chaeto melted after a great run

[salty joe]

I bought a half cup of chaeto in July 2021 and it grew like crazy until recently it crashed into a pile of mush. I was removing between a softball and volleyball sized gob every week. Phosphate and nitrate has never been detected in my ATI results but there must be some as I have quite the hair algae crop in my tank and the chaeto grew like mad. It did put a dent in the hair algae and I was just getting animals that eat hair algae. I didn't change anything. Any ideas?

 

[RedReefer]

Chaeto is starving of either nutrients or light.

 

[salty joe]

I dose iron but like I said phosphate and nitrate were not detected from the getgo. I sure wish all the hair algae in my tank would have turned to mush. Not hurting for light, I have 100W LED grow light.

Is there anything besides iron I should dose?

 

[GARRIGA]

Plants need more than nitrates and phosphates. As mentioned. Iron can be depleted as well as other components which might need an ICP to notice.

 

[exnisstech]

If N and P are zero I would start by raising them. I have had chaeto in my sumps simce I started the hobby 7 years ago and I have never dosed anything to grow cheato. The only time I had problems growing it was when nutrients bottomed out.

 

[salty joe]

I feed the fish shellfish and pellets, so I know nutrients are going in. I wonder if I need to dose something besides iron.

 

[salty joe]

I found maybe a tablespoon of Chaeto along with some globby algae and put it in my algae scrubber after I cleaned things up last week. Still a few strands of Cheato but the globby algae is growing faster. I like the Cheato because it's so clean and wiry but I'm thinking who cares if my export looks like snot, as long as I'm exporting.

 

[WallyTime7]

I feed the fish shellfish and pellets, so I know nutrients are going in. I wonder if I need to dose something besides iron.

Feed your fish more and lower the length of light in your fuge. Decrease export and increase nitrates.

 

[Pistondog]

Try to raise the chaeto up closer to the water surface to maximize par.
If algae is growing, the tank has some nutrients.

 

[WallyTime7]

Try to raise the chaeto up closer to the water surface to maximize par.
If algae is growing, the tank has some nutrients.

The lights haven’t changed since he’s grown it. Nutrients will always change. Chaeto dies out when other nusaince jumps at the opportunity with low nutrient levels - in his case, zero levels

 

[salty joe]

Feed your fish more and lower the length of light in your fuge. Decrease export and increase nitrates.

As soon as I get enough algae in the scrubber, I'll export. I don't want to decrease exports, I want to increase exports to out compete the algae in my tank.

The lights haven’t changed since he’s grown it. Nutrients will always change. Chaeto dies out when other nusaince jumps at the opportunity with low nutrient levels - in his case, zero levels

Nutrients might be undetected but they can't be zero. I' gonna let whatever grows in the algae filter to grow. I recently got a few urchins and snails but I need some fish that eat algae to help out with my display.