Whats wrong with my refugium?? Cheato wont grow!

[Reef_a_holiks]

What type of corals?

my tank is a mixed reef, have everything from sps to softies, i noticed a great amount of color improvement in about all the corals.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

my tank is a mixed reef, have everything from sps to softies, i noticed a great amount of color improvement in about all the corals.

Ok, that certainly is unusual and I'd speculate that it may be from other factors. Many/most of us who dosed iodine and then stopped saw no apparent different in anything we keep. FWIW, I dosed it for years.

 

[Reef_a_holiks]

Could have just been the big water change i did that day,

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Could have just been the big water change i did that day,

Yes, that may help.

 

[Reef_a_holiks]

Coming in for another update, so after adding more flow to my refugium and adding my first dose of iron, nothing has changed , cheato is still not growing and continues to lose its color and die off. Today i mounted a par38 full spectrum bulb over the refugium, this should be more than enough lighting. Imma give this a try, if it works il be ordering a a led refugium light. tell you guys opinion

 

[Reef_a_holiks]

Yes, that may help.

Check out my last post , what you think ?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

With added iron and a full spectrum bulb, if it doesn't survive, it is either a bad batch that got killed in transit, there are not adequate nutrients available, or there is something in the water that is harming the chaeto. I don't see many other alternatives.

 

[Reef_a_holiks]

With added iron and a full spectrum bulb, if it doesn't survive, it is either a bad batch that got killed in transit, there are not adequate nutrients available, or there is something in the water that is harming the chaeto. I don't see many other alternatives.

What could be in the water harming the cheato, i do run a UV light. can that do anything ?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I doubt it could be an issue. Most things that would harm chaeto will harm other creatures in the tank.

Are you dosing magnesium? Some people think that if it is too high it can begin to harm certain algae. I'm a bit skeptical as I think the Kent Tech M treatment for Bryopsis might not be the magnesium itself that works, but I thought I'd throw it out there in case you've dosed a lot.

 

[N1Husker]

I put a regular 6500k bulb in an old plastic hood, like the kind that comes on a 10 gallon set up, a cheapy and my chaeto grows like crazy. Before that I used a full spectrum light bulb I got at home depot plant department and screwed it into a clamp light, that worked well too. I don't dose anything and I don't have a strong floe through my middle refugium section in my sump. It been like that for over 5 years.

 

[Cory]

Did you test potassium? This is a needed element for macroalgae. Mine was 350ppm when I started testing it. I use instant ocean salt. I boosted it up to 420ppm, and after testing yesterday, it has dropped to 380ppm in two weeks. Natural seawater has 400ppm. I also dose iron gluconate when I feel like it, usually once a week. It's under 8 3watt red/blue LED lights. The light is on 18 hours a day, off the rest. It's under strong flow. I cannot get it to stop growing! I tried to sell it for 10$ a big handful online, but in my small town nobody bought it. Thus I had to throw out half of it. Now it's almost back to normal size in only a semis time. So you can take my success story seriously.

Nitrates and phosphates are both 0.

 

[Cory]

The 3rd last paragraph should say in only a weeks time.

 

[Cory]

Also what size tank is this and how many fish do you have? How often do you feed them and how much? Have you dosed any algae killer medicines? Do you have algae growing in the tank?

Your sump looks really clean, you may not have enough nutrients. Also I see corraline algae in the sump, this is a sighn you don't need to grow chaeto. Chaeto grows in higher nutrient areas, corraline generally doesn't.

 

[Reef_a_holiks]

Also what size tank is this and how many fish do you have? How often do you feed them and how much? Have you dosed any algae killer medicines? Do you have algae growing in the tank?

Your sump looks really clean, you may not have enough nutrients. Also I see corraline algae in the sump, this is a sighn you don't need to grow chaeto. Chaeto grows in higher nutrient areas, corraline generally doesn't.

This is a 57 gallon, mixed reef, with 7 fish at the moment , most of them nano fish except a blue tang. I Feed my fish every other day. No algae killing medicines, and as far as algae growth in the tank, I do get some growth but nothing like a break out. I grow some hair algae from time to time that my red leg hermits clean up. I clean my glass about every 3-4 days.

My sumped looked clean in that pic because i had just cleaned it during a water change, but it does get a little bit of cyano on the walls and live rock.

 

[Reef_a_holiks]

Another update to this thread * The last batch of cheato finally died out today, even with the full spectrum bulb i had put over it, but maybe it was too far gone for the upgraded lighting to fix . So today i added another baseball size batch of cheato , lets see how it goes.

Sump, has a small pump for flow, adding about 3 drops of iron once a week, and a par38 full spectrum bulb

 

[Cory]

crazy that you cant grow chaeto! I would suspect postassium or just not enought nutrients. Cyanobacteria show up when youve got nitrates higher than phosphates in my experience.

Thats a lot of fish, i dont think it should be nutrient limited. I feed my fish 3-4 times a day either pellets or flakes. Maybe your not feeding enough. I would suggest making new saltwater, add some miricle grow and the same light, put an air bubbler and see if it grows. If it doesnt, there is something really wrong. of course dont add miracle grow to your tank, but to a 5 gallon bucket. You can even use your own tank water to see if its just po4, no3 or potassium limimted.

What are all your parameters? alk, phosphate, nitrate, salinity, ph, magnesium, calcium, etcetera.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Another update to this thread * The last batch of cheato finally died out today, even with the full spectrum bulb i had put over it, but maybe it was too far gone for the upgraded lighting to fix . So today i added another baseball size batch of cheato , lets see how it goes.

Sump, has a small pump for flow, adding about 3 drops of iron once a week, and a par38 full spectrum bulb

Where are you getting the chaeto from?

 

[Reef_a_holiks]

crazy that you cant grow chaeto! I would suspect postassium or just not enought nutrients. Cyanobacteria show up when youve got nitrates higher than phosphates in my experience.

Thats a lot of fish, i dont think it should be nutrient limited. I feed my fish 3-4 times a day either pellets or flakes. Maybe your not feeding enough. I would suggest making new saltwater, add some miricle grow and the same light, put an air bubbler and see if it grows. If it doesnt, there is something really wrong. of course dont add miracle grow to your tank, but to a 5 gallon bucket. You can even use your own tank water to see if its just po4, no3 or potassium limimted.

What are all your parameters? alk, phosphate, nitrate, salinity, ph, magnesium, calcium, etcetera.

Tell me about it. I grow it perfectly fine in my bio cubes refugium, and both tanks use the same water source for water changes. I was thinking of going to feeding fish every day. I am currently feeding fish every other day and corals 3 days a week. I was thinking of trying the 5 gallon bucket idea, but then again i want it to grow in my refugium and not in a bucket lol

My water parameters are as follows: Alk: 9dkh Phosphate:0 Nitrate:0 Salinity: 1.024 Ph:8.2 Magnesium:1380 Calcium: 480 tested with API kit
Magnesium tested with Red sea kit

Water temp: 81 degrees

 

[nicodim55]

0 Nitrate could be a factor they need a little nitrate JMO. How long has the tank been running?

 

[Cory]

Tell me about it. I grow it perfectly fine in my bio cubes refugium, and both tanks use the same water source for water changes. I was thinking of going to feeding fish every day. I am currently feeding fish every other day and corals 3 days a week. I was thinking of trying the 5 gallon bucket idea, but then again i want it to grow in my refugium and not in a bucket lol

My water parameters are as follows: Alk: 9dkh Phosphate:0 Nitrate:0 Salinity: 1.024 Ph:8.2 Magnesium:1380 Calcium: 480 tested with API kit
Magnesium tested with Red sea kit

Water temp: 81 degrees

if you want to go by my example, my tank parameters are 8dkh alk, po4 0, no3 0, salinity 1.026, magnesium 1250ppm, calcium 400. Some are api, some are salifert.

Personally id raise the salinity to 1.026 as thats what they live in, not 1.024. Could be why it dies. Magnesium seems a bit high and calcium too. Id aim for natural levels if it were me, who knows what higher values do? But if you plan on raising it id ask Randy how to properly do it as your magnesium and calcium would increase with the salinity increase too.