Chaeto cyclone calamity

[AaronFReef]

Hey all. Just put a ball of “clean chaeto” from Algae Barn to start my fuge and have a full blown chaeto cyclone blowing through my system. It came in with the heat pack cool to the touch (which the package I now see says is okay) and stinking like sulfur. I took it out, gave it a rinse in my specimen container filled with tank water , which clouded up and turned green with lots of free floating 1/4” pieces of chaeto. I then put the clump in my fuge like an impatient idiot. Now it’s floating all through my tank and gathering on all the pumps. It mostly disintegrated immediately. A small clump stayed together but slowly with even a low speed tumble, came apart.

I’ve been gathering it and putting it in a Fish net suspended in my fuge. I thought I’d try and grow it out to something I can use in there or something... I don’t know.

Should the chaeto be so easy to fall apart? There wasn’t any reasonable clump to it. Just like shredded pieces none longer than an inch or two. Was this algae barns goof or mine?


Before going in the fuge:

After:

 

[vetteguy53081]

Chaeto can fall apart as it has no actual shape. Rinsing was a good call. It should ball back together.
Provide good lighting, water movement and iron supplement.

 

[AaronFReef]

So the ball literally dispersed into my system. Nothing left to grow. Luckily I grabbed some up and put it in the Fish net. Does that just mean I had too much flow through my fuge? It’s a long narrow compartment that all my water flows through. Probably like 500-750 gpb through a 3” channel. Have it down to like 250 gph now

 

[vetteguy53081]

Flow likely broke it up - yes

 

[AaronFReef]

So is that to say that any ball of chaeto with 500 gph flowing through it would break apart? It’s been a decade for me but I thought I recalled chaeto forming long many inch long strands that really wouldn’t break apart. Is that not the case? It only forms inch long max strands?

 

[vetteguy53081]

So is that to say that any ball of chaeto with 500 gph flowing through it would break apart? It’s been a decade for me but I thought I recalled chaeto forming long many inch long strands that really wouldn’t break apart. Is that not the case? It only forms inch long max strands?

Strabds, typically not long on chaeto. Cheato tends to ball up upon growth