Chaeto Trouble

Brandon Rush · Jun 7, 2018

So I'm new to the whole chaeto scene, and need a little help. I'm currently running a H80 Tuna Flora on grow mode for 12 hours a day opposite my display light. For some reason the chaeto does not seem to be growing, and just maintaining it's size. I'm wondering if it's not getting enough light or nutrients? I feed pretty heavily and my phosphates and nitrates are still present. I also have a small power head to keep the flow in the sump. Current sump size is 20 gallons. Can anyone help? It seems I have quite a bit of brown/hair algae in the sunp that I have to periodically clean.

lapin · Jun 7, 2018

If its new to the sump and you have hair algae, it might be short on nutrients. It will take off, if you keep removing the hair algae. By removing the hair algae you are removing phosphates and nitrates which is why you are growing chaeto.

Brandon Rush · Jun 7, 2018

lapin said:
If its new to the sump and you have hair algae, it might be short on nutrients. It will take off, if you keep removing the hair algae. By removing the hair algae you are removing phosphates and nitrates which is why you are growing chaeto.

It's been in there about two months, not sure what's taking the chaeto so long to take off. Does the hair algae grow quicker than the cheato.

lapin · Jun 7, 2018

One can be a a problem for another. Hair is very good at crowding out other things. It grows faster and chaeto may not grow much for you if you have had it 2 months. You might be successful if you have enough chaeto to block the light so the hair cannot photosynthesize. I had trouble growing it in my fuge once. I switched to a different matting macro algae and it grew like crazy smothering every thing else.

Brandon Rush · Jun 7, 2018

lapin said:
One can be a a problem for another. Hair is very good at crowding out other things. It grows faster and chaeto may not grow much for you if you have had it 2 months. You might be successful if you have enough chaeto to block the light so the hair cannot photosynthesize. I had trouble growing it in my fuge once. I switched to a different matting macro algae and it grew like crazy smothering every thing else.

That may be my next course than is to get more cheato to block out the light

Reefer Reboot · Jun 7, 2018

Two things that helped with my chaeto is tumbling and Stomatella snails. I started with it tumbling but during some rearranging I crowded the chamber with other stuff preventing it from tumbling. The under side started to disintegrate causing an increase in nitrates. Now that it's tumbling again it grows quickly. At first I also had some GHA on it but then the Stomatella snails found their way to it and have since kept it very clean. They'll eat the GHA but don't bother the chaeto.

mcarroll · Jun 7, 2018

Brandon Rush said:
For some reason the chaeto does not seem to be growing, and just maintaining it's size. I'm wondering if it's not getting enough light or nutrients? I feed pretty heavily and my phosphates and nitrates are still present.

I'm guessing the tank is very new....in which case you probably don'y need the chaeto at all. Don't force it.

Define "present" for nitrates and phosphates. Near-zero doesn't count for a fast-grower.

How are corals doing?

(Tank pic?)

Richard the Reefer · Jun 7, 2018

How you make rotate though?

Brandon Rush · Jun 7, 2018

Reefer Reboot said:
Two things that helped with my chaeto is tumbling and Stomatella snails. I started with it tumbling but during some rearranging I crowded the chamber with other stuff preventing it from tumbling. The under side started to disintegrate causing an increase in nitrates. Now that it's tumbling again it grows quickly. At first I also had some GHA on it but then the Stomatella snails found their way to it and have since kept it very clean. They'll eat the GHA but don't bother the chaeto.

I'll have to see if the LFS has any, thanks for the input.

Brandon Rush · Jun 7, 2018

mcarroll said:
I'm guessing the tank is very new....in which case you probably don'y need the chaeto at all. Don't force it.

Define "present" for nitrates and phosphates. Near-zero doesn't count for a fast-grower.

How are corals doing?

(Tank pic?)

This one's a year old, so I wouldn't say very new. Everything is looking great, my main reason right now for it is copepods

Brandon Rush · Jun 7, 2018

Richard the Reefer said:
How you make rotate though?

I use a real small power head 240gph

mcarroll · Jun 7, 2018

Brandon Rush said:
s

Looks VERY clean with the exception of cyano. I don't see coraline algae or even signs of green algae.

This along with your chaeto performance tells me the tank might be nutrient limited.

A 1 year old tank is still a baby, BTW.

If it was started with dead rock, then it may still be growing through it's "uglies" phase, in fact.

Are you testing for nitrates and phosphates? If so, what have readings been like so far?

Brandon Rush · Jun 8, 2018

mcarroll said:
Looks VERY clean with the exception of cyano. I don't see coraline algae or even signs of green algae.

This along with your chaeto performance tells me the tank might be nutrient limited.

A 1 year old tank is still a baby, BTW. If it was started with dead rock, then it may still be growing through it's "uglies" phase, in fact.

Are you testing for nitrates and phosphates? If so, what have readings been like so far?

I started with live rock and yea I gotta clean that cyano out. I test both, my nitrates were 0.25ppm and my nitrates were around 5. The numbers have stayed pretty consta

mcarroll · Jun 8, 2018

If those numbers are typical and you started with live rock, then you should be in good shape....cyano ought to come and go as a phase of the uglies. Remove it as needed according to your own judgfement, but ultimately it'll receed on it's own...and generally it doesn't hurt anything if it doesn't bloom into epic proportions. (Which is really really rare.)

Small, occasional patches are common in pretty much all tanks though.....and what you have in the pic is barely perceptible....hardly a problem.

Mark Gray · Jun 8, 2018

I am going to be honest. I could not get my cheato to grow with the H80 I sold it and bought an H380 now I must keep an eye on my nutrients or my Cheato will starve and so will the corals I had a bad problem with GHA before I bought the H380 and now it is gone. It did not happen over night but it did take care of it. Good Luck

JimP · Jun 9, 2018

Agreed the H380 is the key. My Cheato has never tumbled, I turn it by hand every day or two.

Brandon Rush · Jun 9, 2018

Mark Gray said:
I am going to be honest. I could not get my cheato to grow with the H80 I sold it and bought an H380 now I must keep an eye on my nutrients or my Cheato will starve and so will the corals I had a bad problem with GHA before I bought the H380 and now it is gone. It did not happen over night but it did take care of it. Good Luck

I had a feeling it might be the light. How big is your sump?

Brandon Rush · Jun 9, 2018

mcarroll said:
If those numbers are typical and you started with live rock, then you should be in good shape....cyano ought to come and go as a phase of the uglies. Remove it as needed according to your own judgfement, but ultimately it'll receed on it's own...and generally it doesn't hurt anything if it doesn't bloom into epic proportions. (Which is really really rare.)

Small, occasional patches are common in pretty much all tanks though.....and what you have in the pic is barely perceptible....hardly a problem.

Thanks for your input

Mark Gray · Jun 9, 2018

Brandon Rush said:
I had a feeling it might be the light. How big is your sump?

On the one I have running right now it is a 55 gallon tank and a trigger 39 sump, I took the filter socks out and put the skimmer in the second section my new build will have the same light the Tank is cycling right now