Help with Chaeto not doing well ?

[tonym10]

I have a had Chaeto in my sump for 2 weeks now, some of it has seemed to have died off, there is still one nice chunk of it in there.
I have it in the center of my sump, that is the only room I have for it, I am concerned that maybe there is not enough flow there for it? My lighting is a 75watt 38parr Home depot light. The Chaeto also stays at the top of the water , should something be done to keep it below the water? The Chaeto seems to get brownish at the top where it is hit directly by the light, maybe if it were submergered more? I was thinking of setting a small piece of eggcrate on top of it to submerge it more, does this make sence? I was also thinking of placing a small powerhead near the Chaeto for better water flow threw it, how does this sound?
My tests for nitrate are 0, and phosphat .05 , phosphate was .20 before the chaeto.

 

[sjvl51]

Chaeto, like all algae, need lights and nutrients to grow. Your lighting sounds OK as long as it is close enough to the algae. More lighting may cause more growth. (FWIW, some people use their old MH bulbs over the refuge.) More flow may help. My chaeto usually floats on the top of the surface and I stir/turn it when I think of it. It hasn't changed colour.

As for nutrients - it needs nitrates and phosphates. I see your nitrates are 0 so you may want to increase your feeding slightly to bring the nitrates up a little. One other thing is iron. The addition of iron helps macro algae grow. Here is a good article on that - http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/aug2002/chem.htm

Vickie

 

[wee-reefer]

As for nitrates and feeding more, why must he create a problem to fix a problem?

 

[sjvl51]

Plants will grow until one of the required nutrients is used up. This is called the limiting factor. Since the question was about lack of growth/die off, I answered how to increase the growth of chaeto. If the main point behind the chaeto is to lower the phosphates (which many say affect the corals more than the nitrates) and with the nitrates at 0 then by increasing the nitrates is one way to do this.

Vickie

 

[easttn]

The water might be heating up enough to kill the plant in the directly lit areas. The algae tends to trap and hold if its thick enough, either generate more flow or back the light away if you can.

 

[wee-reefer]

My nirates are 0 and I still get good growth. My phosphate is at zero too.

 

[tonym10]

I added a small powerhead to create water movement in this section of the sump, I will see how this goes.

 

[sjvl51]

Wee-reefer, your nitrates and phosphates might be 0 because the algae is using them up. This just means that you have achieved a balance between the amount of algae vs the amount of nitrates and phosphates. Since Tonym has nitrates of 0 and phosphates of 0.5, his system has not reached this balance. Increasing the nitrates will allow the macro algae grow to the point of nitrates and phosphates both being 0.

Vickie