Chaeto won't grow

[jd371]

I'm on my second attempt at growing this stuff and I'm failing. I started with 2 baseball size balls of chaeto a few weeks ago using an LED grow light from Amazon on a 12 hour on, 12 hour off schedule. It didn't grow and just fell apart within a week.
I started again a couple of weeks ago with a half pound of chaeto using a 75w 65ook cfl bulb I bought from Home Depot because I've read that people were having success with this type of bulb. This time I put it on a 14 hour on and 10 hour off schedule, but it starting to fall apart again and not grow. There is some flow in the refugium from the skimmer compartment next to it and the bulbs I used don't put off any heat, but I do have the heater in the refugium. Besides the chaeto I have some dry rock rubble with a few pieces of live mixed in. I'm in the cyano stage of a new tank (tank is 2 months old).
Here are my latest results from this past weekend.
NH3-0
No2-0
No3-0.2
Ph-8.1
Alk-7.6
Ca-155
Mg-640
Sg-1.024-25
Po3-0.25
Temp. 78-80
I plan on doing a bigger water change this weekend to see if I can get Ca and Mg within range.

 

[Reef_a_holiks]

I had the same problem with my cheato. what worked for me was putting a bigger piece of cheato on top of more light. I put a piece that almost filled up my entire refugium. added a 65ook flood light from homedepot along with a 5700k led strip and my cheato has explosive growth ever since. I can now trim to a small piece and itll fill up my refugium in about 2 weeks.

 

[Reef_a_holiks]

ive also read cases were people had their ATO line going into the same chamber of the cheato causing constant mini hyposalinity spikes witch killed off the cheato. Not sure where you have your ATO line but worth check out

 

[jd371]

ATO line is the last chamber with the return pump. The last chaeto I put in the refugium was about 3/4 the size of the chamber it was in. I know there is enough nutrients in the tank because I have some cyano in the tank so I know the chaeto is not starving.

 

[gaz]

you might need more flow over the chaeto

 

[jd371]

you might need more flow over the chaeto

There's a slot from the skimmer section that has good flow through the center of the refugium, but it does push the chaeto into the corner. I'll get more flow in there to get it moving around more. Thanks

 

[jd371]

Okay, so I put a PH in there to give it more flow and all it did was suck the chaeto to it and in time I can see the PH clogging up. Another thing I noticed is the chaeto is bunching up on the rim of the divider and slowing the flow into the return chamber. As soon as I removed the chaeto the level went up in the return and once the chaeto bunched up again the level would drop. I'm thinking of not using chaeto at all now. Is there another direction I could go without using chaeto? I'm just looking for some kind of nutrient export and a place for pods to populate. Besides the chaeto that's not growing and falling apart I have dry and some live rock rubble in there.

 

[gaz]

Chaeto is thought to be the easiest to grow that's why it's more commonly used but you could try a caulerpa something that doesn't go asexual. I feel your frustration because I couldn't grow the stuff either and just gave up I was told the most common reason why it won't grow is not enough flow but I tried everything.

 

[jd371]

Thanks gaz, what did you do with your refugium? I'm going to clean mine out this weekend when I do my wc and look for another option.

 

[gaz]

I'm running another skimmer in that area so I have two tunze 9410 and dose vodka but just changing over to vinegar to lower nitrate but in all honesty I would prefer a fuge for pods. I might give it another go one day but my tanks looking nice at the mo so what the heck. Let us know what you decide and how you get on

 

[twilliard]

I am going go have to go with the thought of chemistry.
It's a new tank and the numbers are off quite a bit.
It will grow but the balance needs to be met first.

 

[jd371]

Thanks guys. I'm going to clean out the chaeto this weekend and just stick with the rubble for the time being. I'm not too worried about nutrient export because there is other methods of doing that, more concerned about increasing the pod population. The plan is to get a Mandarin in the future.

 

[gaz]

That's why I would prefer a fuge.I've got two ruby reds in my tank that have been in for about a week but I do have lots of LR in a 1000ltr that's been up and running for 3 years just hope theres enough food for them, still add two packs of pods every week

 

[jd371]

Yeah, I planned for the future Mandarin. 1oolbs of rock in a 75gal.

 

[Harold Green]

I put chaeto in my refusium when I set up the system along with several other macro's and none grew much until the tank aged and the nitrates rose a little. Now the fuge is full of macro's.

 

[jd371]

Yeah, maybe I'll give it another shot in a few months. On a sad note I lost my cleaner shrimp today. I think it was because I stirred up some dead chaeto in the fuge last night trying to get more flow. I just tested and it looks like I got a small ammonia spike. I'm mixing some water tonight for a wc tomorrow.

 

[gaz]

This might sound a bit stupid but are 100% sure he hasn't shed? First time I saw this I thought my shrimp was dead as well but he popped up a couple of days later.

 

[jd371]

No definitely gone. He molted a few days ago. I think there were some dead spots in the fuge with decaying chaeto that I stirred up and released ammonia into the tank.
Going to do a complete clean out of the fuge and do a big wc today after work.

 

[Bryson.bobby]

Have you managed to get the chaeto growing now?

 

[PatW]

Your nitrates are a bit low for chaeto but as long as they don’t hit zero, you should be ok. Chaeto needs decent flow, phosphate and nitrates and a whole bunch of light far more than a HD little LED. I started with a cheap LED and it did fine. Then I turned up my DT lights and the chaeto died. If you have serious lighting in the display tank, you need serious lighting for your refugium.