Two attempts at Chaeto reactor, two failures

[Letterkenny]

I’ve tried to run a Tunze 3181 reactor running off of a manifold but my chaeto keeps melting and dying. I did the first batch from algae barn with a 12 hour photo period and it ended up melting. I got a second batch from a local reefer and dosed a bottle of chaeto grow (per the instructions over time) and it still ended up melting and dying. With what I had left, I tried increasing the photo period to 20 hours and it turned white so will try the opposite and reducing to 4-8 hours. Any idea why it keeps dying? I dose ESV Bionic daily and have nutrients (last reading was 10ppm nitrate and 0.3ppm phosphate).

 

[BlennyTime]

How often are you doing water changes, and with what salt? Macroalgae needs some trace elements to grow.

 

[khmer_reefer]

Try dosing iron. that helps me.

 

[Letterkenny]

How often are you doing water changes, and with what salt? Macroalgae needs some trace elements to grow.

Every other week with tropic marin pro. It has trace elements as does the ESV Bionic I dose.

Try dosing iron. that helps me.

I dosed chaetogrow that has iron. No dice.

 

[Ippyroy]

I would guess not enough flow. i don't dose anything for my chaeto. It is not an ornamental nor do I feed it to my fish. It is soley for exporting nutrients.
The only other issue I can think of is too much light.

 

[Letterkenny]

I would guess not enough flow. i don't dose anything for my chaeto. It is not an ornamental nor do I feed it to my fish. It is soley for exporting nutrients.
The only other issue I can think of is too much light.

I can try upping the flow. Like I’ve said I have played with the lighting and am trying the low end of the spectrum now (4 hours).

 

[reefluvrr]

Did your chaeto grow before it start dying? It sounds like some sort of elements (iron, magnesium,etc) became limiting factor thus your chaeto could have eventually died off. I don't know what is in the bottle of chaeto grow. If it does have elements, you may need to dose a little more than what instructions says....

 

[Cabinetman]

Look at adding some miricle mud. I always had trouble growing it to but with a mud bed I leave my lights on 24/7 and grow the deepest green cheato I ever seen. Removed 2 bucket full of it yesterday lol. My sump was stuffed

 

[Letterkenny]

Did your chaeto grow before it start dying? It sounds like some sort of elements (iron, magnesium,etc) became limiting factor thus your chaeto could have eventually died off. I don't know what is in the bottle of chaeto grow. If it does have elements, you may need to dose a little more than what instructions says....

It has iron and other trace elements. I don’t magnesium and keep it at 1350 so shouldn’t be that. I actually never had growth. I got some new chaeto and turned up the flow significantly and set an 8 hour photo period to see if that will help.

 

[Seaspirit]

It has iron and other trace elements. I don’t magnesium and keep it at 1350 so shouldn’t be that. I actually never had growth. I got some new chaeto and turned up the flow significantly and set an 8 hour photo period to see if that will help.

Curious to see how you do with the different lighting schedule, my little chaeto ball isn't doing as well as I'd like, I'm also at 1350 magnesium and dosing Chaetogro. Am trying to run it on the "opposite" photoperiod from my tank but can always adjust the timer to more or less hours. Maybe I just don't have enough nutrients in the water to keep it happy, don't know!?

 

[Letterkenny]

Curious to see how you do with the different lighting schedule, my little chaeto ball isn't doing as well as I'd like, I'm also at 1350 magnesium and dosing Chaetogro. Am trying to run it on the "opposite" photoperiod from my tank but can always adjust the timer to more or less hours. Maybe I just don't have enough nutrients in the water to keep it happy, don't know!?

I tried a bunch of period and it always ended with dead chaeto.