Is one of these elements killing my chaeto?

[Woolwich01]

Good evening,

Normally I have nice dense chaeto in my fuge, but after dosing these element per Triton's instructions it starts dying off. K, I, B, Sr, Mn, Ni, and Zn. I've done this dosing three times over the course of four of five months after sending in my icp tests. Each time the chaeto thins out and develops a brown algae on the top of the chaeto. The brown algae spreads over the course of a few days.

I've done three day black outs each time, increased the flow on the surface of the water and this seems to fix the problem. What I'm hoping is that someone can tell me is what is causing this from the above list. I would like to skip dosing it in the future or at least reduce the amount.

Nothing else in the tank seems to be affected negatively by the dosing.

 

[Woolwich01]

Good evening,

Normally I have nice dense chaeto in my fuge, but after dosing these element per Triton's instructions it starts dying off. K, I, B, Sr, Mn, Ni, and Zn. I've done this dosing three times over the course of four of five months after sending in my icp tests. Each time the chaeto thins out and develops a brown algae on the top of the chaeto. The brown algae spreads over the course of a few days.

I've done three day black outs each time, increased the flow on the surface of the water and this seems to fix the problem. What I'm hoping is that someone can tell me is what is causing this from the above list. I would like to skip dosing it in the future or at least reduce the amount.

Nothing else in the tank seems to be affected negatively by the dosing.

Any ideas

 

[Dan_P]

Good evening,

Normally I have nice dense chaeto in my fuge, but after dosing these element per Triton's instructions it starts dying off. K, I, B, Sr, Mn, Ni, and Zn. I've done this dosing three times over the course of four of five months after sending in my icp tests. Each time the chaeto thins out and develops a brown algae on the top of the chaeto. The brown algae spreads over the course of a few days.

I've done three day black outs each time, increased the flow on the surface of the water and this seems to fix the problem. What I'm hoping is that someone can tell me is what is causing this from the above list. I would like to skip dosing it in the future or at least reduce the amount.

Nothing else in the tank seems to be affected negatively by the dosing.

In what frame is all this happening? How do the events unfold?

 

[Woolwich01]

It starts to feel thinner and limper, it that makes sense, after about 24 hrs. I flip the chaeto everyday so I am use to the look and feel of it. After about 48 hour, some brown algae starts forming on the top and if I leave it go for a few days it starts to spread through out it from top down. Plus little pieces start breaking off to get caught in the coarse foam in between chambers.

I just finished a three day black out and I am waiting to see if it bounces back like the other two or three times I have gone through this.

 

[Dan_P]

It starts to feel thinner and limper, it that makes sense, after about 24 hrs. I flip the chaeto everyday so I am use to the look and feel of it. After about 48 hour, some brown algae starts forming on the top and if I leave it go for a few days it starts to spread through out it from top down. Plus little pieces start breaking off to get caught in the coarse foam in between chambers.

I just finished a three day black out and I am waiting to see if it bounces back like the other two or three times I have gone through this.

The way you describe the dying Chaeto resembles how my Caulerpa and other macro algae weaken and die off periodically. In my case they start to look weak and then look like they’ve been placed in boiling water. In between the weak look and the limp vegetable look, all sorts of things start to colonize the algae. It is around the time of the limp vegetable stage that sand starts to collect on the algae and cyanobacteria starts to grow around if I am slow on cleaning up.

Assuming that the additive is quickly diluted, it seems that you are not inadvertently poisoning the Chaeto with a very salty solution. That doesn’t rule out the possibility that the additive contains something noxious to macro algae. It would be informative to test the additive on another bunch of Chaeto.

Do you think the brown alga is cyanobacteria?

So, your additive should not be killing off your alga. If it isn’t the additive, think carefully about what you are doing 1-2 weeks before the addition that might be detrimental to Chaeto.

 

[Woolwich01]

The way you describe the dying Chaeto resembles how my Caulerpa and other macro algae weaken and die off periodically. In my case they start to look weak and then look like they’ve been placed in boiling water. In between the weak look and the limp vegetable look, all sorts of things start to colonize the algae. It is around the time of the limp vegetable stage that sand starts to collect on the algae and cyanobacteria starts to grow around if I am slow on cleaning up.

Assuming that the additive is quickly diluted, it seems that you are not inadvertently poisoning the Chaeto with a very salty solution. That doesn’t rule out the possibility that the additive contains something noxious to macro algae. It would be informative to test the additive on another bunch of Chaeto.

Do you think the brown alga is cyanobacteria?

So, your additive should not be killing off your alga. If it isn’t the additive, think carefully about what you are doing 1-2 weeks before the addition that might be detrimental to Chaeto.

Thank you for the reply.

I’ll try your suggestion with the element dosing on some other chaeto in another container and see if I can duplicate it when I have time. I’m thinking of a five gallon bucket with a heater, and a light.

I think it is cyano. It looks like a brown version of the purple cyano I have had in another tank.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I do not know how much of what you have dosed or what the starting levels were, but an alternative to thinking any of those hurt the chaeto, and aside from coincidence, is that one or more of those additives may have spurred another organism (say, corals or the cyano you mention) to grow better, taking up a needed nutrient such as iron, N, P, etc.

 

[landlubber]

yea tough to pin point but my chaeto seems to live by feast or famine despite having no measurable water chemistry changes.
I had a spell where it grew thick and healthy then 90% of it got pale, fragment into inch long threads which was a mess for a couple of weeks and then completely recover. I've also had an issue where the chaeto got very dark green and tighten up to the point it looked dead... then it recovered lol.
my system uses its refugium as my sole method of nutrient reduction so one safeguard I did implement was to diversify the type of macro algae I use in the event that the chaeto decides its not happy again and it seems to have been a good decision as both are doing great and the red dragon macro doesn't seem as temperamental.

 

[rkpetersen]

90% of it got pale, fragment into inch long threads which was a mess for a couple of weeks and then completely recover.

I've had this happen a couple of times. As soon as it starts I pull all of the affected chaeto before it can leach all of the stored nutrients back into the water. The cause is unclear to me. Could be related to either a brief run of carbon dosing or adding fresh carbon to a reactor. I haven't captured any test results that would point me one way or the other.

 

[landlubber]

I've had this happen a couple of times. As soon as it starts I pull all of the affected chaeto before it can leach all of the stored nutrients back into the water. The cause is unclear to me. Could be related to either a brief run of carbon dosing or adding fresh carbon to a reactor. I haven't captured any test results that would point me one way or the other.

interesting.
I actually had a ICP test done right before it happened last time and the result came back stating that there was no iodine present in the system. whether or not that was a momentary issue or a continual thing I don't know but I haven't had macro algae issues since either.