Dying Chaeto

BaseballRuyle · Nov 8, 2020

Hey guys I could use a little help. I have a Red Sea reefer 425XL that’s been running for about 2 months. I’m going through my ugly stage right now with the rusty diatoms on everything. All fish and corals doing great. Just a little confused on why my chaeto is dying. Ammonia and nitrite are zero. My Hannah checker is reading zero for phosphates, but my API test for Nitrate is reading pretty high. I’ve heard stories about the API test lit not being too reliable, but just wondering why my chaeto would be dying if there’s nitrate for it to consume. I have a tunze refugium light running in my fuge from lights out to lights on overnight. Can anyone explain to me why my chaeto is dying? Please and thanks guys. Still learning

lapin · Nov 8, 2020

Sometimes it just will not grow in a tank. Could be lack of phosphate, iron, or other food it needs. Try ulva and see if it likes your tank.

Uncle99 · Nov 8, 2020

0 phosphate....that would do it.......

BaseballRuyle · Nov 8, 2020

Uncle99 said:
0 phosphate....that would do it.......

I feed heavy tho. That’s y I was surprised to see zero.

CMMorgan · Nov 8, 2020

BaseballRuyle said:
Hey guys I could use a little help. I have a Red Sea reefer 425XL that’s been running for about 2 months. I’m going through my ugly stage right now with the rusty diatoms on everything. All fish and corals doing great. Just a little confused on why my chaeto is dying. Ammonia and nitrite are zero. My Hannah checker is reading zero for phosphates, but my API test for Nitrate is reading pretty high. I’ve heard stories about the API test lit not being too reliable, but just wondering why my chaeto would be dying if there’s nitrate for it to consume. I have a tunze refugium light running in my fuge from lights out to lights on overnight. Can anyone explain to me why my chaeto is dying? Please and thanks guys. Still learning

I just went through this. I have a thread around here someplace.
The same thing happened to me... sky high nitrates --- zero phosphates.... dinos like mad. I was dosing, running chaeto.... no changes, high nitrates, more dinos.
Ultimately, I was informed by the school masters of been there done that on this forum that I can't dose to lower nitrate if I have no phosphate. If I have no phosphate, I can't sustain chaeto. I went dark for a few days and the dinos are gone.... for now. The chaeto is out as of today. I'm going to dose reefroids and neophos to raise the phosphate, then I'll put the chaeto back in and try to lower those nitrates.
I hope that is of help to you.

Pistondog · Nov 8, 2020

Get a high par horticulture light from amazon to maximize results

BaseballRuyle · Nov 8, 2020

CMMorgan said:
I just went through this. I have a thread around here someplace.
The same thing happened to me... sky high nitrates --- zero phosphates.... dinos like mad. I was dosing, running chaeto.... no changes, high nitrates, more dinos.
Ultimately, I was informed by the school masters of been there done that on this forum that I can't dose to lower nitrate if I have no phosphate. If I have no phosphate, I can't sustain chaeto. I went dark for a few days and the dinos are gone.... for now. The chaeto is out as of today. I'm going to dose reefroids and neophos to raise the phosphate, then I'll put the chaeto back in and try to lower those nitrates.
I hope that is of help to you.

So I feed AB+ and was thinking of putting in a little bit more in hopes of getting some phosphate

Uncle99 · Nov 8, 2020

You could carbon dose that nitrate downward to the 2-10ppm range. Carbon dosing has limited effect on phosphates. To match the nitrates at 2-10ppm, I might run say 0.02-.12ppm phosphate in the first year.