Running inverse sump lighting versus 24-hour...
 

I recently finished my stand and can now, if I so choose, run my sump lights 24/7 or during the night only. I understand that running the lights 24/7 will maximize caulerpa growth and discourage it going sexual, while running inversely to my display tank lights can help regulate pH. I am leaning towards the latter. Any thoughts?

Yeah. Caulerpa sucks. Get that pubic hair stuff. :mrgreen:

I've gone with a 14hr. RDP light cycle over my refugium and it hasn't gone sexual... it's going on 7 months. I think that's good enough and I get decent caulerpa growth.

I noticed that this method decreased the daily pH swing by .1 Now with my reactor and dosing kalk at night I get pretty much 8.3 all the time using my Pinpoint.

I have always used reverse light on the fuge (about a year now).
I have never had calurpa go asexual and I do it this way to help with the ph swings.

Jonathan, hate to say it, but you're probably just lucky that you haven't a sporulation event yet. I've gone years without stuff happening and then BAM, it happens like 3 or 4 times in as many months, and then nothing again for months to years ....... basically it's like speeding and getting speeding tickets. Yes you can probably avoid getting tickets by watching for speedtraps but the odds are that sooner or later you'll miss that one speedtrap and then you have a speeding ticket.

The only real way to prevent big sporulation events in your tanks is to be religious about pruning, and thus if it happens it's maybe only a small event and thus not really a big deal. To continue my analogy :mrgreen: it's like saying well if I only speed by no more than XX km/h then I know that my speeding ticket, if I get one, will only be $YY and Z number of demerits.

There is some discussion about whether reverse photoperiod and 24-hour photoperiods really have any effect at all .. I personally have tried both and have noticed zero results with either. YMMV but that's how it worked for me .. (i.e., neither way was a foolproof protection against it).

If you have caulerpa or halimeda (halimeda WILL sporulate just the same as caulerpa BTW), be prepared to live with the risk that the stuff will do it sooner or later. Keep the stuff at bay, then it won't cause devastation. Or use species that are known to not sporulate ... Like this C. linum spaghetti/green-pubic-hair/brillo-pad algae, or eelgrass/seagrass (if you can ever find a Canadian supplier for this please please please let me know).

So Tony ... you would recommend that I basically just remove all the other Macro you gave me and leave just the spaghetti stuff in my refugium ?

Cheers

Well ... no I don't really recommend not using it, I just recommend that "if using it, use with some awareness." It's not all bad. It's pretty hard to beat it in terms of growth rate, so as a means of nutrient removal I think it's quite effective. The wiry stuff is cool but it does not grow as fast as the caulerpa does. It will grow quickly under halide lighting but I would guess that not everyone wants to use halide lighting over refugia (owing mainly to the expense involved). Whereas caulerpa seems to grow just fine under any light at all.

My only advice is, if you use it, keep it pruned... A little sprig going sexual in a tank isn't going to be a big deal whereas if it grows uncontrolled and a huge section of it goes, then you're dealing with milky water, sudden release of large amounts of nitrate, phosphate, etc. etc.

With all that said (my last comments for now ... promise :mrgreen: ), there is a good reason to go with RDP (reverse-daylight photoperiod) and that is as Jonathan pointed out for pH control. My comments only apply to "whether it has an effect on caulerpa going sexual or not." If faced with a choice of 24-hour vs. RDP I myself would go with the RDP (but that's just me ... for one, I find my electricity bill is high enough with just 12 hour photoperiods ... 24 hour photoperiods is a place I do NOT want to go!!! :eek: )

i have allways run my refuge 24/7, Helps with the calupra growing stablizing the ph and the adding lights help with keeping the tank heated in the winter :)

Depends one th calupra you have.. some will go sexual faster than others..

i have grape calupra go over night. then had some never go.. i got alot of razor calupra now, and never an issues with it.. have some in the main tank as well and never goes sexual.