johnnyjtaylor
Fishaholic
As you may or may not know I've been battling an annoying hair algea problem in my tank. Those who have had a 'flare up' of hair algea in a mature tank will know it doesn't go away overnight. The trouble is the hair algea in the tank out competes the Chaeto in the fuge for nutrients(and the skimmer come to that), which stops the chaeto from growing,all the time the tanks water remains at 0ppm P04 and 0ppm N03. Therefore the only option for its removal is to get your hands in there and spend hours picking it off,this gets more tedious as you start to get the algea in retreat because you have to pick off smaller and smaller bits. I had read raising the Mg in the water column to 1500ppm weakens the algeas hold and this does seem to be the case 
The other noticeable effect of this algea is my xenia stopped growing(most unusual) so the algea also takes away something that needs(possibly iodine).
Now the thing is,after getting the algea receding my chaeto still isn't growing very fast(although it is growing), in happier less algea plagued times the chaeto grew very fast in my H.O.B fuge, which was lit by an 11w PC 'plant grow' light on a reverse light cycle to the display. To better it and speed up the growth I got an 18" 15w T8 plant grow tube(with reflector)for a more even coverage(got a T8 as its length exactly covers the cheatos growing chamber) and fitted it about an inch above the water in the fuge(the pc sat about 3" above water and didn't directly cover the whole chamber)
Now I put this new light on 24/7 but I'm still getting poor chaeto growth rate
What I would like to know is other peoples experiences with lighting times of chaeto. Obviously looking on the internet turns up the usual contradictory information, with some people saying 24/7 is best and others saying chaeto needs a dark downtime or growth is affected. So lets hear about your fuge lighting regimes and see if we can't work out whats best 
Johnny
The other noticeable effect of this algea is my xenia stopped growing(most unusual) so the algea also takes away something that needs(possibly iodine).Now the thing is,after getting the algea receding my chaeto still isn't growing very fast(although it is growing), in happier less algea plagued times the chaeto grew very fast in my H.O.B fuge, which was lit by an 11w PC 'plant grow' light on a reverse light cycle to the display. To better it and speed up the growth I got an 18" 15w T8 plant grow tube(with reflector)for a more even coverage(got a T8 as its length exactly covers the cheatos growing chamber) and fitted it about an inch above the water in the fuge(the pc sat about 3" above water and didn't directly cover the whole chamber)
Now I put this new light on 24/7 but I'm still getting poor chaeto growth rate
What I would like to know is other peoples experiences with lighting times of chaeto. Obviously looking on the internet turns up the usual contradictory information, with some people saying 24/7 is best and others saying chaeto needs a dark downtime or growth is affected. So lets hear about your fuge lighting regimes and see if we can't work out whats best Johnny
my LR looks much better now like when I first got it. Sorry if this isn't the "solution" but it's certainly a quick and easy way to make your tank look better!
, I like to control things with balance and the hair algea is just a side effect of things (temporarily)going out of balance.
