cheato light

sharkbait9

Active Member
What are some good lights to use to grow cheato.
I use a 65watt grow bulb from the HD but my cheato grows very slow in my big sump.
 
M

markeo99

Guest
I use one of those twisty flourescent ones 6500k daylight bulb clip on lamp and mine grows like crazy
 

florida joe

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by sharkbait9
http:///forum/post/2610023
What are some good lights to use to grow cheato.
I use a 65watt grow bulb from the HD but my cheato grows very slow in my big sump.
Its not only light you have to facture in flow and nutrients available
 
M

markeo99

Guest
but sometimes light helps my last bulb was wore out and it hardly grew at all new bulb and bam
 

lovethesea

Active Member
we use a 13 watt plant light. Stuff grows like crazy. Too bad we can't eat it we could sell it as organic food.
 

sharkbait9

Active Member
two of my sumps are ten gallons built into the sump with a 4inch sand bed. My show tank sump is about 14-15 gallons also with a 4 -5 inch sand bed. I have the refugiums plumbed off the drain lines with ball valves at different drains rates to see what works better.
All my levels are right on target expect nitrates. I thought nitrates were good for the cheato and I know are bad for the tank so I keep that hovering around 10-15ppm (salifert test).
My show tank, i gave up on that refugium since my nitrates are 10 or lower salifert test and cheato will not grow. It stays the same size ball (tennisball size) I really don't want to go and let nitrates get high since i have my acans, acros and millies in that tank.
I thought I read (probably wrong) but I thought that cheato will grow with lights also if nutrients were low. But would grow like a “weed” if right lights and nutrients were available to feed off.
Here is my chemistry as I run the test in my show tank down stairs
Temp 77 in tank (sump 79.5)
Ph 8.20 (all test salifert)
Salinity 1.26 refract
Cal 480 (reactor set on auto with ph monitor running co2)
NO3 15ppm also done with (pinpoint monitor reading 12)
Nitrites 0
NH4 0
I2 is between 0.06 >0.01
Kh/alk 9
I just thought of something as I was running my test and looked at my sump light (shop dome fixture w/65k pink dayglo bulb )
I have the light set up hanging over at an angle to the refugium at about 1ft away to avoid salt creep and splashing. Could that be to far away? All my sump lights are the same and at the same distance or greater.
 
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