6 times to grow chaeto but it always just floats to the surface and dies. I’m trying to get rid of the algae problem in the display but the chaeto just won’t grow. Help please.
I had that same issue. Dosing nitrates into my tank let the chaeto take over, then start to out compete the algae in my tank. Too low of nutrients ended up being my issues.
@@joevillavicencio6548 I know, I run it. And it doesnt require filter socks. That's why I asked if it was the exception, or maybe I've missed something along the way.
I wouldn't say that 10% of your display size for the refugium to be a massive fuge in most cases. We're talking about a 10 gallon refugium for a tank of 100 gallons. There will always be a few exceptions to the rules, but these ideas discussed in the video are some good general guidelines to consider.
I used to run chaeto and when I did I took the bucket of water change water, pulled the chaeto and swished it around in there pretty well. While it was out I cleaned the fuge. I don't know if that was overdoing it or not but I felt better doing it. I use ulva now and it's much more relaxed. I use the harvested ulva in my fish only with rock tank as food.
