cheato issue?

[Nu2SW]

I think MY cheatomorhpa is dying off.

What could be a reason for this, I did a water change nothing different than before and now its just falling apart and has lost more then Half its size.


It may be crashing, If thats the Case Anyone Got any they can spare to help me replace.

 

[OldmillXxX]

Lighting schedule = ?

What is new with the tank?

 

[Nu2SW]

I do a reverse photo period, It gets turned on about 9pm when my main lights get turned off, and is on untill 10am. There was a point that I left the refug light on 24hours a day for about a week after listening to bruce at last months metting. Then I went back to the normal schedule I had

Nothing new in the tank.

 

[OldmillXxX]

If there is nothing new to the tank, I would suspect the lighting. It could have used the nutrients up in the tank and as it grew, couldn't be sustained by the nutrients anymore and the light is not enough anymore either.

Mine went through that and the 24/7 lighting (not to mention a good sump cleaning) brought it back to full vigor and is growing bigger than ever. It seemed to decline right when I changed the light bulb that was lighting it to a slightly different color temp. I believe I'm at 7K now.

 

[Brian Prestwood]

Been using any phosphate remover?

 

[Nu2SW]

Ive veen using something from seachem, but ive been using it for over a month. This just started a few days ago.

 

[cmsurfr22]

have you ever tried to harvest some of the chaeto out? the ball of chaeto could become very dense over time and not allow light to get to all of the chaeto. try cutting some back and pulling the ball appart

 

[Nu2SW]

I tried pulling the ball apart, but it would just go right back into a ball. I would need gloves because I have so many bristle worms, and they hurt when you touch them.

 

[TNTREEF]

I have 2 kinds. Ones thick like a brillow pad(grows slow) the other is like stiff hair. If you want some pm. Also mine goes from softball size to volly ball size in one month. You canget rid of over 3/4 of it and in a month or so huge.
Any ways let me know.

 

[Nu2SW]

Thanks TNT I will let you know, I turned on the lighting 24 hours a day now and I will see how that goes.

How does one know if it is finally dead?

 

[OldmillXxX]

Another thought is rotation. Is there much flow through it? Mine is too large to be able to 'roll', but once a week or two I flip it over since it is more the shape of a pillow now that it has grown. This 'flipping' swishes a little of the detrius that gathers in it and allows the skimmer to clean up the sump a little more.

I will be trimming in a month or so and will be giving it away by ziplok and envelope through the mail (a fellow reefer and I exchanged this way and it worked great!) so watch for it in a new thread.

I'm sure yours will take off again; the 24/7 lighting seems to make it quite happy.:rollface: