Whats the matter with my chaeto?

[VaderWS6]

I don't understand why my chaeto isn't bright green and soft like in most other refugiums I've seen. Mine grows in EXTREMELY tight coils, very thick and hard, and a dark green. When I first bought it a couple years ago, it was fairly soft and the coils were loose and bright green. I grow it in a depth of about 6"- 8" of water with 32 watts of 10k powercompact. It just doesn't grow like it should. What could the problem be? Too much light for that water depth? It grows fine in my 2 gallon reef's pico fuge, under 13 watts of power compact.

 

[Mavrk]

Mine grows the same way. From what I understand, the bright green is new growth. I think that if you have low nitrates and phosphates, it will not grow as fast.

By the way, definately not "too much light". Otherwise it would be bleaching out, not getting dark.

It will be interesting to read what others have to say about this because I was wondering myself.

 

[corbett_n]

you don't need 10000k over the cheato. 6700k or other plant growing bulbs work better

 

[luke33]

Well, here's my chaeto exp. I had a bowling ball size of it in my 40g fuge with one of the 25w at 125w output CF bulb's and my chaeto didn't grow for 8mths. I then added another 75w halogen on it and it grew 3-4x's it s size in one month. It won't stop growing now, i'm going to have to start giving it away here in the next few weeks.