Chaeto Not Growing

[Amateur Reefer]

The sea lettuce in my fuge does very well, but every time I put some Chaeto in there it disintegrates within a matter of days? Any one know what could be the cause? Lighting the fuge with an A360 and dosing phyto.

My current guess is that the Chaeto gets stuck under sea lettuce which blocks light?

 

[lapin]

Usually its lack of nutrients and lack of light

 

[John08007]

Agree, whats your nitrate test at?

 

[Amateur Reefer]

My nutrients are actually high. Phosphate is .19 and Nitrate is 8.2 (both checked via Hanna)

 

[SMSREEF]

It could be elements. Have you done an ICP?

 

[Amateur Reefer]

My last ICP was a while ago (January), but I had the same problem then. Here are the results

 

[Reef man 89]

Brightwell cheato gro is some great stuff works like a charm. Had same problem till I dosed that. It has all the elements the cheato needs To grow nice and thick

 

[Amateur Reefer]

Brightwell cheato gro is some great stuff works like a charm. Had same problem till I dosed that. It has all the elements the cheato needs To grow nice and thick

Thanks, I'll give this a try.

Is the consensus that sea lettuce can grow together in the refugium without the sea lettuce out-competing the chaeto?

 

[Pistondog]

Thanks, I'll give this a try.

Is the consensus that sea lettuce can grow together in the refugium without the sea lettuce out-competing the chaeto?

Not to curse you, but even gha in the fuge removes nutrients right?

 

[Amateur Reefer]

Not to curse you, but even gha in the fuge removes nutrients right?

Are you saying that there could be gha that is outcompeting the chaeto but not the lettuce? My issue is lettuce thrives, Chaeto dies.

 

[Pistondog]

Are you saying that there could be gha that is outcompeting the chaeto but not the lettuce? My issue is lettuce thrives, Chaeto dies.

No, im saying, I dont care whats in the fuge as long as its doing the job, gha, lettuce or chaeto.
The chaeto does the heavy lifting, but other algae may be helping.
In your case you might need some iron. Follow your plan and add the brightwell.
Make sure the chaeto is close to the water surface for best par.

 

[SMSREEF]

I use chaetogrow as well, but your ICP from when you had chaeto dying off in January doesn’t seem like element deficiency. But that was January and a lot can happen in 9 months. Maybe another ICP is in order.

 

[minus9]

Nutrients are only a small part of macro algae growth, trace elements are probably more important for their long term growth and health.
I've always had good results growing chaeto with weekly water changes and having detectable nutrients, but nothing like dosing daily trace elements on the reef moonshiners program. I would do another ICP test and would suggest ATI, as they test for more elements, plus RO.

 

[Amateur Reefer]

Thanks. I’m (attempting) to run a triton system, so water changes aren’t the best answer.

 

[Tou]

I had a problem before where GHA outgrew chaeto and eventually chaeto turn to mush. I had to literally save the rest by manually remove GHA to let chaeto grow again.

 

[Uncle99]

Iron...

 

[Amateur Reefer]

Iron...

?

 

[Soryu]

?

Iron would be my first guess too. All but one of my chaeto growth issues were from iron being depleted. Now your January tests indicate it's 10x or more greater than ocean levels. Were you having any chaeto issues back when you did that last test?

 

[Amateur Reefer]

Sure was. I have never been able to get this system to grow chaeto.

 

[SinCityRee4r]

?

I was also told lack of Iron by someone, as I cant grow chaeto either