Chaeto getting smaller and smaller ? ?

[furface]

My Chaeto has gone from two good handfuls to a child’s handful in about a week ? ? New to this growing macro algae thang ! !

It’s in a bucket fuge, lit on 2 xx 6 hour cycles with a Kessil 160 tuna flora with approx 300 litres flow through.

Any ideas people ? ?
Thanks in adavance.

 

[JohnL]

Lack of nitrates and phosphates?

 

[furface]

Lack of nitrates and phosphates?

Yeah could be - I tested a while ago but I’ll test again and see what they read !

 

[griss]

Agree with John.

 

[reefing102]

I’ve also heard Cheato needs iron to thrive as well

 

[griss]

I’ve also heard Cheato needs iron to thrive as well

I believe you’re correct Shane.

 

[furface]

Ok, I’ll try some BRIGHTWELL aquatics gear for Chaeto. See what happens? Phos is at .5 and nitrate is near 50. Little high but considering what I feed I’m not at all surprised lol

 

[kfisc]

Chaeto only ever did well in my tank when nitrates and phosphates were always doing the push/pull with it. Possibly your tank is actually too healthy to need it?

 

[griss]

Chaeto only ever did well in my tank when nitrates and phosphates were always doing the push/pull with it. Possibly your tank is actually too healthy to need it?

Agree

 

[furface]

Chaeto only ever did well in my tank when nitrates and phosphates were always doing the push/pull with it. Possibly your tank is actually too healthy to need it?

To be honest I did think that, I thought the shear amount of water might be masking the true extent to come lol

 

[furface]

I do a 100l water change every Saturday. Which I recon is 10% once the rocks and sands taken out of the equation.

 

[reeftivo]

I’ve also heard Cheato needs iron to thrive as well

yes, i supplement NO3 and Mo when nutrients are low and dose Fe/Mn weekly. keeps my chaeto nice, thick and deep green.

 

[furface]

yes, i supplement NO3 and Mo when nutrients are low and dose Fe/Mn weekly. keeps my chaeto nice, thick and deep green.

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Hiya and thanks for replying, but is it just me or is the extra feeding of Chaeto exactly what we shouldn’t be doing ? I just feel that feeding it is counter productive to it absorbing nutrients from the system. I don’t think I was giving it enough light to be honest plus I also found a load of it in my sump lol. So that was the mystery solved ! ! !

 

[reeftivo]

Hiya and thanks for replying, but is it just me or is the extra feeding of Chaeto exactly what we shouldn’t be doing ? I just feel that feeding it is counter productive to it absorbing nutrients from the system. I don’t think I was giving it enough light to be honest plus I also found a load of it in my sump lol. So that was the mystery solved ! ! !

hope the extra light will help.

i know chaeto takes up iron, manganese and potassium at a higher rate than the other elements it utilizes and have seen this on ICPs. My chaeto shrinks and melts closest to my RX light bar. i harvest weekly now and a dose of 0.3ml Fe/Mn every other day keeps my chaeto healthy (no melting) and holds NO3 at 3 to 5ppm.

every system is different though so mileage may vary

 

[reeftivo]

Hiya and thanks for replying, but is it just me or is the extra feeding of Chaeto exactly what we shouldn’t be doing ? I just feel that feeding it is counter productive to it absorbing nutrients from the system. I don’t think I was giving it enough light to be honest plus I also found a load of it in my sump lol. So that was the mystery solved ! ! !

forgot to mention that i supplement the nitrate/molybdenum only when i feel my NO3 is bottoming out. i have had 3 nasty dino battles which i've defeated each time by going by way of the "dirty method" and utilizing UV. each time i've had dinos my NO3 was 0 and PO4 was low too.

 

[furface]

We have News people ! ! Chaeto is growing ! ! Light is on 12 hrs a day 6pm to 6am which seems to help. It seems to be doing alright now so that’s great news. Going to make a slight adjustment to the bucket fuge which is move the outlet down so the water level is lower. It’s so high it scares the bloody pants off me lol. So that’s an adjustment I’ll be making this weekend !

 

[griss]

Glad to hear the good news.

 

[furface]

Glad to hear the good news.

Thanks fella, feels like a win ! !