Chaeto help

[Johnny bass07]

I put a softball size piece of chaeto in my refugium a couple of months ago and all it has done is shrunken up in tight curls and does not grow. Anyone know what could be causing this?

 

[Johnny bass07]

I did have it under a red ufo light and in the past week I put it under 5000k bulb with no change

 

[flagg37]

I’ve never had problems growing chaeto but I’ve heard of plenty of people that do the same thing I’ve done and it melts away on them. Lighting is always my first question. I’m not familiar with the one you mentioned but I always recommend not to skimp on the light. Schedule is another question. I ran mine reverse of the dt lights but there’s a lot of leeway with the schedule. Just remember too much (over 16 hours) isn’t good and too little (under 4 hours) is also bad. Next is water; are there nutrients in the water? If there’s near 0 no3 and po4 then it won’t thrive. Last thing I ask about is iron. I doubt your situation is a lack of iron but over longer periods it will deplete it if there’s no source of replenishment.

 

[Johnny bass07]

I run it on a reverse light cycle. Definitely not lacking in light. If anything might be too strong. I have never had any problems growing it in the past. Phosphate 0.03 and nitrate barely detectable. Could be low nutrients I guess.