Chaeto problem

Breakthecycle2 · Aug 13, 2017

Fritzhamer said:
That it's actively growing. There's an RC thread from 2008 where a guy talks about growing cheato in direct sunlight and under 400 watt 6500k metal halides. More light is faster growth which has less dense chloroplasts, according to the thread, which causes the lighter color.

Thank you. Even if it doesn't look like it is?

Fritzhamer · Aug 14, 2017

This is what mine looks like (with the grow lights off). As you can see the top is stringy and lightly colored and the lower shaded parts are dark green and curly.

Breakthecycle2 · Aug 15, 2017

Mine is def white. Im at a loss.

Fritzhamer · Aug 15, 2017

Have you pulled the gfo? Gfo would likely starve the cheato. Are you running anything else reactor wise?

Breakthecycle2 · Aug 15, 2017

Fritzhamer said:
Have you pulled the gfo? Gfo would likely starve the cheato. Are you running anything else reactor wise?

Also biopellets, but I was told to leave them going until the cheato kicks in.

Fritzhamer · Aug 15, 2017

No, you're starving the cheato. Cheato, especially under grow lights, grows really fast. Pull the bio pellets, gfo, don't dose carbon, get rid of all that stuff. That stuff can be great to starve algae but cheato is an algae too.

The cheato should start exploding with growth fueled by the nutrients in your tank. Its needs those nutrients though. The biopellets are competing with the cheato.

Rick Cavanaugh · Aug 15, 2017

I use $12 amazon cheapo led strip lights with about 300 gallon per hour. Grows well. How long is your photoperiod. Mine is 24 hours 7 days a week.

Breakthecycle2 · Aug 15, 2017

Rick Cavanaugh said:
I use $12 amazon cheapo led strip lights with about 300 gallon per hour. Grows well. How long is your photoperiod. Mine is 24 hours 7 days a week.

Mine is 24/7 as well. Maybe I should bump up the flow a little.

George Lopez · Aug 16, 2017

Breakthecycle2 said:
I cannot grow chaeto. Not only doesn't grow, but turns white after a little bit. I have it in a reactor i got about a week ago. Any ideas what's happening?

Mine started bleaching when i increased my lighting too much i wnt bsck to my old lights and it stopped bleaching. try reducing your lighting

Mengchhorn Chhun · Aug 16, 2017

well that hit to the point why my chaeto reactor not growing at all, i do run biopellet reactor along with a bag of gfo and carbon, those might stave my chaeto. I will try to turn those off and see what my chaeto going to be. Thx guy

hart24601 · Aug 16, 2017

Here is my experience. I made a chaeto reactor with red/blue grow lights from amazon and tlf 550. The chaeto kept getting lighter, and then white and brittle and then dissolved. I bought a kessil h380, same system no changes. The pH increased 0.2 units and it is going like mad. The PAR is about 1500 directly under the h380 with the light being 12" or so from the top of the water.

At one point the H380 fell down to about 4-6" over the chaeto, must have been 3k-4k par or more and the ball turned white. However on close inspection I don't think it's because it got too much light, but because it got too hot. The ball was very warm to the touch at that distance and I think it killed that spot. I have seen reports of chaeto on heaters dying as well. Although that is a lot of PAR so it could have been the combo, but that kessil does put out some heat.

I do know that under at least 1500PAR the chaeto will not be under too much light and I suspect my problem and yours, unless running 0 phosphate and nitrate, is too little light.

DMan · Aug 16, 2017

Pick an export method and stick with it. Either GFO and Biopellets, or Cheato. And if your setup is just a DIY reactor the size of a 2L pop bottle. And your lights are a string of Leds you picked up at Home Depot. Then stick with the Biopellets. Whenever I see threads like this that start with very little info, and then by post 25 another piece of the puzzle drops. I know there is more to the problem then is being told. So why not tell us everything and we can solve this issue.
Start with the reactor. How big is it (volume)
What lights are you using
We know they are Red/Blue (what are the spectrums?)
I believe flow and Light period have been covered.

The Red Sea color program uses Iron and Iodine ( I think bottle B) so that covers that.

How long have bio pellets been running. And finally what are the parameters for nutrients. Nitrate and Po4..

Breakthecycle2 · Aug 16, 2017

DMan said:
Pick an export method and stick with it. Either GFO and Biopellets, or Cheato. And if your setup is just a DIY reactor the size of a 2L pop bottle. And your lights are a string of Leds you picked up at Home Depot. Then stick with the Biopellets. Whenever I see threads like this that start with very little info, and then by post 25 another piece of the puzzle drops. I know there is more to the problem then is being told. So why not tell us everything and we can solve this issue.
Start with the reactor. How big is it (volume)
What lights are you using
We know they are Red/Blue (what are the spectrums?)
I believe flow and Light period have been covered.

The Red Sea color program uses Iron and Iodine ( I think bottle B) so that covers that.

How long have bio pellets been running. And finally what are the parameters for nutrients. Nitrate and Po4..

I believe all this has been posted.

These are the LED's https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LO55GC6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Reactor is a TLF 550
Biopellets have been running for over a year.
No fish in the tank
Nitrates were around 60 - no idea why. No fish for the last ten weeks
Phosphates .04

Mengchhorn Chhun · Aug 17, 2017

Ok so after i pull out my GFO and Carbon yesterday, i can see different on my Chaeto Reactor now. It been growing alots overnight with 16hours schedule under warm white strip light as shown from @MarineDepot

)

Fritzhamer · Aug 17, 2017

Nice, grow lights will give you even better results than white light.

Breakthecycle2 · Aug 17, 2017

Mengchhorn Chhun said:
Ok so after i pull out my GFO and Carbon yesterday, i can see different on my Chaeto Reactor now. It been growing alots overnight with 16hours schedule under warm white strip light as shown from @MarineDepot )

Overnight? I shut off pellets and GFO days ago and still have nothing.

Mengchhorn Chhun · Aug 17, 2017

Breakthecycle2 said:
Overnight? I shut off pellets and GFO days ago and still have nothing.

Mine just see the different in a night once i took that GFO and Carbon.

Grey Guy · Aug 17, 2017

If the light is too bright, would it help to leave more cheats in the reactor, so that some of it blocks more light? I'm just getting started with this reactor stuff.

Grey Guy · Aug 17, 2017

Is there a possibility that the cheats will eventually adapt to the light it's being given?

Fritzhamer · Aug 18, 2017

It will grow really, really dense in the reactor. Mine starts to grow up out of the water after all space has been exhausted. That being said you can really pack a ton of this stuff into a small space. In a small reactor I would expect it to fill in so much that it would start to restrict flow via head pressure. As for adapting to the light, yes in that plants can adapt quickly. In the way that if you take a house plant and put it in full sun it dies but if you slowly acclimate it, it will explode with growth in full sun.