I have previously tried to make a fuge three times to no avail, but I am determined to make it work, so I am trying to a new one very soon. I think my issue has been with the light. Do y'all "acclimate" your chaeto to up to 100% intensity over time?
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So this tank is a completely new tank than the tanks I tried the chaeto on previously and there is definitely enough nutrients, they actually are slightly high rn lolDoes your aquarium have enough nutrients to sustain the chaeto?
5 months oldHow old?
yeah I knew you were referring to N&P lol. I just have a chamber in my sump that is empty with a Kessil H80 fuge light.Your system is probably too young for the chaeto. By nutrients, I was referring to nitrates and phosphates.
The aquarium water needs to reach a certain level of maturity with the NO3 and PO4. You could try to add some Chaeto Grow to assist as your system matures.
Also what setup do you have for the chaeto? Here’s my cheap homemade egg crate in my sump. Took about a year before chaeto really started growing.
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www.reef2reef.com
I already dose tropic marin A + K so maybe that will help lol. Just switched to them for trace.![]()
The limiting factor for Cheato growth (at least in my tank)
My Chaeto is always in a growing state. Nitrate and phosphate are constant at 15 and 0.1-0.3 ppm respectively. I recently started supplementing trace elements regularly using the Tropic Marine A and K by adding them to the dosing canistets (Aquaforest +123). I use a 180w growlight and a kesill...www.reef2reef.com
I agree, I have cheato gro this time and I'll follow the dosage instructions on the bottle. I think a big part of the issue was that I did not monitor my nutrients back then to make sure they weren't bottoming out.You can grow chaeto quite well with a screw-in bulb in a clamp-on fixture from Home Depot. Light is not likely the issue. It was likely iron if you were not changing water or supplementing it.

