Help me understand my chaeto

[um_fan5]

Tank is going on month 5 and lights came on about a week ago.
I picked up a small ball of chaeto from a local reefer which I kept in a jar in the sump for about 80 days.
Just to make sure I didn't introduce anything.

Added Chaeto into the refug about a month ago...but it hasn't grown in fact it's gotten smaller!

I do take my water to my LFS once a month as my benchmark with my testing.
Here are the last 3 month (10/16, 11/15 and yesterday). Could the "spike" in nitrate be my dying chaeto?
Will admit, I do feed a little bit more than I should. 2-3 times a day....but it the same amount hasn't changed.
Mix of pellets and and Rob's.

Live stock: Coral Beauty, 2 clowns, 3 anthias, foxface. (4 chormis in QT being added this weekend)
CUC: 2 Mexican Turbo Snails, 3 emerald crab (but only see one), 5 blue leg hermit (2 left), 1 Sand Sifting Sea Star, 1 Nassarius Snail and 1 Blood Red Fire Shrimp added yesterday.
Tank: approx 125G total system running UV (24/7), carbon and GFO reactors, skimmer, small bag of Purigen and the only dosing I'm currently doing is MB7 once a week.
For what it's worth...use IO Reef Crystals and thinking to start using Red Sea or Tropic Marin

10-15% water change once a week.

This morning...sorry for the slurping noise....pulled a little water yesterday to dip and acclimate my first "test" frags last night.

 

[itsken37]

Your magnesium look a little high, but I am not sure if that has an affect on the chaeto. Also, that aquaspin, how much are they? I have been wondering for a while now.

 

[MarshallB]

Your parameters look good and are not the problem. What kind of light are you using for the fuge and what is the lighting schedule like?

Chaeto also needs Iron to grow properly. Given this is a new fuge I really can't see iron being the problem, but you can always pick up a test kit and check.

Chaeto just seems weird. I've also had no luck with Chaeto, but my problem has actually been keeping phosphate and nitrate high enough to even measure. I've switch to Ulva and have had better success.

Your tank looks great too!

 

[Pkunk35]

fwiw mine def took off once I put flow through it and lowered the lighting period not sure how you light or keep yours tho

 

[Crashnt24]

Pics of the fuge set up with the light being used would help us help you more. Also lighting schedule?

 

[Subsea]

If you want chaeto to grow, it needs DOC. GAC is very efficient at removing DOC. I would discontinue the use of activated carbon. For similar reasons I would discontinue protein skimmer.

In effect, either use algae filter or protein skimmer for nutrient export.

I have been skimmerless for > 40 years and prefer algae filter because in addition to nutrient export, refugiums perform nutrient recycling of live food to display tank.

 

[um_fan5]

@itsken37 the Aquaspin is at the LFS. They charge $5 per test...But I think it worth it.
Gives me peace of mind as I perform my weekly testing.

Yeah forgot to add the light schedule. DT light are on from 11AM to 9:30 XR15's and the Refug light is a Kessil H160 on at 10pm off at 6am set on grow and at about 40%
Here's pick of my sump

@MarshallB I was thinking of picking brightwell aquatics chaetogro and Brightwell's Xport-NO3 plates.
@Subsea new reefer here...could ya explain DOC and GAC for the noobie! Sorry!

Thank for the replies..BTW!

 

[Crashnt24]

@itsken37 the Aquaspin is at the LFS. They charge $5 per test...But I think it worth it.
Gives me peace of mind as I perform my weekly testing.

Yeah forgot to add the light schedule. DT light are on from 11AM to 9:30 XR15's and the Refug light is a Kessil H160 on at 10pm off at 6am set on grow and at about 40%
Here's pick of my sump

@MarshallB I was thinking of picking brightwell aquatics chaetogro and Brightwell's Xport-NO3 plates.
@Subsea new reefer here...could ya explain DOC and GAC for the noobie! Sorry!

Thank for the replies..BTW!

Up your fuge photo period to a full 12 hours. 10am-10pm. Up the intensity to 80%. Make adjustments to the intensity based on desired growth rate. If you want faster growth, increase intensity. Also the full 12 hours is recommended for ph balance. So make adjustments to intensity only. Don't worry about upping intensity as far as 100%, chaeto can handle it.

I run my fuge lights for 14 hours to fully counter the DT photo period. I also run my a360x at 100% mounted 5" above the water. I have never burned chaeto, ever.

 

[um_fan5]

Up your fuge photo period to a full 12 hours. 10am-10pm. Up the intensity to 80%. Make adjustments to the intensity based on desired growth rate. If you want faster growth, increase intensity. Also the full 12 hours is recommended for ph balance. So make adjustments to intensity only. Don't worry about upping intensity as far as 100%, chaeto can handle it.

I run my fuge lights for 14 hours to fully counter the DT photo period. I also run my a360x at 100% mounted 5" above the water. I have never burned chaeto, ever.

Thanks!
Will definitely try it! Changing the schedule right now on fusion! Let see what happens!

 

[Crashnt24]

Thanks!
Will definitely try it! Changing the schedule right now on fusion! Let see what happens!

Let us know how it works out! Should take at least a week before there is noticeable change. Once the chaeto gets acclimated to more light, it should take off.

 

[Crustaceon]

It may sound counter-intuitive but like corals, chaeto needs nutrients to be above a certain level. Seeing how efficient it is at removing phosphates, I’d say .03ppm is likely the problem. What can happen is the chaeto will absorb Po4 and cause it to “peg” at zero. This starves the chaeto, causing the ball the shrink. A little phosphate is released but seeing the chaeto isn’t all that happy, it can’t just use that Po4 immediately, which gives you a reading on your meter. This cycle will continue until the ball just dies put completely as it won’t be able to fully rebound through the continual die-off and regrowth phases. We see this when we run our fuge lights too long or simply use too much chaeto. The simple way to fix this is to let the chaeto have what it needs to survive, which means allowing your tank to get “dirtier” and find it’s own equilibrium with the fuge. You want to see slow growth that you can manage through weekly manual removal. For reference I had a grapefruit-sized clump that would grow to basketball-size every week. That was WAY too much nutrient removal and caused a serious nitrate/phosphate “see-saw” effect on my system.

 

[um_fan5]

Let us know how it works out! Should take at least a week before there is noticeable change. Once the chaeto gets acclimated to more light, it should take off.

Will do and report back!

Stay safe and warm!
Best wish!

 

[um_fan5]

@Crustaceon so maybe turning the skimmer off for a hours?
Understand where the tank needs to balance out and find its "sweet spot"
LFS yesterday say to vacuum/clean the sand bed but with a light bio-load and little detritus that I could see not sure if that will do anything.
And to cut back on feeding...which I could do!

 

[Spare time]

I had issues with chaeto until I started dosing chaetogro. This makes sense given I don't do water changes and many trace elements were probably depleted.

 

[Crustaceon]

@Crustaceon so maybe turning the skimmer off for a hours?
Understand where the tank needs to balance out and find its "sweet spot"
LFS yesterday say to vacuum/clean the sand bed but with a light bio-load and little detritus that I could see not sure if that will do anything.
And to cut back on feeding...which I could do!

If it were me. I wouldn’t even run the skimmer or at the most, would just allow the cup to empty back into the sump, so you get the benefits of aeration but not the additional nutrient reduction. A baseball-sized clump of chaeto can do an amazing job of keeping nitrates and phosphates in check on its own.

 

[Crustaceon]

I had issues with chaeto until I started dosing chaetogro. This makes sense given I don't do water changes and many trace elements were probably depleted.

Great product for those who don’t do water changes. The iron deficiency tends to be the issue here.

 

[um_fan5]

Couple of school of thoughts here!
While I understand and it makes sense where @Crustaceon is coming from but I can't see the skimmer we use in our sump are that affective at pulling everything out of the water column.

Guess I'm going to take it step by step...first with increase lighting schedule and take from there!

 

[Crustaceon]

Couple of school of thoughts here!
While I understand and it makes sense where @Crustaceon is coming from but I can't see the skimmer we use in our sump are that affective at pulling everything out of the water column.

Guess I'm going to take it step by step...first with increase lighting schedule and take from there!

What skimmers are really good at is removing trace elements (Which chaeto also needs) and if you’re carbon dosing, nitrates/phosphates. Other than that, I’ve never had a system where a skimmer made a meaningful impact on nitrates and phosphates on its own and when they were at typical levels. I do think that impact does become more noticeable though in a nearly sterile environment like an ULNS system or one that’s otherwise nitrate or phosphate deficient. My rationalization is that at low nutrient levels, tank inhabitants are living on the verge of starvation. A slight dip causes things to die, releases nitrate/phosphates/(assuming carbon as well) which spurs bacterial growth and with a skimmer in use, can absolutely peg nitrate and phosphate level. It can take a long time for a tank to recover from that. Having nitrates at 10ppm and phosphates at .1ppm provides a “nutrient buffer” of sorts.