Cheato and Phosban?

[carlos_fb]

I recently added a fuge to my system and got a nice ball of Cheato. I also got the bulb that melev recommends on his website and that many people use with success. I have noticed that the cheato has not been growing much eventhough it looks healthy. Today a read that Phosban can affect Cheato so I was wondering if this is true?

 

[RokleM]

They work towards a similar goal, reduction of phosphates. So yes, if your phosphates are low due to phosban, your chaeto may not grow as well as if you didn't use the material.

As long as it looks heathy, I wouldn't be concerned.

 

[oct2274]

how close is your light to the top of the water, i've found that chaeto actually does better if the light isn't so close to it. I kept killing mine till I placed the bulb about 10 inches off the waters surface. It will kill it if it is much closer in my experience. I use the 20 watt spiral 6500k lights from walmart with a regular 8" reflector from homedepot. I run my fuge lighting on a reverse schedule from my displays lighting. I think it is getting 12-14 hours of light right now, can't remember exactly. Chaeto also seems to like moderate to high flow so check that as well. One last thing you can try to do is dose kent iron. I would dose at about 1/3 of it's recommended dosage till growth is good and then stop till you see growth start to decline again. Doing this stuff has made my chaeto grow so fast it has become a serious pain to keep up with it! Phosban hasn't effected its growth at all as far as i have seen........mine still grows like mad! How old is your tank, maybe you just don't have a mature enough tank to support it.

 

[carlos_fb]

Thanks for your responses. My tank has been running for 11 months already and even though my bio load is very low, I'm having a problem with hair algae (not big deal).

Currently I have the bult about 5" from the water level and I've been running it 24/7 for the last week. Also I have about 600 gph passing through it.

I will probably try the iron trick if I don't see any improvement in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks again!

 

[oct2274]

if the bulb is only 5 inches from the water it is frying the cheato, move it to around 10 inches off the water and do not run it 24/7. Chaeto won't go sexual so it isn't needed. Run the light over the algae opposite the tank lights and no longer then 14 hours. You do that and i bet you'll see a change for the better.