Do you grow Chaeto algae and is it easy or hard for you?

[Buckster]

I couldn't grow Chaeto at first but then after about a year and a half it started growing. I now take out a softball size piece once a month and put it into another tank.

 

[afrokobe]

I had it growing well in my refugium until it suddenly started falling apart and released a lot of nutrients back into my tank. I’m considering trying it again though.

that happened to me the first time. It grew incredibly fast and I did not do a good job of trimming it. All of it crashed at once and that was kind of nightmare to clean up.

 

[Gtinnel]

that happened to me the first time. It grew incredibly fast and I did not do a good job of trimming it. All of it crashed at once and that was kind of nightmare to clean up.

I assume a lack of trimming was likely my issue also. I neglected trimming because getting to my refugium under my stand is a pain. I actually never cleaned mine out I just turned off the water flow to the the refugium. So some of my water evaporated and otherwise it’s still just sitting there as a disgusting green mess. It may be a nice project for this weekend for me. I also may be able to salvage some of my existing chaeto to start growing it again. I did like having the pH bump at night.

 

[fowler279]

I tried about 6mo ago but never really took off. I dose Iron but maybe not enough. Never saw a pH bump either so dont think it was really doing anything. Nutrients are starting to creep up a little so going to try again to see what happens.

 

[Koh23]

Growth varies from turbo to stagnation periodicaly....

When it grows in turbo mode, if fills 40x40x30 area in one week.

When is stagnant, in month.....

 

[afrokobe]

I assume a lack of trimming was likely my issue also. I neglected trimming because getting to my refugium under my stand is a pain. I actually never cleaned mine out I just turned off the water flow to the the refugium. So some of my water evaporated and otherwise it’s still just sitting there as a disgusting green mess. It may be a nice project for this weekend for me. I also may be able to salvage some of my existing chaeto to start growing it again. I did like having the pH bump at night.

yea similar issue here, I had it on a hob refugium and had no access to the back of the tank. Now I have a sump setup hopefully, I can keep up with trimming.

 

[REAQUA]

No more chaeto. I tried multiple times and methods. It always fell apart. I used a scrubber now.

 

[Hitchhik3r]

When you guys "trim", are you literally trimming with a pair of scissors? Or just grabbing a fistful and ripping it off.

 

[afrokobe]

When you guys "trim", are you literally trimming with a pair of scissors? Or just grabbing a fistful and ripping it off.

I would think its the latter. Thats what I have done.

 

[Gtinnel]

When you guys "trim", are you literally trimming with a pair of scissors? Or just grabbing a fistful and ripping it off.

It doesn’t matter as long as you pull some of the chaeto out. When I say trim I’m thinking more in the terms of ripping a piece out too, instead of actually trimming it down with scissors.

 

[StepByStepFishkeeping]

I have no issues growing them in 1.008 SG, 1.018 SG, or full marine tanks.

The key is to have sufficient light, sufficient nitrate/phosphate, and weekly Chaeto Gro dosing.

 

[flashsmith]

Mine did well for a few months but eventually GHA smothered it out. On the bright side my display never has had GHA. So I guess it did what it was supposed to do. I recently decided to try pom pom, ogo and sea lettuce. My plan is to use it to feed my tangs.

 

[DannoOMG]

I tried in my nano tank but I think I didn't have enough flow going through it to make a difference. Tried twice and it melted. Second time I tried with chaetogro too.

 

[bkhunt]

I can not grow it. Tried different light and it just slowly goes away.

I am thinking of trying some of the red phosphate eating algae’s if I can get my hands on some.

 

[fishboy1]

Mine grew abit but died

 

[MoshJosh]

Seems to grow well for me. I use full spectrum lighting for 12 hours at night, and dose Chaetogro.

 

[vinvinaa]

If I have an upflow algae scrubber, do I still need to grow Chaeto?

 

[trevorhiller]

I've never been able to grow Chaeto . I've tried it for years in multiple systems with a variety of livestock and different equipment. I bought chaeto from various sources, it always either "dissolves" or gets taken over by GHA - so now I use turf scrubbers.

I'm on my second attempt at, first was in a reactor and it started growing for week, then died out. I believe Iron dosing was the issue, so now I am dosing some DIY iron (Fergon tablets in RODI)

I added a Tunze Chic strip to my sump and let grow whatever was already in my tank. Seems to be working.

I just switched from a reactor to this light. It seems to be working, but now I have GHA growing on the chaeto.

Who would have thought growing frea**** algae would be so challenging lol

 

[shakacuz]

yes. it rather easy for me

 

[Jarry]

It requires strong light and also nutrients in the water. If there is no NO3 or if its let's say under 1ppm NO3 in the water, chaeto will die. Iron dosing help to get better grow (but still, NO3 would be limiting factor). It is also important to watch K levels, chaeto as an algae is consuming Potassium and I have to dose it from time to time in all my tanks with chaeto. The key is to find balance between input and output, chaeto nutrients consumption could be very easily adjusted by the amount of algae and lighting period.

80 gallon sump on the photo, chaeto + Tunze 9430DC skimmer as the only nutrition export in my 300 gallon LPS/SPS tank. Photo is few months old, I keep chaeto chamber almost full of algae now. There are 8 tangs, 3 other bigger fish and 10 smaller fish in the tank. I feed frozen twice a day (quite a lot) + pellets once.