Nat's Wondrous Aquarium Blog

Reef Tank: Chaetomorpha

Sunday, October 11, 2009

As a follow up to a post in April, I recently converted the Aquaclear filter into an algae tumbler. Stocked with a small amount of live rock rubble and a large ball of Chaetomorpha algae, lit by a 15 watt compact fluorescent light. After adding this Algae on Thursday, testing for nitrates has indicated that the algae is effective: test results dropped to <5ppm from 20ppm last weekend.



If this continues to be successful, I'm going to look into a smaller LED light source for a more streamlined look. The current fixture splashes some of the warmer yellow colored light into the tank.

Another issue I've been dealing with is dropping pH, which has dropped below 8 at least twice in the past month. I've responded by adding Seachem Reef Buffer every other day, and increasing my testing. I've been considering adding a pH probe to my controller to make monitoring easier.

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