Hi Rroselavy. Thanks for the information. Do you have anything to add flow in the chamber with the chaeto? I thought my problem with the chaeto, was either not enough flow, or more likely, I had a 6500k watt bulb (spiral bulb with reflector like recommended on Melev's site) on the side of my
sump, lighting up the last chamber (before the top-off reservoir). So, the light had to go through the auto-topoff water before it hit the chaeto, and I thought that, it might be losing too much light before it hits the chaeto. The light you are using is really cool. I wanted to avoid cutting up the cover to light the chaeto from the top, so your light would be a good option.
You have rubble in the first chamber where the water exits the
skimmer? Did you remove the filter sock to fit rubble in there?
I do have a ton of pineapple sponges in my
sump. You mentioned not lighting the
sump to encourage sponge growth. What is the benefit of having these sponges?
How much skinmate does your elos
skimmer produce a day? What setting have you found the best? I don't really quite get how to set a
skimmer to run optimally. Right now, my silencer is barely screwed on, and my clamp is unscrewed all the way, so I have the most flow running through the venturi. My gate is all the way open. I don't get a lot of skinmate. Maybe 1/4" in my collection cup a day, very dark wet skinmate.
Thanks!
Pam
Quote:
Originally Posted by rroselavy  You and I have nearly the same sump (with the same slow-flow chamber), and I have been successfully growing Chaeto in there for over 2 months. I started with a small tight ball of angry chaeto, and it loosened and grew to fill the whole chamber. I then harvested half, and it is now about 3/4 filling up the chamber again.
I chose to light it from the side, making sure to use a fixture in the 5000-6500k range for optimal growth. You can see my setup using this link.
I do have to turn the chaeto by hand every 2-3 days to make sure all sides get exposure. There are anthropods (obtained from ipsf.com) and more recently copepods that I have seen in there.
No, and you do not want to light it if you wish to encourage growth of sponges. My first two chambers (after the skimmer) are filled with LR rubble, and I see several areas of sponges, but all the critters are in the Chaeto.
That's fantastic. I'll take some of your export! 
I am planning a Display Refugium to hook in line with my sump (waiting for ELOS, or Euro-Reef to come out with their Nano), and your Red algae (form of Gracilaria or Halymenia?) is one of the most attractive species I've seen. You can see a beautiful picture of the same red algae in Calfo&Fenner's Reef Invertebrates book (page 46). Unfortunately, the image has no caption, so I am at a loss to identify the species.
As far as favorable algae is concerned, my LR came with a Halimeda species and a Chlorodesmis species. (Turtle Grass). Perhaps not as innocuous as Chaeto or Gracilaria, but interesting if kept if controlled.
That's a really good growth rate. My Chaeto is doubling every 4-5 weeks or so. |
