Why wont my chaeto grow?

[evan47]

I have had chaetomorpha in my sump for a good couple of months and it has shown zero signs of growth.
All it seems to have done is break up a little bit at a time.
I currently have phosphates up tp .16 and nitrates of 10.
The chaeto is still green and presumably still alive and I have other types of algae growing in the sump and tank including green hair algae which is starting to bother me.
The chaeto is in a high flow area in the sump and has good light 24/7.

 

[jiminy_crime]

Had a similar problem until I did the following:
1) I let it rest with no lights for 8 hrs
2) I let it tumble in the sump now instead of it just sitting in the sump. Have a ball that spins in one spot and grows even in a perfect ball of chaeto.
3) made sure I had 6500k bulb in the lamp and even switched to a grow light bulb which made a big difference.


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[rocksaus]

+1 on the rest period. I have mine on while my display is off for pH and oxygen reasons. Tumbling is good as well

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[Michael Hoaster]

Sometimes you have every nutrient needed but one. Have you tried adding iron? Or it could be a trace element that gets depleted quickly. Water change or trace element supplement could help.

 

[ThRoewer]

I used special plant growth LED bulbs and left them on 24/7. The chaeto grew like crazy for months, but then stopped completely.
My tank water either ran out of iron, iodine, copper or some other trace element. In my larger system where I do frequent water changes I did so far not have this problem.
The thing I may try is to add some Guillard f/2 without NO3 or PO4.

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[Jstaff123]

I have feather caulerpa and have tried a few times to grow chaeto as well, but the chaeto always withers away, while the caulerpa grows like weeds. I'm assuming the caulerpa just out competes the chaeto?

 

[evan47]

My chaeto initially started to break up but stopped after a month or two and now just sits there without any new growth,,,,,it is still nice and green though.
I always change at least 10% of my water weekly and top up with 2 liters of RO daily.
I resorted to using GFO in a reactor ( running slowly ) and money cowries plus manual removal to control my GHA and am now finally winning the battle. Lowering the whites in my lighting system helped too.

 

[Subsea]

+10 on what Michael said.

http://marineplantbook.com/marinebookpage10.htm

Russ Kronwetter describes major and minor nutrients.

 

[FLSharkvictim]

I just bought the new Celestial C35-A Aquatic Algae Growing by Maxspect and wow what a difference then my old fuge light. My cheato grows like a weed.. Sounds like you need a new light..