Chaeto dying??

[nicolebrzu]

My ball of chaeto seems to be shrinking over time...
I'm wondering if there is more to growing this stuff than I thought! Is it possible for it to be too close to the light source? (its probably about 8 inches away). Does the water depth matter? (its fully covered with water, but only probably an inch from the water surface). Does water flow matter? I assumed the constant flow of the overflow next to it would be plenty, but I've noticed a layer of cyano on the chaeto here and there. Could this be a flow issue?

In short, how do I keep my chaeto growing?

 

[luisgo]

In order to grow chaeto you need strong light, medium to slow flow and some nutrientes in the water. I use a spiral 75w fluorescent 6500k light 24/7 at 10" from chaeto, slow flow and low nutrient water but lots of feeding.

 

[soco]

Cheato survives on using the nutrients in ur system. If u don't have alot of phosphates or nitrates it can def shrink over time. I have read that running any other phosphate remover will make ur cheato slowly die also and and I am starting to agree since my cheato is also slowly decreaseing in mass

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[luisgo]

I don't think that you need "a lot" of phosphates and nitrates for your chaeto to grow. You need some. The phosphate and nitrate removers will give you the oportunity to feed more. By feeding more you add phosphates and nitrates to your system. The media will remove some and the chaeto will do the same. Is a matter of balance. My chaeto will not grow fast but gives me the advantage of having pods in there.

 

[soco]

Correct I misspoke by saying "a lot" I just meant if u do have excess they will feed of off them

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[jessemac]

Your lighting doesn't have anything to do with it dieting unless your just drowning it with too much light. I light my cheato 24/7 with 2 24w T5 bulbs. As others have mentioned, the cheato feeds of excess phosphates and nitrates in the water collum, so if there is a diminished amount of either your cheato will not grow and may wither away to some extend, but should not fully die. However, there should be a decent amount of water flow going through the cheato, I would say no less that a couple hundred gph.

 

[nicolebrzu]

My light is a mini compact fluorescent bulb, 6700k. This should be fine, right? I've been running it 24/7.

So you are saying it shouldn't be a problem to have phosban running in a reactor? I have caulerpa growing like crazy in my display (I've been trying to get rid of it for months) so the chaeto definitely has to compete with it for nutrients, but I try to pick out as much caulerpa as possible every week. I just don't get how it grows so fast but the chaeto is slowly diminishing. This is the second ball of chaeto I have bought. The first one died completely.

I feel I have provided the environment it needs in order to grow but I must be missing something...??

 

[TylerHaworth]

You shouldn't be lighting it 24/7.

 

[whippetguy]

So you are saying it shouldn't be a problem to have phosban running in a reactor? I have caulerpa growing like crazy in my display (I've been trying to get rid of it for months) so the chaeto definitely has to compete with it for nutrients, but I try to pick out as much caulerpa as possible every week. I just don't get how it grows so fast but the chaeto is slowly diminishing.

If it's feather caulerpa, my turbo snails love the stuff.


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[lcstorc]

I would cut back on the lighting some. I believe it needs a day and night cycle. Most people light it reverse from the rest of the system to reduce PH swing. I too have trouble keeping it alive but I suspect we both need to add some flow. If cyano is growing on it that is likely at least part of the problem.

 

[Uslanja]

From our observations in our own fuge.... cyano growing on the cheato makes us think the light kelvin rating is too low. We light our fuge with actinic as well as 10,000K. We understand that cyano is a bacteria and not an algae but we experienced an outbreak of cyano on our cheato when I overlooked changing our 50/50 PC bulbs on schedule. We light opposite the display and give the fuge a dark period. Just out of curiosity..... what are your nitrate and phosphate readings?