Cheato MORPHING

[Wagtribe]

I replaced my 5 year old 75g bowfront tank with a WB180.5 and upgraded & added some new equipment. After getting my fuge up and running I installed a Tunze EcoChic 8811 light to feed my clump of Cheato and left it on 24-7; so far so good. I was already dosing NoPox 5.8mL, AFR 38mL and Coral Nutrition AB+ 38mL and wanted to add to my my dosing Kalkwasser. Started dosing 950mL and tests were good.
Alk - 8.6
Cal - 509
Mg -1200
PO4 - 0.03
pH 7.88
Salt - 35.5
Temp 80.2
Then the Cheato hit the fan!!! I started noticing white areas in my clump. I would occasionally flip the Cheato to expose to light but thought it needed to flip it more often. I started to notice larger bubbles in Skimmer and noticed it overflowing. The next day the Cheato rapidly turned into jelly and slimed my fuge as well as long strands of mucus/slime inside my DT. My question is, was the Tunze light not enough Wats? Am I removing too much Phosphate and not feeding Cheato? or is the Kalk causing the breakdown of Cheato?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I do not see a nitrate value. It may be too low???

The kalkwasser is no concern for the chaeto unless it is dosed near it and the local pH near it is getting quite high.

 

[Wagtribe]

I do not see a nitrate value. It may be too low???

The kalkwasser is no concern for the chaeto unless it is dosed near it and the local pH near it is getting quite high.

I have a defective Hanna Nitrate checker, so no I haven't checked my Nitrate level. But I did see that my Phosphate level was 0.0 . I believe I was stripping too much Phosphate out. I just read an article about Kalkwasser and how it too can lower Phosphate. Between dosing Red Sea No3PO4x, combining GFO with my carbon in my reactor, and adding Kalk, it was starving my Chaeto. I was surprised how quickly the algae disintegrated into slime. Would this also explain why the Skimmer is bubbling larger bubbles and overflowing?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I would not put much of the effect on kalkwasser. This is one of the ideas that has floated around reefkeeping since, I think, Craig Bingman suggested it decades ago, but how large the effect is (if any) on in aquarium phosphate has not, as far as I know, ever been shown.

I used kalkwasser along with other phosphate reduction methods (GFO, growing macroalgae, and vinegar dosing all at the same time) and phosphate was not too low.