Chaeto Not Growing
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OP
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When I setup my tank I added 5 different types of macro. The Chaeto was the first to take off, then it died back and the sea lettuce took over. Eventually, the sea lettuce also died back and GHA took over. During these 6 months I was not doing any water changes just dosing. Now 6 months later I cleaned the GHA from the refugium and started doing weekly water changes. In the last week both the sea lettuce and the Chaeto have made a return. I was shocked any of it was still alive becaus there was nothing visible when I removed the GHA. All that said, in my case it appears I was missing some type of trace element that eventually got replaced with the water changes. It also probably helped that I removed the GHA which was likely also out competing it for nutrients.
OP
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5? Some from Algae Barn, some from LFS, some from eBay reefers
I feel your pain.
I had the same problem but I couldn't even get sea lettuce to grow.
I tried everything: multiple batches of chaeto, ICP Test, Kent Iron, Chaeto Grow, singing to it at night....But no grow.
I gave up and gave in and beat a tactical retreat.
I just threw some calurpa in the refugium and it grew like a weed.
After 4 or 5 months I picked up some ratty looking chaeto from a fellow reefer.
I thought to myself, This stuff will never make it. It will never out compete the calurpa.
But I got it for free so I just threw it in and it went WILD. Totally decimated the calurpa and I've been pulling it out by the fist full weekly.
Moral of the story: We really don't know what the heck is going on in there. We do to a small extent but these tanks are amazingly complex biological systems with loads of bacteria, organic and inorganic chemicals etc...swirling around and sometimes we can fix the BIG stuff like alk or calc or salinity being way off BUT a lot of the times there are things happening there we just can't detect or even if we do we do detect, we don't understand all of the complex interactions....So, fwiw, my advice to myself is: First, of course, try all of the obvious stuff. And then if it don't work I realized sometimes you just got to step away and wait. Work on another problem. Fix that leak. Re-plumb that manifold. Read some more articles by RHF and watch some more BRS videos. Keep on reefing and then come back in 6 months or a year and try again by then your tank will have moved on and it's ready for something new. You can't push the river and you certainly can't budge the ocean.
I had the same problem but I couldn't even get sea lettuce to grow.
I tried everything: multiple batches of chaeto, ICP Test, Kent Iron, Chaeto Grow, singing to it at night....But no grow.
I gave up and gave in and beat a tactical retreat.
I just threw some calurpa in the refugium and it grew like a weed.
After 4 or 5 months I picked up some ratty looking chaeto from a fellow reefer.
I thought to myself, This stuff will never make it. It will never out compete the calurpa.
But I got it for free so I just threw it in and it went WILD. Totally decimated the calurpa and I've been pulling it out by the fist full weekly.
Moral of the story: We really don't know what the heck is going on in there. We do to a small extent but these tanks are amazingly complex biological systems with loads of bacteria, organic and inorganic chemicals etc...swirling around and sometimes we can fix the BIG stuff like alk or calc or salinity being way off BUT a lot of the times there are things happening there we just can't detect or even if we do we do detect, we don't understand all of the complex interactions....So, fwiw, my advice to myself is: First, of course, try all of the obvious stuff. And then if it don't work I realized sometimes you just got to step away and wait. Work on another problem. Fix that leak. Re-plumb that manifold. Read some more articles by RHF and watch some more BRS videos. Keep on reefing and then come back in 6 months or a year and try again by then your tank will have moved on and it's ready for something new. You can't push the river and you certainly can't budge the ocean.
Last edited:
Dabcrusher
Valuable Member
In the cheato hrowing aspect thats not high at maybe for you corals it is
yanton
New Member
Are you aware that there are at least 3 commonly kept variants of chaeto?
One dark green wiry and medium speed growth, another very fast grower, not as deep green, and a third finer more delicate one which some fish will eat.
We may not be aware which one we are trying to grow.
More information on this link: https://www.livealgae.co.uk/module/...ule=iqitsearch&controller=searchiqit&s=chaeto
One dark green wiry and medium speed growth, another very fast grower, not as deep green, and a third finer more delicate one which some fish will eat.
We may not be aware which one we are trying to grow.
More information on this link: https://www.livealgae.co.uk/module/...ule=iqitsearch&controller=searchiqit&s=chaeto
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