Cheato dying

[jlabeaume]

Had some nice growing cheato in my sump. Then a few days ago I went to check on things and it seems all the cheato shrunk down and fell apart. I grabbed it and it all fell apart very brittle.

The only thing I changed is I moved the heaters out of that compartment of the sump to the return section and I starting using filter socks.

The only thing I can think of is I didn't rise the socks good enough after washing them with bleach.

Any ideas?

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Could be the bleach thing.

Another possibility could be low nutrients. I lost some macros this way, and they bounced back when my nutrient levels rose.

 

[Atilla_87]

My chaeto seems to go through phases, based on how much excess nutrients are available. It will grow like crazy for a while to the point where I am harvesting garbage bags of it every week, then it will start to die back like you described. Eventually I think the system starts to build enough phosphates and nitrates where it will start growing again. You'd think it'd eventually find an equilibrium, but it never has seemed to in my tank.