Chaeto is a Challenge

Tritie · Feb 20, 2023

I'm struggling to grow healthy chaeto. My nitrates are high. I originally had a large ball of chaeto in my Eshopps R-100 fuge section (10" × 7 " × 14"). It was under a Kessil H160. Par was pretty high (200-300 par?) And in the grow-bloom range. The chaeto ended up turning into a tight ball that stopped growing. Nitrates were upwards of 100, but phos may have been very close to 0.00 (Hanna LR). Towards the last few months, I started tumbling it, but there was no change, even when dosing phos.

I got a second ball. It was nice initially, but after a 16 day QT and fresh water rinse, it easily pulls apart. During QT and now, I've been using a Neptunian Cube fuge light as I thought maybe the Kessil was too much. However, the Neptunian cube fuge light is about 450 par, though the colour is white, not blue, purple or red. This new ball hasn't done anything in the last two weeks to reduce the nitrates. I've been dosing phos and I am now between 0.015 and 0.05 ppm.

Should I stick with the Neptunian fuge light or go back to the Kessil? What par should I be shooting for? What spectrum?

fish farmer · Feb 20, 2023

You probably don't have enough phoshate. You could also start with a small ball of chaeto to see if it grows.

TannerC91 · Mar 2, 2023

Tritie said:
I'm struggling to grow healthy chaeto.

The refugium isnt the problem, your phosphate nitrate balance is. I would take your refugium offline (and any gfo removal media) and start dosing phosphate. I remember someone having probelms with nitrate/phosphate ratio and they came to the conclusion that the organisms that remove nitrate need phosphate as well. He took gfo off and started dosing phsophate (not more food because might contribute to nitrate too). It started to balance out pretty quick and he had cyano outbreak. He cleaned cyano only after the balance corrected if i remember right. Try searching high nitrate low phosphate here and you'll probably find it. After the balance is corrected and you start needing a way to control it nutrients then start your refugium. If you still have problems with growing chaeto then try chaeto grow from brightwell.

bushdoc · Mar 2, 2023

Somehow dosing phosphates in other than food form seem to be less popular than dosing Nitrates. You could consider dosing carbon to lower nitrates though.( vinegar, vodka, biopellets).

John1966 · Mar 2, 2023

Did you ever use vibrant or similar chemical? I grew chaeto like crazy, but then used vibrant for bryopsis. It took me almost a year after the vibrant dose with many water changes before chaeto grew again for me.

Tritie · Mar 2, 2023

TannerC91 said:
The refugium isnt the problem, your phosphate nitrate balance is. I would take your refugium offline (and any gfo removal media) and start dosing phosphate. I remember someone having probelms with nitrate/phosphate ratio and they came to the conclusion that the organisms that remove nitrate need phosphate as well. He took gfo off and started dosing phsophate (not more food because might contribute to nitrate too). It started to balance out pretty quick and he had cyano outbreak. He cleaned cyano only after the balance corrected if i remember right. Try searching high nitrate low phosphate here and you'll probably find it. After the balance is corrected and you start needing a way to control it nutrients then start your refugium. If you still have problems with growing chaeto then try chaeto grow from brightwell.

Thanks. I found his protocol and I am dosing phos daily. I don't run any gfo. It must be the rocks and sand.

Tritie · Mar 2, 2023

John1966 said:
Did you ever use vibrant or similar chemical? I grew chaeto like crazy, but then used vibrant for bryopsis. It took me almost a year after the vibrant dose with many water changes before chaeto grew again for me.

No. No vibrant. It's a tank that was cycling for 8 months without light. Just turned the light on in Jan. No bryopsis, just diatoms like crazy.

Tritie · Mar 2, 2023

bushdoc said:
Somehow dosing phosphates in other than food form seem to be less popular than dosing Nitrates. You could consider dosing carbon to lower nitrates though.( vinegar, vodka, biopellets).

I tried nopox for several months, but it wasn't helping the situation. I ended up getting bacterial bloom all over the glass. Strings of white growth over an inch long, on every surface of the glass.

hart24601 · Mar 2, 2023

If you have measurable phosphate and nitrate and have not previously run anti algae chemicals then you’re probably trace element limited. Chaeto needs a lot of iron and iodine. I couldn’t grow it until I put chaetogro on a doser and it was like a light switch from dying to thriving. Not sure what element I was lacking, but awc and all for reef didn’t have enough of it.

Tritie · Mar 2, 2023

hart24601 said:
If you have measurable phosphate and nitrate and have not previously run anti algae chemicals then you’re probably trace element limited. Chaeto needs a lot of iron and iodine. I couldn’t grow it until I put chaetogro on a doser and it was like a light switch from dying to thriving. Not sure what element I was lacking, but awc and all for reef didn’t have enough of it.

I have been dosing Chaeto Grow as well. I started three weeks ago. Chaeto is still falling apart.

srobertb · Mar 2, 2023

It’s so hard to tell. My chaeto grows well…and I mean it grows hair algae on top of it well.

mice had tanks where it died, tanks where it grew like crazy…and tanks where it grows hair algae on it.

Probably a lack of nutrients- iron, iodine, phosphates, etc…but dosing something generally unwanted (phosphates) to get something to grow to remove something else unwanted starts to feel philosophically wrong; like releasing anacondas to control a mouse problem.

Are you running GFO? Have you thought about just taking some sheets of plastic (like they use for certain craft projects) and sticking that in place of the algae to let hair algae grow? Rough it up with sandpaper for best results. Have you thought about Caulerpa?

srobertb · Mar 2, 2023

Tritie said:
I have been dosing Chaeto Grow as well. I started three weeks ago. Chaeto is still falling apart.

Try caulerpa (I wouldn’t)
Try gracillaria or other macro algae
Use the fine mesh plastic. Rough it up with a piece of sandpaper. Stick it in front of a grow light. See if hair algae grows

Why do you care? Is it affecting anything? I don’t mean to be flippant but I haven’t tested nitrates in 5 years. Everything is happy. Everything is growing. No major algae issues in your display?

Tritie · Mar 2, 2023

srobertb said:
Try caulerpa (I wouldn’t)
Try gracillaria or other macro algae
Use the fine mesh plastic. Rough it up with a piece of sandpaper. Stick it in front of a grow light. See if hair algae grows

Why do you care? Is it affecting anything? I don’t mean to be flippant but I haven’t tested nitrates in 5 years. Everything is happy. Everything is growing. No major algae issues in your display?

No gfo. Phos is constantly bottoming out. Nitrate is constantly rising by over 20ppm per week.

srobertb said:
Try caulerpa (I wouldn’t)
Try gracillaria or other macro algae
Use the fine mesh plastic. Rough it up with a piece of sandpaper. Stick it in front of a grow light. See if hair algae grows

Why do you care? Is it affecting anything? I don’t mean to be flippant but I haven’t tested nitrates in 5 years. Everything is happy. Everything is growing. No major algae issues in your display?