Help with Chaeto

[JurisHP]

My tank is 14 years old....I have always had high Nitrate and Phosphate issues, and have tried everything. I am now back to a refugium, and to that end am using my center compartment in the sump, lighted by a Kessil H160 Tuna Flora. I bought a baseball size (2 of them) bunch of Chaeto and now, a few weeks later, it has practically disappeared, and my Nitrates and Phosphates are as high as always.

I am running the light on the Grow setting at almost max intensity, for 16 hours/day.

A new batch of Chaeto is arriving today.

Any suggestions as to how to get it to grow and not die off so fast?

 

[kfisc]

What worked for me was ensuring a significant amount of flow over the clump; it seemed to help if it was actually tumbling around. With a sump, I also found 24 hour lighting over the chaeto helped, as well as eventually moving to a reverse lighting cycle, i.e. lighting the chaeto at night. Vexing problem! Good luck-

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Trace elements can get used up quickly in closed systems. The most important one is Iron. You might try adding an iron supplement. Chaeto is a high light, high nutrient-needing macro algae. You might try something that's not so greedy, like a red Gracilaria. It might match up better to your system parameters. Or try others. Lot's of cool macros out there to try.