Hair Algae Outcompeting Chaeto

[Jeroen1975]

Hello, there are many animals in the hobby that are very active and have small stomachs. These fish need multiple small feeding throughout the day. Feeding every three days is no where enough.

True, but are those animals likely to be a good choice to keep if you are not able to face or accept the consequences of heavy feeding?

 

[Cichlid Dad]

True, but are those animals likely to be a good choice to keep if you are not able to face or accept the consequences of heavy feeding?

The post was to not give a blanket statement that you can feed all tanks every three days.

 

[paragrouper]

Good thing I live in Washington, lol, I just added it to my new refugium, along with red grape and dragons breath.. way nicer looking than chaeto.

That’s a nice looking refugium!

 

[Cichlid Dad]

That’s a nice looking refugium!

Thank you ! I love it

 

[merkmerk73]

I had this exact problem for about 7 months. I over harvested my cheato and lost it. Then replaced it with a coarser thicker type and it is a slow Grower and always lost. Then I read an article about different types of cheato growth rates. Apparently if your struggling get the very fine thin hair like cheato is grows very fast so can put compete. I looked for months and finally found some up here in Canada and I bought a huge bunch and split it to make sure I had two colonies haha. Not needed it has grown like wildfire. My nutrients are great. So see if you can identify what type of cheato you have. If made a world of difference for me! I will look for the article to post as well.

This is exactly what happened to me

I kept buying algae barn chaeto and it never grows and just withers

Then I got some reef pro chaeto and it was the thin hair kind - almost felt fake

It exploded and the thick stuff grew too

But I rotated a few times and over harvested and now I’m having gha growing in it

I think I’ll toss it and restart

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

This is exactly what happened to me

I kept buying algae barn chaeto and it never grows and just withers

Then I got some reef pro chaeto and it was the thin hair kind - almost felt fake

It exploded and the thick stuff grew too

But I rotated a few times and over harvested and now I’m having gha growing in it

I think I’ll toss it and restart

Mine is similar to what you describe.

I've had it get covered in gha a couple times the last 2 months. I just shake the hell out of it and flip it over every couple days, it comes off. Sometimes I trim off the gha portions.

 

[Tritie]

Out of curiosity Are you heavy feeding and/or what is your schedule? As for chaeto contact our site chat sometime, maybe we can help per Canada as we are a licensed agriculture facility.

@floridareeflabs I managed to get some Angel Hair chaeto (or what I imagine is Angel Hair chaeto) here in Canada. It recently came out of QT and I added it to my tank last Sunday. So far, it doesn't seem to be doing much though it is rather new. What light intensity/spectrum/photo period do you recommend?