Chaeto Stunted Growth Theory

[samwrang]

My Cheato growth is dismal. I have a slow flow split straight from my main tank overflow into the refugium. The light is the Melev recommended Home Depot light on a reverse cycle. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why the Cheato won't grow and think I figured it out.

We want to keep live rock in the main tank mainly for display so I have been aggressive in other filtering. The refugium is 40GL with about 20% of the main tank overflow gravity feeding it. The other 80% passes directly through a UV steralzier and then into the sump with a protein skimmer.

In the refugium I have about 120lbs of live sand and another 10-15lbs of live rock. The main tank has a sandbed as well and a bit of an algae outbreak.

My suspicion is with only 20% of the overflow feeding the fuge my cheato is fighting the deep sand bed and live rock in the fuge for food. Pods are also almost non existant.

Can anyone confirm I am on the right track? If it's true and the nutrients are too low for Cheato growth, is this even a bad thing?

 

[samwrang]

I'm going to move this to filtration conversation to filtration forum in case other factors might be at work.

 

[rustybucket145]

flow is too low, do an experiment and kick it up some. I increased mine from 5x turnover to almost 20x last year and the increase in chaeto growth was amazing. I went from pulling out a handfull a month to well over a gallon a month just by increasing flow.

 

[rooroo]

How long have you had the fug going? It took a couple of months for my chaeto to really start to grow. I go in and stir/shake out the crap from the chaeto every week or so. I've heard that cutting it with scissors stimulates growth too. I just started increasing the time the fuge light is on from about 12 hours to 16 hours to see if this helps (I've heard it does).

Otherwise, there just may not be enough food for the chaeto. I know my tank has food for it as I have hair algae, I just gotta get the right conditions going in the fuge to get it to grow.

Good luck!

 

[mfh_anderson]

Ive been leaving my light on 24 hours a day, should i not?

 

[650-IS350]

feed the cheato with chelated iron helps out from what i've read

 

[BONDQ]

I do not have UV, but I'm wondering if maybe that is reducing your cheato growth. You may want to experiment with having 100% of your flow go thru your cheato, and turning off the UV.

Regardless, I would increase your flow as suggested, even if you maintain the UV on.

Leaving your sump light on all the time will serve to maintain your pH when you tank lights are off, though many use a reverse lighting cycle to accomplish this. I wonder if leaving the lights on 24 hours would actually elevate your pH too high when your tank lights are on. This would require some experimentation.

I don't feel that your cheato is fighting the DSB or live rock, but it is clear that it is not receiving enough nutrients to grow, probably due to low flow from the display.

It's also clear that lighting is not the issue.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Make sure that your water parameters are accurate. An inaccurate salinity and temperature will cause it to die off. Also, in the addition of good nutrients for it to grow, it will need a little iron. Keeping it fairly high flow where it can tumble helps keep debris from building up on and inside of it. Also, keeping it lit with about 12-16 hours on helps a lot. Like all plants, this macroalgae needs a dark respiration period for optimal growth.

 

[samwrang]

I'm going to up the flow, seems to be the common denominator.

BONDQ - why do you think it's not fighting the sand and live rock? Different types of nutrients required to feed them?

 

[rustybucket145]

Second the lighting, cut it back from 24 to somewhere near 14+/- like travis said.

 

[BONDQ]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9427618#post9427618 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by samwrang
I'm going to up the flow, seems to be the common denominator.

BONDQ - why do you think it's not fighting the sand and live rock? Different types of nutrients required to feed them?

It's not common for these to fight each other, they compliment each other more than anything IME.

Increase your flow and that should help significantly.

 

[bertoni]

I agree that poor macro growth might be due to good work by the live rock and sandbed. That's fine, if that's the case. Other issues might be the lighting or perhaps a need for an iron supplement. I didn't have much luck with the bulb you mentioned, and use PC bulbs now with much better effect. Remember there are multiple species of Chaetomorpha around, so that might be one issue there.

To encourage the growth of small animals, I feed DT's phytoplankton daily. Some other food source would likely be okay as well.

 

[BONDQ]

Oh, I was going to suggest the DTs as well, as it seems to have been helpful to me, but I have no proof to back it up.

I know some folks sprinkle a little Formula One in their cheato sometimes to help feed the critters there. I don't know if it helps or hurts.

I have 440 pounds of Live Rock in my tank and at least 300 pounds of live sand, but I grow cheato in my sump with a standard 100W light bulb like it's going out of style. It's extremely dense and needs constant trimming.

The cheato is floating above another 50 pounds of live rock located in the sump.

These details are why I don't think the sand and rock are working against you, but I think there are many other factors involved, like:

What you feed and how often?
What is your bio-load?
Is the UV killing positive elements in the water that the cheato would use to grow? (I don't run UV, so I have no experience with it)

How much CO2 is making it to the cheato?
What are your other water parameters, like Nitrate and Phosphate?

I'm not sure just knowing that you have live rock and sand will answer the question. In my case, it appears to make no difference, but everyone's mileage varies in this hobby.

..and like Bertoni says, maybe it's just the type of cheato you have.