Why can't I keep Chaeto alive?

Letterkenny · Jan 5, 2021

kingy138 said:
I struggled with chaeto in the past, but in the last couple of months I've implemented a Pax algae reactor, which has been growing it like crazy. I have to half the algae every week.

I do think flow is important and with something like a reactor this is perfect, as it's forced through the algae.

I tried putting a powerhead in a fuge in the past, but found it got blocked up with algae pretty quickly.

I’ve given up on it. Not sure how many times I’ve tried now with all failures.

jd371 · Jan 5, 2021

I've tried numerous times, sometimes it would die right away and other times it looked promising but it would eventually die. Got tired of cleaning the mess after each time it died. I now have an ATS and never going back to chaeto.
You mentioned that you have GHA growing in your fuge. If you can install an ATS, I would go with that and let the GHA grow in the ATS where it's easier to harvest.

Letterkenny · Jan 5, 2021

jd371 said:
I've tried numerous times, sometimes it would die right away and other times it looked promising but it would eventually die. Got tired of cleaning the mess after each time it died. I now have an ATS and never going back to chaeto.
You mentioned that you have GHA growing in your fuge. If you can install an ATS, I would go with that and let the GHA grow in the ATS where it's easier to harvest.

Mines more of a turf algae but I think it’s similar. I’ve thought about a ATS but also am just over spending money on the tank at the moment (have some bacterial issue that’s killed over $1k torches). For now, I’m just using NOPOX and GFO for my nitrate and phosphate control.