Anyone know how many k's of illumination is required to perpetuate gracilaria to a depth of 18"? Is NO lighting good enough for chaeto?

http://www.theculturedreef.com/welcome.gif to Talking Reef Community, Salt Creep.

Ya gotta love that handle. Glad you found us, hope you enjoy the family atmosphere here at TR.

Gracilaria are not very particular as to light source. Living in Hawaii, you could grow tons of it in a tub outside. Chaeto does need some light in order to grow otherwise it will just waste away.

Dick

most macro algaes will thrive best at 6500K
as for depth, our tanks are not (commonly) deep enough to really affect the spectrum, more worry is places on intensity (wattage of bulb)

but you shouldn't need anything special

thanx Rob for all the insight!

Yeah, thanks Rob.

Got a bit of a trate problem, been handling it with water changes but thats getting old. I was thinking about placing a 10 gal atop my 55 gal fuge, routing my return to it, putting a cheap PC on top, drilling an overflow through one end, filling it with gracilaria, and sending the effluent to my fuge.

Sound like a plan? :unsure:

Alternately I can just move some LR from my fuge into the DT and stuff the algae and light on the influent end of my fuge. Which is preferable?