Chaeto dying (white/brittle) with good lighting, nutrients

Gloomfrost

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Hey all, long time lurker, first time poster!

Hoping for some assistance.. I've searched and read a bunch but still can't quite get my chaeto to thrive.

Summary:
- 160g peninsula tank, 40g sump that's about 6mo old. 2 little clown fish, a small tang, and a blenny currently inhabit the DT along with a cleaner shrimp and a peppermint shrimp + some snails. It's pretty baren right now but we're going real slow and are still waiting for our peninsula to be enclosed in a top cabinet section before I install lights and eventually add corals.
- Sump picture attached - 3 filter socks, 2x 24W green-killing-machine UVs (only 1 is on right now), nyos 160 skimmer, fuge with live rock, rubble, sand, a peppermint, and some snails. Temps at 77-79F.

About 2 months ago I put in a ball of chaeto from my LFS, and within about a month it fell apart, turned soft and white and I chucked it so it stopped decomposing. At the time, I had about 10-20ppm nitrate and went between a 2700K cree 9W LED to a 5000K 12W Phillips white LED (both household potlights since I read chaeto didn't need any fancy lights). Okay I thought, probably iron/trace elements issue, maybe flow, maybe light.
About a month after that (2 weeks ago from today), I added a second ball of chaeto, this time with the following improvements:
- got a Kessil H80 light
- Nitrates at 40ppm
- Got ChaetoGro

I added it, dosed the ChaetoGrow and MicroBacter7 along with it as recommended, put the Kessil on Grow at 50% - 12hr period opposite from daytime (since no light in the DT) (6pm-6am). Light is 12" above the fuge and the chaeto is 6" under the water - not tumbling but it does wave/move a little. Over the next week I increased lighting to 100% intensity and kept dosing the 2 supplements. I also turned off skimming.

2 weeks later (today), it's still slowly falling apart (I keep picking out pieces of chaeto everywhere) and continuing to turn pale. I do notice the pieces that break off are not as mushy or white as before but they're still falling apart (1-2" pieces). I thought maybe it was PO4 phosphate limited so I got the red sea test kit and checked today - 0.05ppm - seems fine.

It's definitely healthier than the 1st round of chaeto which fell apart more quickly and got more mushy than this time, but regardless it's not growing and thus not reducing nitrates (actually increasing them since it's basically a nitrate battery that is depleting right now). I also noticed brown algae on the glass walls develop in the fuge since adding the H80 - snails must be happy.

I'm going to try to reduce photo period to 8hrs, reduce light intensity to 50%, and go on the daily dosing schedule of ChaetoGro rather than the twice weekly.

Anyone had a similar experience or can recommend what to try next as I'm out of ideas.

IMG_20210117_182234.jpg
 

Jonify

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Hmm...on first read, doesn't sound like you have enough livestock to warrant chaeto in that size tank. And if it's not getting enough nutrients, it's going to wither. But you report 40ppm nitrates--are you dosing anything to get that? Also, what's your rationale for dosing microbacter7/and what is your dose? That bacteria can sometimes outcompete the macro for nutrients.
 
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Gloomfrost

Gloomfrost

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Hmm...on first read, doesn't sound like you have enough livestock to warrant chaeto in that size tank. And if it's not getting enough nutrients, it's going to wither. But you report 40ppm nitrates--are you dosing anything to get that? Also, what's your rationale for dosing microbacter7/and what is your dose? That bacteria can sometimes outcompete the macro for nutrients.
No not dosing nitrates. The reason I put in the first chaeto ball was because nitrates were starting to creep up (around 20ppm after the first few months of the new tank), so I thought I'd get some chaeto started, get it to stabilize and slowly grow as I add more livestock. But it withered and I think that's why the nitrates spiked up to 40+. MicroBacter7 is recommended to dose as a carbon source (says so on the ChaetoGro anyway). I agree it should compete but either way it doesn't look like it's doing much, though it does take time for those bacteria to get established.

The only other chemical I added beside RO/DI water and microbacter was some Vibrant about 3 months in (3 months ago) to combat some hair algae in the DT which it definitely did get rid of. Otherwise a fairly straight forward setup hence my confusion.
 

midgaar

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I'm having the same problem. NO3 in the 10-20 range, PO4 is .2 and I dose Chaeto grow daily. I used the H160 light and gave up on the refugium and just went with the Pax Bellium. I'm still struggling to keep Chaeto alive. Let me know if you get it figured out.
 
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Gloomfrost

Gloomfrost

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Hey, I gave up on it unfortunately. I ended up turning back the skimmer back on to try to keep nitrates in check. There's still a sad soft clump of chaeto (maybe golfball size but flattened) in the middle of the fuge. It has definitely held on for longer this time around with higher nutrients+ better light+chaetogro but still overall a fail. I'm going to move on to trying to grow other things+ letting the coraline algae take over the live rock in the fuge. Might try again with chaeto down the road. Adding a red mangrove today as well :)
 

midgaar

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Hey, I gave up on it unfortunately. I ended up turning back the skimmer back on to try to keep nitrates in check. There's still a sad soft clump of chaeto (maybe golfball size but flattened) in the middle of the fuge. It has definitely held on for longer this time around with higher nutrients+ better light+chaetogro but still overall a fail. I'm going to move on to trying to grow other things+ letting the coraline algae take over the live rock in the fuge. Might try again with chaeto down the road. Adding a red mangrove today as well :)
Have you used Vibrant? I'm pretty sure that was my issue, I stopped dosing Vibrant about 2 weeks ago and just in the last 4-5 days my Chaeto went from near death to dark green and healthy and doubled in size!
 
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