Cheato experts...couple questions

[92reefer]

I placed some Cheato in my sump (just floating with no rubble or live sand) about 5 months ago per my LFS's advice. It has barely grown over time but most of it is still green. I've been lighting it on reverse schedule for about 6 hours with a compact fluorescent 5100K bulb (Melevsreef.com).

1) some of the cheato is growing with a dark purple/reddish color. Is that bad and should I remove that portion?

2) why isn't the cheato growing more at a faster rate?

[chewieee]

i have same problem cant get it to grow and i have same bulb

[Gary Majchrzak]

I light my Chaeto 24/7 with a 6500k CF spotlight.
I would think 12 hours of light would be a minimum....
does someone recommend only 6 hours?
I thought melev's website mentioned that the 6500k CF spot grows Chaeto better than the 5100k CF bulb.

[scotmc]

if you chaeto is not rotating on it own. You need to manually do this once a week. I use a GE 6500 and are having good growth. There is a thread on light cycles for chaeto. There is no difference between 12 and 24hrs.

[oct2274]

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1274588

[92reefer]

cool. Thanks guys. Doin' some thread reading..

[bergzy]

there are a few things that chaeto likes in order to grow fast!

- the colony likes to rotate under the light. this ensures that the entire exterior of the colony gets max light exposure

- it likes a lot of light. i use a 65w 6500k lights of america cf that is about two to three inches from the water surface. it is lit 18 hours a day on a reverse photo period.

- i have very high flow in a circular pattern that spins the chaeto. at about 600gph in a 5g bucket (120x turnover). note i did not say turbulent flow, laminar flow or 'rough' flow. chaeto likes to spin. try and find a way of having the water create this motion. it grows chaeto like mad.

- i do not dose iron. there is sufficient nutrients to elicit great chaeto growth...but every system is different.

i have noticed sumps with partitioned fuges to grow macro dont always receive ideal flow through the entire colony. this is why i went to a bucket to isolate the entire colony and was able to receive its independent flow in a pattern that i made for it. all it takes is an extra (usually) low watt pump to do this.

i use a mj 1200 on my 2g fuge (150x turnover) and i T off my excess skimmer pump power for my 5g fuge.

my 2g fuge on my 110g mixed reef chaeto growth has surpassed in two weeks with the spinning ball method what took months with my partitioned sump fuge to grow out.

here is my 5g fuge with its spinning ball of chaeto.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/bergzy/th_MVI_5067.jpg (http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/bergzy/?action=view&current=MVI_5067.flv)

[hybridgenius]

As long as it isnt white its good?

[luke33]

I had the same exact setup for about 5mths and my cheato didn't grow at all really, then i just got po'd and got a 65k halogen from lowe's a plant growth bulb and a 150w compact florecent and threw them on there. My cheato completely filled my 40g fuge in less than 2mths, it was about the size of a 5lb ham, then turned into a 50lb pig. I light 24/7 and flip it once a week or so.