Chaeto Going Bad

[Gary Ellis]

Why does my Chaeto look slimy and not fresh-looking?

 

[Montiman]

There can be alot of reasons. I would trouble shoot with the list below.

1. Remove Chaeto and rinse in saltwater to get rid of any cyano or micro algae growing on it.
2. Test nitrate and phosphate if they are 0 the chaeto may be starving.
3. Try adding a iron, molybdinum, manganese supplement. With heavy growth algae can deplete these levels leading to a sudden chaeto crash.
4. Make sure there is sufficient flow to get the chaeto nutrients and stop cyano growth.
5. Check lighting to make sure it is adequate. How bright is your lighting? Is the lense clean? Are LEDs burring out?

 

[Pistondog]

Raise the chaeto to water surface to maximize par

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Flow. If its sitting in stale water it will not grow.
D

 

[Gary Ellis]

I should have said it's in a new Pax Bellum Reactor. I run the light 10 hours and the flow is good. I have hair algae in the DT so adding iron, molybdinum, manganese supplement wouldn't that feed the GHA too? My Nitrates are around 5 ppm on the NYOS chart and the phosphates are 0.07 according to the Hanna low range checker.