cheato dying?

[doox00]

I got a small ball of cheato from a lfs, it was green for the past week or so, but now its turning white and brown and seems to be getting smaller.. what should I check to find the cause of this?

I have the bulb that was recommended in a thread here, large thread, melev bulb one, 5100k. I keep it on about 16 hours a day.

My nitrite lvls are 0 amoniia is 0 and nitrate is 2-5 range, ph of 7.9.

 

[cweder]

Good ? I bought some a few weeks ago as well. I am using a Coralife 65 watt 6700 K bulk also run for 16 hours a day. It is doing well. I have noticed some growth in mine. I also noticed some turning white/ clear and some is brown. I was concerned as well, but the rest of the ball is a dark green and lots of tiny pods, some not so tiny. The pod explosion is awsome and the little pods are eating up the diatoms so fast on the glass that it is getting cleaner and clearer. I heard macro can use some Iron supplementation to grow. I put some Kent brand Iron supplement the first week only at the recommended dose to give it a start. My nitrates are about 0.5 and I feed daily once or twice. I have enough flow for good circulation to the cheato but not so much that it falls apart. I also started with 2 large bricks from the LFS. I am amazed that mine seems to be making the rest of my system much cleaner as well. I am also using a phosban reactor to keep phosphates to a minimum. Best of luck.