Cheato falling apart, not growing

[NexisG]

I can never seem to keep cheato alive for the life of me. This time I have a reef breeders pico light over a maybe 1 galling fudge in the back of an AIO. I got a ball of cheato that tumbled well and looked healthy when I got it. But it just slowly became more strongly and loose and fell apart. It’s almost all gone now and I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. The light runs for 20 hours a day since it isn’t super high powered. I feed a cube of mysis and a cube of brine shrimp each day. It’s in a 40 gallon and last time I tested I had 0.09 phosphate and around 5 nitrate. I have some cyano and a little hair algae in the main tank I’m trying to combat at the moment. Any ideas on why my cheato keeps dying?

 

[tbrown]

Do you have any nitrates or phosphate for the chaeto to eat?

 

[DesertCitiesReefer]

You might not have enough minerals for the cheato to grow.

 

[NexisG]

You might not have enough minerals for the cheato to grow.

Should I do an icp test to check what i need or is there something specific I should add to help it?

 

[DesertCitiesReefer]

Should I do an icp test to check what i need or is there something specific I should add to help it?

Always good to do an ICP test to see where your trace and minor minerals are at. I also use Brightwell Aquatics ChaetoGro. But the ICP gets is the way to go so your not dosing things you don’t need or overdosing elements.