my chaeto won't grow

Chris's Nemo

New member
can some one please give me and idea why my chaeta won't grow in my 29 gl fuge? I have been cycling for what seems 2 months now and I run my lights on my fuge all day and cut them off in the evening when my tank lights are on. My light is a home depot light rated 5000 I think. The sucker is bright. I add a little calcium and iodine and it is no larger than when I got it from a friend of mine 2 months ago. Some one please help me because this is getting very frustrating. Thanks for the help.
 
Howdy, neighbor!

What all do you have in your tank, also, your recent water test params? Obviously, something is limiting growth, but it could be a lot of different possibilities - low animal load (low nutrients), a very efficient skimmer (low nutrients), a lack of iron and magnesium (Chaeto and other things use it up eventually). What is the brand and specs on the HD light? Wattage? PC Bulb, right?
 
What are your water test parameter's for nitrates and phosphates? Do add any iron supplements?
 
I only have an amonia and nitrate kit and the amonia is 0.1 and the nitrate is 0. I don't even run my skimmer and the light for my fuge is a home depot light rated like 5500. I am running 3 metal halides at 5000 k and 2 vhos super actinic. I run the main lights about 6 hours in the evenings and the fuge light about 12 hours opposite the main lights. If I leave the main lights on any longer than 6 hrs the water will get real cloudy with what I am guessing a bacterial bloom. Oh, and I only have 2 mexican snails and 2 fish, a blue damsel and a tomato clown. I also have 50 pounds of base rock and 20 pounds of fiji live rock, and 50 pounds of home depot sand with 20 pounds of live sand on top of that. Any suggestions?
 
Are you keeping any zooxanthellate corals, like softies or 'shrooms? They would perhaps do better with a "blue-er" Kelvin temp lighting like 10,000 K with actinic .03. There is some limiting factor involved here, and it is hard to grope for it in cyberspace without good photos and a more comprehensive log of your aquarium with more water test params shown and a list of all animals and how long this tank has been set up. It may just be too new and unstable an environment for a fuge to work in yet - they do take patience and a more mature set up to work their best...a decent animal load (healthy not hasty!) help to feed macros, otherwise one would have to supplement, but that is no area for a beginner to enter, believe me! As long as your macro is not dying, just a little patience and small regular water changes to renew trace elements are required at this early stage.

Your dinoflagellate bloom (green water) is probably light cycle, nutrient spike and low K temp related. Magnesium and iron are more important to most macroalgaes of the "fleshy" (Chaeto, Caulerpa, many others) VS "calcerous" (Halimeda, etc.) and "stony" (coral-shaped hard, and scale) types than calcium and even iodine (those traces are more intended/aimed at corals than the fleshy/soft macros in general).
 
Nemo:

Are you adding any iron to supplement your chaeto? Regular additions of iron make my chaeto grow like crazy. You also might want to check the Reef Chemistry forum. RHF has published some great articles on growing chaeto in refugiums.
 
Hey guys, sorry for being slow on the response to your questions, I have been working late hours lately. Well since I last posted I have added 60 pounds of fiji live rock so that's 80 pounds total and after a couple of days I have this bright red cloudy tank and my skimmer is going ballistic. MY ammonia is 0.2 and my nitrate is 5. I plan on purchasing some more tests tomorrow. Ok, now to answer some questions. I only have 80 pounds of live rock, 50 pounds of base rock, 2 mexican snails, a blue damsel and a tomato clown. I don't have any other living things in my tank other than what I think are copapods. I know I probably jumpstarted my tank in a cycle because I have been runing it for two months without a load big enough to start a cycle. Now that I have added the 60 pounds of live rock things are starting to happen. Back to my cheata, I guess the stuff will last my cycle, I am new to this method of filtration with a fuge but all I can go by is what I learn from rc. Penfold, I haven't added anything to my tank but the iodine and calcium. Which test kits do I need to purchase that are the most important to have? I already have an amonia and nitrate kit. Thanks for all the input.
 
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