Need Help with Chaeto Dying

[Biglurr54]

I need some help with my tank. I have high nitrate and phosphate after battling really low nitrate and po4. The source is from my Chaeto and Caulerpa dying off. My corals were growing well and they have recently slowed down. I am constantly turning my calcium reactor down as my alk continues to climb. (The reactor was stable for a month then corals stopped up taking calc and alk). I was growing Chaeto and Caulerpa as my primary nutrient export. I was pulling out huge bunches of both weekly to ever other week. My nitrates were hovering right around detectable levels (2-5 Salifert) and my po4 was hovering 0.01 to 0.03 (Hanna ULR). I had a dino battle going on for about 4 months. I was tying to slowly raise Nitrate and PO4 to combat the dinos via excessive feeding. After 2 months of excessive feeding, I tried Vibrant. The vibrant took 4 weeks of dosing and the dinos disappeared. At this time, my Caulerpa and chaeto started to fall apart. I have green and small red cyano patches all over.


Currently my tank has Nitrates of 60 and PO4 of 0.18. My Caulerpa is just about all gone and my chaeto is a tiny ball that breaks apart if you touch it. I ran ICP test and here are the results. My iodine is extremely low and my mag is slightly elevated at 1510.

//lab.atiaquaristik.com/share/a2e8ef71c67744ec43b9

Why is my chaeto and Caulerpa dying off and cyano taking over?

I’m planning on doing 3 25% back to back water changes (total volume is 220g and mixing station is 60g.) Then I will start 5 gallon a day auto water changes. (Previously stopped months ago to help raise nitrate and po4.)

Any help or wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

 

[reacclimating 2 the hobby]

Normally i'd say Vibrant is probably starving your chaeto and caulerpa. I've also read a lot of people have cyano from using Vibrant as well. But if ICP test shows 60 for Nitrates that can't be the case.

 

[ryeguyy84]

What kind of light are you using for the fuge?

 

[Biglurr54]

Plenty of nitrate and po4 for the algaes. Something is limiting them though. There isnt much algae growth in the tank either. There is some dusting on the glass after 48 hours. ICP confirmed my own testing. I do weekly Nitrate and po4 testing. They are steady at Nitrate at 60 and PO4 at 0.18. I have great polyp extension on the corals in the morning. But no new growth. I stopped Vibrant as soon as the Dinos started to fade. Its been 2-3 weeks since any vibrant was added.

 

[Biglurr54]

The Fuge light is an amazon 300w led grow light. Its set on for 14 hours. Opposite of the display light. The fuge is 25 gallons with a jebao RW-8 for tumbling. I has harvesting large hunks of green chaeto (1/2 a basketball size) every other week leading up to the vibrant dosing. The light is a proven grower!

 

[Neo Jeo]

vibrant is the reason your cheto is dying off. Some people take out the cheto when dosing vibrant . Also after I does vibrant I got red slime alage within a week. Then I used Chem-Clean to get rid of that.

Then I got Dyno lol. My nitrates and pho got low due to excessive water changes to get the chem clean out, it made my skimmer go nuts for weeks.

Now my tank is fine

 

[hyla84]

This light for a 100 liters refugium is OK? My chaeto is dying as well

 

[reefs+waves]

My guess would be the vibrant might’ve disturbed the chaeto, I would do a couple water changes and maybe get a new batch of chaeto, sometimes when it stops growing it never really starts again. Hope u figure it out

 

[Biglurr54]

vibrant is the reason your cheto is dying off. Some people take out the cheto when dosing vibrant . Also after I does vibrant I got red slime alage within a week. Then I used Chem-Clean to get rid of that.

Then I got Dyno lol. My nitrates and pho got low due to excessive water changes to get the chem clean out, it made my skimmer go nuts for weeks.

Now my tank is fine

Does water changes take the vibrant bacteria out of the water? Or is it in the tank for good? Im not worries about the cyano. Thats easy to beat with waiting it out. I have beat it in every tank i have had. I just want to get my chaeto back to life.

When can I expect the chaeto to bounce back? How can I remove the Vibrant from the system?

 

[Neo Jeo]

Does water changes take the vibrant bacteria out of the water? Or is it in the tank for good? Im not worries about the cyano. Thats easy to beat with waiting it out. I have beat it in every tank i have had. I just want to get my chaeto back to life.

When can I expect the chaeto to bounce back? How can I remove the Vibrant from the system?

If you want your cheto to grow again ether cut back on your vibrant dosing so every 2 weeks or stop dosing it. It will go away on its own.

 

[NS Mike D]

from experience, cheato doesn't need much light (although I am aware of the BRS experiments). Since plenty of nutrients are available, I'd agree the suspect is Vibrant.

 

[Iván Olalla]

The Vibrant may have disrupted the internal cell walls in the chaeto, i've seen similar effects on tanks from my local club. With your levels and light you should grow it without issues, but the algae you have is struggling... Take it out and put in a fresh batch of chaeto with a smaller photoperiod for the first weeks and that will do the trick. I think you're trying to save an already sick algae.

 

[reacclimating 2 the hobby]

I'm shipping some Chaeto this weekend if you would like some.

 

[Dan_P]

I need some help with my tank. I have high nitrate and phosphate after battling really low nitrate and po4. The source is from my Chaeto and Caulerpa dying off. My corals were growing well and they have recently slowed down. I am constantly turning my calcium reactor down as my alk continues to climb. (The reactor was stable for a month then corals stopped up taking calc and alk). I was growing Chaeto and Caulerpa as my primary nutrient export. I was pulling out huge bunches of both weekly to ever other week. My nitrates were hovering right around detectable levels (2-5 Salifert) and my po4 was hovering 0.01 to 0.03 (Hanna ULR). I had a dino battle going on for about 4 months. I was tying to slowly raise Nitrate and PO4 to combat the dinos via excessive feeding. After 2 months of excessive feeding, I tried Vibrant. The vibrant took 4 weeks of dosing and the dinos disappeared. At this time, my Caulerpa and chaeto started to fall apart. I have green and small red cyano patches all over.


Currently my tank has Nitrates of 60 and PO4 of 0.18. My Caulerpa is just about all gone and my chaeto is a tiny ball that breaks apart if you touch it. I ran ICP test and here are the results. My iodine is extremely low and my mag is slightly elevated at 1510.

//lab.atiaquaristik.com/share/a2e8ef71c67744ec43b9

Why is my chaeto and Caulerpa dying off and cyano taking over?

I’m planning on doing 3 25% back to back water changes (total volume is 220g and mixing station is 60g.) Then I will start 5 gallon a day auto water changes. (Previously stopped months ago to help raise nitrate and po4.)

Any help or wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

You don’t say how long your macro algae were doing fine. One possibility is that the system became PO4 limited, killing off the vigorous growth. I dose my fish only system with PO4, otherwise the Caulerpa would zero out the PO4 in a couple of days.

Cyanobacteria seem to take advantage of decaying organic matter, or rather, the waste from heterotrophic bacteria digesting the organic matter. To make matters worse, the cyanobacteria release metabolites that the heterotrophic bacteria can use. This mutual feeding cycle seems to make cyanobacteria films very persistent.

 

[Biglurr54]

The macros were alive for 3 years. The chaeto has thrived. The nitrate and poor climbed out of control as the chaeto died off. It's not a lack of nutrient issue. I am doing large water changes as we speak and I have new cheato on the way.

 

[Biglurr54]

Current shot of the display

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Might be the vibrant, and I'm not sure how long that effect will last (they do not say what it is exactly (I've asked) and they may not even know how it works).

Iron and manganese dosing can also help macroalgae.