Chaeto Help !!

cjrudy · Mar 25, 2014

So I have been having trouble with my chaeto for the past six months or so.

It grows but very slow and is not the light green and thin type but very dark and thick like a brillow pad. It seems very heavy, probably the reason it wont tumble. I do have flow from the drain plus an mj900 powerhead.

And because it just sits there, cyano and other algae builds up on it.

Any suggestions ?

Reefing Madness · Mar 25, 2014

Its growing quite noramlly, sounds like all the right stuff in the making. You could try adding a powerhead to get the water through it better.

cjrudy · Mar 25, 2014

As I said I have a powerhead in the refugium, but the chaeto is so heavy it will not tumble.

And in the past I have had some very light, thin , light green chaeto. Not sure why its now growing so strange

Keithcorals · Mar 25, 2014

3 most important things are light phosphate and nitrate. If you take any of these three things out of the equation or you have them in insufficient amounts it will not grow.
What type of light is it getting?
Do you have measurable phosphate if so what is it?
Do you have measurable nitrate if so what is it?

Keithcorals · Mar 25, 2014

For what it's worth it will grow with almost no flow more flow is not likely the problem.

rschwadel · Mar 25, 2014

Keithcorals is right. Detectable phosphate and Nitrates and light are the top three. Also flow is important but tumbling is only one solution. If it helps at all. pick it up and string it out a bit. It has helped me in the past with thick Chaeto to "hand tumble it" so to speak. Just fluff it a little bit.

zesty · Mar 25, 2014

This is what I did to my chaeto ball and it took off like crazy. Get a small airpump, a ball-shaped airstone, and plop that bad boy right in the middle of your chaeto ball. You will get the airbubbles to rise up through your chaeto. For me, it's helped grow my green ball and I think it keeps some water moving thru the middle of the mass which can help the flow and keep the water movement thru the mass. YMMV

I trimmed mine back about a couple months ago and you can hardly tell I did anything to it.

cjrudy · Mar 25, 2014

I have a 6500k LED bulb over the fuge.

PO4 is .03-.05
NO3 is about .5 ppm

cjrudy · Mar 25, 2014

Thanks for the suggestions, I may try that air stone trick

Reefing Madness · Mar 25, 2014

Its supposed to grow dark green and in a tight ball, thsts what it looks like. If its lighter its got all the nutrients out of the water column and barely hanging on.

cjrudy · Mar 25, 2014

Its the tight ball that does not happen, it falls apart, yet very heavy. Hard to describe, almost think I should scrap and start fresh.

Keithcorals · Mar 25, 2014

It will look light green and grow much less dense when it grows rapidly I've done numerous experiments and know this for a fact. 65K LEDs should work fine depending on how many and how much light it's actually getting. Dark green coloration is not necessarily bad but falling apart is definitely a sign that it's unhealthy.

How many hours a day are you running the light?
I would recommend cutting the light back to possibly as little as 4 to 5 hours a day

Keithcorals · Mar 25, 2014

Thought I would show some proof that I really do have chaeto growing. my system is really low nutrient and I only run the light for the chaeto around four hours a day. I still get decent growth but when I run the light longer it becomes unhealthy I very much believe like I said that you need light phosphate and nitrates and if you remove any of the three you have problems. To compensate for my low nutrients I reduced the photoperiod and seem to get good results.

Pic taken today