What am I doing wrong here?

[FishWife1]

I have a nice pile of chaeto in the center compartment of my 12 g nano cube. There is a light on it and it is green and seems healthy. I dug around in there a little today because my purple firefish is missing and I was wondering if she had jumped in there.

All of this muck started spewing out of my hydorflow - lots of bits of chaeto plus tiny dusty junk. all of my corals immediately closed up. I stuck pc of sponge in the overflow chamber and will add some carbon later if necessary. I pulled out all the chaeto and rinsed it in some saltwater then put it back in. Was that just die off from adding it to the tank recently or is that how it absorbs nutrients. Do you just cut it back or do you remove and rinse it? Also, how do you keep it from getting sucked into your powerhead?

BTW, did not find the firefish. darn!

Laurie

 

[prugs]

Cheato will collect sediment thats in your tank. Just like the sponge will filter it out. Nothing to be alarmed about though. Maybe you need a little more flow in the tank.
Make sure you keep on top of your alkalinity. In these small tanks, the PH can crash quickly.

 

[FishWife1]

Thanks - quite gross, though. How do harvest it - just pull it out?

My tank is clearing some now. I have moved the chaeto into the first chamber - not as likely to be sucked into the powerhead. The strainer of the ph was completely clogged and there was very little circulation to the tank. After I got that cleared out the hydorflow was still not working - it was clogged, too. All is working well now. That'll teach me to leave for a couple of days. I should have thought to remind hubby to check on the strainer - got lucky on this one.

Laurie

 

[prugs]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7017270#post7017270 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FishWife1
Thanks - quite gross, though. How do harvest it - just pull it out?
Laurie

If its loaded with ditrus, rinse it out in the water you pulled out from your water change. If I have too much cheato, I throw it out, or you can give it away/sell it.