What kills Chaeto???

[Rod Cobble]

Thanks for the input. Under my tank is pretty full. I think a refugium is out of the question, without major mods to my biozone sump. I was trying to get benefits of chaeto but do it in tank. I may just stick to no plants and go with your candycane suggestion.

 

[dendro982]

There also is another way to export nutrients - white xenia, in tank. Good-looking, needs light and organic-laden water, just surround it by LR rubble for controlling spreading.
Sorry, can't give links right now - they are on another computer, but you can see viability of this idea by search on "refugium methodology" xenia, "xenia fuge", "xenia refugium", "xenia bed", "xenia scrubber".
It's all applicable for growing xenia inside the tank.

Here is mine, in relatively clean water and in very dirty water, same place:

 

[dtaranath]

Xenia is all well and good for nutrient export, but that's only if you can keep it alive. Xenia is hit or miss with a lot of people, and those with good water quality seem to have a harder time keeping xenia alive. I am one of those people. I can keep corals healthy, but I can't keep xenia or chaeto for the life of me. I've tried everything. The only thing I can attribute is that I have good water quality (which I guess is not such a bad thing).

I just wish I could keep xenia alive.

 

[graveyardworm]

Sounds like your running a low nutrient/low DO system. Which would help explain why your cheato dies. If your able to keep your system in this fashion without cheato then why add cheato? Cheato IMO surves to purposes. The first being nutrient export ( without nutrients it will die ), the second being for a safe place for pods, but in a low nutrient environment its a futile endeavor, dosing will likely be necessary to keep the cheato alive, which kinda defeats the purpose in purposefully low nutrient a system.

However microalgae tends to thrive more on phosphates than nitrates. So one could keep keep cheato in a low phosphates/ low nitrates system simply by dosing nitrates. Provided a small amount of of phosphates is regularly added to the system as well ( fish food ).

I dont want to comment on the uptake ratio of cheato specifically, because I dont have that info, but typically the uptake ratio for marine plants is much higher on the nitrate side, for example the uptake ratio could be 20:1, thats 20 parts NO3 to 1 part PO4.


So for example your system has 1 part NO3 and 1 part PO4, the cheato is going to quickly remove the NO3 leaving most of the PO4 for micro(nuisance) alga to thrive on.

So by dosing NO3 as counterproductive as it may seem it will actually allow the cheato to remove more of the PO4 more efficiently. With an end result of the cheato outcompeting the micro/nuisance alga for nutrients thus limiting the growth of your nuisance alga.

I havent even touched on iron dosing here which does seem to improve the growth of cheato as well provided the other nutrients are available. The trick is to find a balance between the the three so that none become limited or overdosed.

 

[linklemming]

I am having the same problem with chaeto for over a year. Prior to my current problems, I had succesful chaeto growth for well over a year. It all seemed to start when I changed my fuge light and used the wrong one. With that light, any chaeto I would buy would never grow.

Once I figured out the light thing I have had much better success....but still ultimate failure. I have tried several wattage lights and different time periods but the results are always the same.

Basically what happens is when I first put in new chaeto, the growth is for lack of a better word......explosive. Within a matter of two weeks the chaeto is easily 2-4 times the size of the original. The growth seems to slowly subside with each cultivation until it seems to be non-existant.

Any ideas?

Gary

 

[graveyardworm]

Nutrient limitation.

 

[KyleP]

I think I can add another scenario to the nutrient limitation concept. I have a big ball of cheato in a 15 gallon section of my sump with a 100 watt 6500 k bulb on it. I know the light is enough becuase few xenia and shrooms in there are going nuts and I have some grape caulerpa that is also growing fast. The cheato stays alive and green, but really doesn't grow at all, or if it is, its really slow. I feed my fish twice a day, but its only what they will eat. A little at a time. I also have relatively few fish for my 75 gallon reef and a solid cleaning crew of about 75 right handed hermits (small) and shrimp. About a 100 pounds of life rock. Add in a 125 super skimmer that I have working very efficiently, and I really don't have anything to feed the cheato. Its the only thing I can come up with. Flow is also pretty decent around the cheato. But like someone mentioned, no worries, because the job of cheato is nutrient export and a lack of excessive nutrients is a good problem to have. My corals love the clean water and are going at a fast rate.