Cheato stoped growing

[jorge0912]

So my Cheato was doing great growing constantly all the time I would even give bags of it all the time to my friends and local aquarium but now it’s been a month and now growth at all...
i even tried feeding more added a couple of more fish to my tank and nothing is there anything I can do to help it out phosphates are at 0.04 never changed nitrates between 3-6
Light has not changed
Anything that could help it go back to growing

 

[AlgaeBarn]

So my Cheato was doing great growing constantly all the time I would even give bags of it all the time to my friends and local aquarium but now it’s been a month and now growth at all...
i even tried feeding more added a couple of more fish to my tank and nothing is there anything I can do to help it out phosphates are at 0.04 never changed nitrates between 3-6
Light has not changed
Anything that could help it go back to growing

Have you changed anything with regards to your display tank lighting, flow, etc? How often are you doing water changes?

 

[W1ngz]

I've read that low iron levels can slow or stop growth in chaeto.

 

[fishguy212]

I had the exact same problem. I basically stopped changing my phosguard and let phosphate level rise moderately. Also i started to feed more to my fish and corals. Within a month it was growing crazy fast.

Then i got my phosphate level under control to un detectable and stopped overfeeding fish. All good now.

 

[jorge0912]

I didn’t changed anything everything same once a month 20 percent water change.. lighting the same
And don’t run any pho’s guard or any kind of phosphate remover...
just carbon...
I started feeding more been doing it for a month but nothing ...
i have read on the iron but would that cause a algae outbreak ?

 

[jorge0912]

Cheato used to be a light green color now is dark green

 

[Daddy-o]

I think there are a lot of reefers (me included)that find growing chaeto is harder than growing coral.
Cheers! Mark

 

[jorge0912]

I think there are a lot of reefers (me included)that find growing chaeto is harder than growing coral.
Cheers! Mark

You are right in that
i tried everything even cleaned my sump to spot less and still nothing...Only thing I can think of is iron but don’t even know how to use or if it will encoursge algae growth

 

[Daddy-o]

You are right in that
i tried everything even cleaned my sump to spot less and still nothing...Only thing I can think of is iron but don’t even know how to use or if it will encoursge algae growth

I gave up on chaeto and put in a second skimmer.

 

[jorge0912]

Do you guys think iron would help and if yes which one should I buy ?

 

[vonjankmon]

Maybe try something like this: Chaeto Fertilizer

It's possible that your chaeto finished pulling the last of the iron or some other required mineral out of your tank and needs it to keep growing. Without other changes that's all I can think of that could cause it to stop growing so suddenly.

 

[W1ngz]

The answer to all things chemistry in a reef is usually: Randy Holmes Farley wrote an article about it.

Like this that I found by searching... https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/s...-gallon-system-running-chaeto-reactor.358350/

Here's the one for iron. https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/8/chemistry

 

[muzikalmatt]

As others have suggested it could be depleted iron. I've used Brightwell's Ferrion in the past with some success but I only used half of the recommended dose so as to avoid overdosing. Once my chaeto started growing I stopped dosing the iron and haven't needed to since.

 

[jorge0912]

I will troprdering the iron suplement and do what u did only half