Should I just get rid of chaeto?

[LouH]

I've never been able to grow chaeto in any of my systems. I've had it in sumps as well as main displays. I currently have it in my remote deep sand bed (Brute garbage can), and all that I seem to grow is a brown slime algae on the rocks which are also over the deep sand bed. I have no nuisance algae in my main display, but I do have cyanobacteria growing on the underside of a montipora colony.

In addition to the container which houses the chaeto, I also have live rock in an unlit refugium and in my central sump which is also unlit. The unlit vessels have no nuisance growth of any kind. So, my quesiton is, should I just get rid of the chaeto and stop lighting the deep sand bed container to get rid of the slime algae? If the chaeto isn't growing, I have to believe that it isn't doing anything positive for my system. I run GFO in a reactor although I never test phosphate, but nitrate always tests 0.

Lou

 

[elegance coral]

IMHO, if you're not harvesting enough algae to justify running the light, you should pull it.

 

[LouH]

I'm harvesting no chaeto. It just shrivles up and then brown slime grows on its surface.

 

[LouH]

I just measured phosphate with a Salifert kit which is not expired, and I got 0 ppm. There is nothing in the water to support chaeto growth. It makes me wonder if I should feed the tank more until I measure phosphate and then try to grow chaeto. My corals don't exactly have the best color (SPS, Acros in particular, are on the pale side), so perhaps they need more food? On the contrary, my Bird's Nest looks very good.

 

[HV1990]

It sounds like your natural\mechanical filtration supports your bio load. Thus not allowing your beneficial algae to absorb anything.

 

[Tahoe Reefer]

What are you lighting the Cheto with? In my refuge i've seen a big difference in cheto growth by keeping my bulbs changed out every 12 weeks or so. IDK if this will help you any but, I use 1 - 23 watt spiral CF 2.7k bulb to grow a basketball size cheto ball which is cut in 1/2 every 2 or 3 weeks.

 

[LouH]

I run a 15W GE spiral wound CF/6500K. The box says that it is equivalent to a 75W bulb. I change it out every 4-6 months.

Perhaps I should stop running GFO?

 

[vapor1]

I have never been able to grow chaeto in my refuge either. Mine grows the same brown slime algae on it. But I have always been able to grow other algae in my refuge, several different types of caulerpa grow like mad. I have been thinking about just removing the chaeto from my refuge too.

 

[LouH]

vapor1,

What are you growing in your main display? Mixed reef, LPS, SPS? How well are they growing, color, etc?

 

[LouH]

Another thought is that Xenia do well in my tank. I could always culture frags in my sump and sell those back to the LFS. Xenia extract organics from tank water.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What makes you think Xenia provides a net extraction of organic matter from seawater?

 

[LouH]

I think that I read it somewhere. Anthony Calfo comes to mind, but I'm not sure. I may have read it on the internet, so it must be true.

 

[LouH]

On a related subject, my tank is a nominal 100 gallons. I do a 20 gallon water change a week. Some weeks I do 10 gallons on Sunday and 10 on Thursday. Other weeks I do 20 on Sunday. Is this too much?

 

[jbannick18]

Your wc are taking care of your nitrates and your gfo your phosphates essentially just starving the chaeto. If your routine is working for you now then I would see no reason to change it. Depends on your bioload as far as toning down the WC

 

[mori]

maybe u should star feeding them more often, and/or instead of wc weekly do them by-weekly

 

[LouH]

I have a 7" dia rose anenome that I feed pea sized pieces of fish 2-3 X/week. I feed my fish the Borneman recipe every night (2 med. clowns, 1 med. yellow tang, 1 watchman goby, 3 small chromis, 1 clown goby). I rinse the food off in a net under the sink faucet and then transfer that into a small cup containing tank water. I then slowly pour the contents out in increments over the course of 15 minutes at a rate that allows the fish to eat everything going into the tank. Very little hits the sand bed. I turn off all circulation during feeding. I have an anchor coral that grows very well without target feeding. This is also true of a sizable torch coral and several candy cane colonies. Because of the large particle size of the Borneman food, I don't believe that it will benefit any of my SPS corals. I've been considering feeding the tank DT oyster eggs.

Lou

 

[vapor1]

Sorry for the late reply Lou. I run a 180 gallon mixed reef with a 70 gallon sump/refuge.I am mainly into SPS with lately a liking for chalices.I can test for nitrates /phosphates and they test zero but the macros other than chaeto grow like mad. Chaeto might grow a microscopic amount, but it never has even filled my refuge even after 6 months. I have a sprig of mermaids cup growing in my bedroom tank that I may move to my refuge and remove the chaeto.

I run a 45 watt compact fluorescent bulb over my refuge. Its the equivalent of a 150-200 watt bulb. If i grow other macros, I have to half the macro every 2-3 weeks.

I used to run only SPS corals with good growth/color.

I always thought it was me. I have never been able to grow chaeto.I'm just relieved to hear I'm not the only one.

 

[LouH]

It's funny you mention Mermaid's Cup, because my fuge will have some pop up from time to time, but the biomass that they make up is so small compared to a ball of Chaeto.

I'm actually starting to question the pros and cons of my refugium. Over time the tank gets an obvious buildup of crud onm the bottom and I have to pull it apart and clean everything up. Compared to the main display it gets nasty.

 

[vapor1]

My mermaids cup grows, so I'm pretty sure the nutrients that I am removing by growing it is more than whats is removed by not growing chaeto.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Lou,
I have real problems growing chaeto too. But in my nem tank I have 2 red macro algae colonies that grow better (not a lot, but better than the chaeto). So I took out half my chaeto and put in some of the red macro from the nem tank. The red macro does grow and the chaeto still does nothing. It's still alive, but it really doesn't grow.