Can't grow chaeto...

Gobi-Wan · Oct 20, 2018

Hi all. I started in the hobby back in June. Everything has been going really well, so far i haven't lost a fish or coral and all my LPS seem very happy. I only have LPS except a few small mushrooms that came on the rock. I have had to tinker with my filtration since its custom and I prefer to build rather than buy. It's definitely a budget reef. Anyway now over 4 months later I'm having my first real bloom of hair algae, diatoms, and cyano. The one thing I have never found success with so far is getting good chaeto growth. I dont understand it. At first I had the chaeto just sitting in the fuge. It got covered with slime. Then I increased the flow, and lighting hours, it got covered in slime. I've grown every manner of nasty sludge and slime all over the fuge but as far as I can tell, chaeto have never reproduced a single cell in my fuge. Now I have put a baffle in the fuge (it's a separate 10g tank) so I can tumble a ball of chaeto in one clean section of the fuge and it STILL wont grow. Even with 24/7 light. The light is a par38 grow LED off Amazon. One of the ones marketed for hydroponics. I have dosed iron several times as well.

mta_morrow · Oct 20, 2018

I have had the same issue several times over 2 different tanks.

I’m learning too and growing some now in a reactor.

A couple questions

What are your nitrates and phosphates?

What fish do you have and what and how often do you feed them?

Let me know and we’ll go from there.

hdsoftail1065 · Oct 20, 2018

I had the same problem, I cut my grow lights down to 5 hours at night and lights off in the DT and flip the cheato once a day. I think I was actually cooking my cheato with the light. It was shrinking and breaking down. It seems to be rebounding now.

Gobi-Wan · Oct 20, 2018

hdsoftail1065 said:
I had the same problem, I cut my grow lights down to 5 hours at night and lights off in the DT and flip the cheato once a day. I think I was actually cooking my cheato with the light. It was shrinking and breaking down. It seems to be rebounding now.

That's interesting. Everyone seems to say more light more light! Whenever I search through other posts about similar problems.
My nitrates have always been 10-15, phosphate <.02. So I took a sample to my LFS a few weeks ago and they said my phosphate was like .2 something... so I used a chemical they sold me to bring it down, supposedly .05 per dose per 24 hours... but after I dosed 1 time the next day my phosphate read 0. I only have the API master reef kit so it doesnt exactly give super detailed readings. Obviously theres phosphate in the system being taken up by hair algae and cyano. It's a very slow growing outbreak.. been building for a month or so, still not taking over, but annoying when I see reefs with bright white sand and clean rocks.
I was definitely overfeeding for a while, 2 times a day because of my anthias, but I cut back to once a day and much less food, probably 3 weeks ago. I mix half and half mysis and spirulina enhanced brine. I have a 2.5" lawnmower blenny, 2.5" kole tang, 2 firefish, 3 carberryi anthias and 2 2" clowns. Hopefully that wont end up being too much after they all grow. It's a 75g display. I have a 20g sump with an octo 110 skimmer that's pretty well tuned now. Separate 10g fuge.

rcpalmer1 · Oct 20, 2018

I started my tank June 2017. I have had a lot of the same issues. I could never get Cheato to grow. I had a Par 38 bulb. I upgraded to a Kessil H380. Still it would not grow. I added a power head and even tried adding baffels so the water would flow under instead of over. I had algae issues in my DT and sump. I have bought Cheato online at Top Shelf Aquatics, and World Wide Corals. Still it would die. Some times it would get covered with hair algae. The tank nutrients never got bad. Luckily I have great success with growing corals. I have lost a few but most have grown and multiplied. The last piece I got about 6 months ago at first shrank and got some algae growing on it. Then after a couple of months it started to grow. Now it is too big to tumble in the fuge so I have removed the power head. I have flipped it over by hand but it seams to be growing on all sides even without tumbling. I just takes time for tanks to mature.

Gobi-Wan · Oct 20, 2018

rcpalmer1 said:
I started my tank June 2017. I have had a lot of the same issues. I could never get Cheato to grow. I had a Par 38 bulb. I upgraded to a Kessil H380. Still it would not grow. I added a power head and even tried adding baffels so the water would flow under instead of over. I had algae issues in my DT and sump. I have bought Cheato online at Top Shelf Aquatics, and World Wide Corals. Still it would die. Some times it would get covered with hair algae. The tank nutrients never got bad. Luckily I have great success with growing corals. I have lost a few but most have grown and multiplied. The last piece I got about 6 months ago at first shrank and got some algae growing on it. Then after a couple of months it started to grow. Now it is too big to tumble in the fuge so I have removed the power head. I have flipped it over by hand but it seams to be growing on all sides even without tumbling. I just takes time for tanks to mature.

Sounds very similar to my experience. Thank you

Auto-pilot · Oct 20, 2018

I think sometimes it takes chaeto time to aclimate to LEDs. I had a problem and it kept getting smaller and smaller and smaller untill on day it just started growing and I've never had a problem since then. I think it was acclimating to my lights

PatW · Oct 20, 2018

Bulk Reef Supply has a whole series of you tube videos on Chaeto.

In my own experience, I started chaeto with just a cheap LED and it went well. Then I ramped up my display lights. The light over the chaeto was now inadequate. Algae grew in the tank and chaeto withered.

Then I got the kessel H380 and the chaeto took off again.

If the nitrates go to 0 and or phosphates go to 0, chaeto will wither. I measure nitrates with Red Sea Pro and phosphates with Hanna ULR.

When I grow chaeto, I can get other algae’s growing. You need decent flow and I turn the chaeto daily. Then it is just a matter of light and nutrients.

Gobi-Wan · Oct 21, 2018

I had been planning to eventually run carbon, and designed my sump so I could. I bought some over the weekend. I haven't ran it up to this point because I simply didn't have much bioload, but now that I have several corals and quite a few fish, it seems like the time to add it. Will removing organics help with any of the nuisance stuff?

vetteguy53081 · Oct 21, 2018

yikes- Cant control this stuff. Giveaway to club members monthly. I have simple Innovative Marine chaeto light and moderate current and apply iron 2x per week and also potassium. Nothing special.

Gobi-Wan · Oct 21, 2018

vetteguy53081 said:
yikes- Cant control this stuff. Giveaway to club members monthly. I have simple Innovative Marine chaeto light and moderate current and apply iron 2x per week and also potassium. Nothing special.

What's your iron doseage?

vetteguy53081 · Oct 21, 2018

sbdiehl88 said:
What's your iron doseage?

Start with a capful per 20 gallons weekly and after 2-3 weeks, I generally dose 6 drops daily per 20 US-gallons adjust dosage according to the appearance of algae and need for nutrients added

Gobi-Wan · Oct 21, 2018

vetteguy53081 said:
Start with a capful per 20 gallons weekly and after 2-3 weeks, I generally dose 6 drops daily per 20 US-gallons adjust dosage according to the appearance of algae and need for nutrients added

Wow my instructions say one capfull per 50 gallons for 4-6 months... I just have the cheap flourish stuff...