Whats wrong with my refugium?? Cheato wont grow!

sromero287

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No worries, was in the same situation. All of it was loosing the green and getting like grayish or kinda white then loose all and bye bye. My action to correct the issue was, went on line to buy a full spectrum led bulb with red on it ( mine is from coral compulsion dot com) bought the chaeto "again" and started to feed my tank daily, I feed frozen and pellets. At the beginning with the frozen ones was just feed the tank even with the same solution after de froze (full of nitrates) I knowww, make sure ur skimmer is working dry or ur algae scrubber is on as well, the extra nitrates, the light full spectrum and place if possible a small Koralia at the sump to get some flow, not too much and done. If u want after the chaeto start growing, you'll see then u can add some tiger cope pods from reef nutrition or from reefs2go (Giants like roaches) and start again feeding ur tank every other day.
I have to prune mine at least every two weeks. It's crazy.
 

roli112

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Had the same problem for a few months with very little flow,all I did was increase the flow a bit and now my chaeto is ready for a trim. Anybody in the L.A. area need some?
 
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Reef_a_holiks

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I think the key to growing chaeto is lighting. I use a full spectrum light I got it at Home Depot and I use it in a clamp light that cost me about 10 bucks. I grow chaeto like a weed. I think the bulb was $12.95, so less than $25.00 I have my chaeto growing light. I have been using it for 5 years, same bulb, same fixture.

Any way you can find out the exact brand and model of this light ?
 
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No worries, was in the same situation. All of it was loosing the green and getting like grayish or kinda white then loose all and bye bye. My action to correct the issue was, went on line to buy a full spectrum led bulb with red on it ( mine is from coral compulsion dot com) bought the chaeto "again" and started to feed my tank daily, I feed frozen and pellets. At the beginning with the frozen ones was just feed the tank even with the same solution after de froze (full of nitrates) I knowww, make sure ur skimmer is working dry or ur algae scrubber is on as well, the extra nitrates, the light full spectrum and place if possible a small Koralia at the sump to get some flow, not too much and done. If u want after the chaeto start growing, you'll see then u can add some tiger cope pods from reef nutrition or from reefs2go (Giants like roaches) and start again feeding ur tank every other day.
I have to prune mine at least every two weeks. It's crazy.

Thanks for the reply , il look into a full spectrum light. im gonna give this a shot
 

syzsounds

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I use an aquaray white and blue led strip and it grows like mad !
Sorry to say but i dont and have never had to do anything with it .,..it just grows.

Give it a toss round when i'm doing my normal husbandry and separate it a bit ...but nothing else.
 

N1Husker

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Any way you can find out the exact brand and model of this light ?
It was a light I found by their garden center for growing plants. The fixture was one of those cheap clamp lights that you squeeze the two pieces of wire together to open the clamp and it had a silver reflector. Very simple. I bought it 5 or 6 years ago.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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I agree that the type of bulb and wattage can make a big difference, but since you said:

"Weird thing is ,I use this same cfl bulb on my biocubes refugium, and cheato grows great in there. "

That makes it seem a bit less likely to be a bulb issue.
 

J Rog

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I had the issue where mine just stopped growing.. It was about the size of my fist and did nothing.. I went to home depot and bought an LED bulb. I think it was either 5000K or 5100K. But my cheato went crazy with growth. I did also up the flow a little as well. But I have never gotten growth like this after the bulb switch.
 
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Thanks so much for the replies everyone. looks like il be doing a combination of everyones input, Imma switch to a stronger light most likely led, imma dose some iron, and add a small powerhead in there for more flow. Il most likely grab most of these things this weekend. il let you guys know how it goes.

Thanks again!
 

kingclam52

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Mine grows like weeds I do use a home depot bulb with no problems must be something in your water lacking.
 
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Reef_a_holiks

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hey guys wanted to come in and give a small update, so friday i did a water change along with cutting off the dead parts of my cheato, I installed a small power head in the refugium to give the cheato a bit more flow and also added 3 drops of brightwell aquatics iron. I havent been able to get a new light yet, but will do some time this week, but since this light is working in my biocubes refugium i figured ide keep it for now and try the iron and more flow first, the cheato is tumbling slowly in the refugium. So its been about two days, cheato hasnt grown, but i dont think its started to die off either so lets see how this goes.
 

placid

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mine doesnt die but more then half of it is like a brown color and is still the same size from when i got it 4 months ago
 
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Reef_a_holiks

Reef_a_holiks

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mine doesnt die but more then half of it is like a brown color and is still the same size from when i got it 4 months ago
Yea i dont think its doing so good, might be dying off. My biocubes refugium needs to be trimmed like every 3 weeks cause it over grows the refugium. and its a nice dark green, nothing of brown . I just cant seem to get it right in my 57gallon rimless reef refugium.
 

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