fuge/ cheeta

Reef obcession

Reef obcession

New member
I have had my fuge going for 8 months now and my cheeta does not seem to grow. I have a 36" long twin T-5 floresent light on the tank 4-5" above the water. I hear others saying there algea is growing like weeds? Any reason?
 
You might not have enough organic material/calcium for the algae to use. Whats all of your tank specs? like filtration type stuff
 
Chaeto grows by consuming nutrients like nitrates and phosphates as well as light. If you don't have the proper spectrum of lighting or extremely low nutrients you wont grow chaeto well.
It's not a bad thing if your chaeto does not grow well.
 
chaeto

chaeto

Reef obcession said:
I have had my fuge going for 8 months now and my cheeta does not seem to grow. I have a 36" long twin T-5 floresent light on the tank 4-5" above the water. I hear others saying there algea is growing like weeds? Any reason?
Click to expand...
How about describing where the chaeto is, is it in a fuge or is it in the tank? every once in awhile you may need to loosen it up so that it's not clumped in a ball. And I believe if you have it in the sump that you should have a slow water flow. That way it can absorb the nutrients from your dt. I have a 37 gallon tank and am using a modified aquaclear power filter 110. I have to trim my chaeto and have alot of pod's in there. As for lighting all I use is a clip on book light that I bought at Home Depot for $7.99 and it works great!
 
I couldn't get it to grow either. Then I actually took the advise of the LFS (I know) finally & added a 3-4" sandbed to my fuge. Grows well now & I keep some snails in there too.

I have no idea why it works now but it does.
 
Al Kurtys said:
How about describing where the chaeto is, is it in a fuge or is it in the tank? every once in awhile you may need to loosen it up so that it's not clumped in a ball. And I believe if you have it in the sump that you should have a slow water flow. That way it can absorb the nutrients from your dt. I have a 37 gallon tank and am using a modified aquaclear power filter 110. I have to trim my chaeto and have alot of pod's in there. As for lighting all I use is a clip on book light that I bought at Home Depot for $7.99 and it works great!
Click to expand...

I have a seperate 40g used only for a fuge, It has a dual t-5 floresent light and two good sizes clumps of cheto, but its been that size for a while without anynew growth. I see tons of pods,baby snails & worms popping up everywhere but the algea is supper slow. I started to get that fussy green algea growth on top of the cheato, is this bad? Pictures coming in a minute
 
try some Kent Iron & Manganese. i started dosing it when my chaeto shrank into a small matted ball 4 months after putting it in. it grows pretty well now even though it does not tumble in my small fuge. i have to thin it out almost every month and i rarely dose the Iron & Manganese but add iodine as necessary. df
 
What is K are your bulbs in the T-5 fixture. Its been proven in studies that chaeto/calupera grows best under a 6000k bulb.
 
i would make sure it has the right light spectrum i went to home depot and got a compact flourescent bulb that is 6500k and my cheato grows like crazy
 
I tried a 14K LED bulb, it was high par, the PAR38 bulb, and my chaeto grew like mad under that light. didn't expect that.
 
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