I just started my sump up and put some Chaeto in Refugium section. My display tank is filled with small pieces of Chaeto. How do I stop that?
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did not think about that? Was not aware. I will get those numbers shortly.If I read some of your thread post correctly, your 40G breeder has been set up < 8 weeks.
What is your fish stocking load and what is nitrogen and phosphorus readings.
Your tank may not be mature enough to grow chaeto yet.
My Phosphate is 0.14If I read some of your thread post correctly, your 40G breeder has been set up < 8 weeks.
What is your fish stocking load and what is nitrogen and phosphorus readings.
Your tank may not be mature enough to grow chaeto yet.
My Phosphate is 0.14
Nitrate is 5.0 PPM
The major nutrients, N & P, are fine. Phosphate may be elevated but that is not a problem for chaeto. Macro is most often limited by trace minerals which enter tank with food and partial water changes.
My vision? I just want to have a tank with fish and coral I guess my vision is coming as I go. I want to eventually be able to add both lps and sps. Maybe next year upgrade to a larger tank.Your tank looks good. That fish list is not a heavy bioload and sounds like a lovely community.
First, I don’t think a skimmer is a good idea on a new tank. If you crowd the tank and overfeed, it might be a necessity.
What media are you thinking about and why?
What vision do you have for this tank? If your goal is to run ultra low nutrient and feed hungry SPS then nutrient export needs to be on the heavy side. If your focus is nutrient recycling with diverse filter feeders, than your system design needs to be differrent.
so maybe I should remove chaeto for now? I thought we wanted Nitrates to 0?For my tank of many fish and mostly SPS with a few LPS, my target for phosphate is 0.1-0.2 ppm and my target for Nitrate is 10-20 ppm. I only started running chaeto after regular water-changes didn't keep those values in check. I always ran a skimmer, but it didn't always take much out in the early months.
What you want to be very diligent about is not letting your phosphate (PO4) or nitrate (NO3) levels go to zero. Undesirable things happen to your tank when either of those are zero that can take months to recover. To this point, you shouldn't run chaeto if the effect of it is your phosphate or nitrate get completely removed. A young tank or a lightly-stocked tank doesn't always require every nutrient-export method to be running. If you want to run chaeto with low levels of PO4 and NO3, then just keep the chaeto small. The duration, color, and intensity of the light also affects the growth of chaeto.
Lastly, if your trace levels of Iron go to zero, then the chaeto will die. It may takes months or years (or never) but if your chaeto gets big and grows fast, then it may consume more iron than your water-changes are replacing. This happened to me and it took me 6-8 months to remove all the excess phosphate ( >1.0 ppm) from my system (it binds to your rock and sand). When my chaeto died, it turned grayish-white, thin, and limp. I didn't know at the time what that meant so I try to pass it on to others. It has never died again after I started dosing small amounts of iron, since around 1 1/2 years ago.
No you don’t want 0 nitrate unless you want Dinos to cover everything.so maybe I should remove chaeto for now? I thought we wanted Nitrates to 0?
For my tank of many fish and mostly SPS with a few LPS, my target for phosphate is 0.1-0.2 ppm and my target for Nitrate is 10-20 ppm. I only started running chaeto after regular water-changes didn't keep those values in check. I always ran a skimmer, but it didn't always take much out in the early months.
What you want to be very diligent about is not letting your phosphate (PO4) or nitrate (NO3) levels go to zero. Undesirable things happen to your tank when either of those are zero that can take months to recover. To this point, you shouldn't run chaeto if the effect of it is your phosphate or nitrate get completely removed. A young tank or a lightly-stocked tank doesn't always require every nutrient-export method to be running. If you want to run chaeto with low levels of PO4 and NO3, then just keep the chaeto small. The duration, color, and intensity of the light also affects the growth of chaeto.
Lastly, if your trace levels of Iron go to zero, then the chaeto will die. It may takes months or years (or never) but if your chaeto gets big and grows fast, then it may consume more iron than your water-changes are replacing. This happened to me and it took me 6-8 months to remove all the excess phosphate ( >1.0 ppm) from my system (it binds to your rock and sand). When my chaeto died, it turned grayish-white, thin, and limp. I didn't know at the time what that meant so I try to pass it on to others. It has never died again after I started dosing small amounts of iron, since around 1 1/2 years ago.
thanks. I ditched the chaeto. At this time just seems to be more of a problem than a solution. I will wait till my tank matures some more. Thanks.No you don’t want 0 nitrate unless you want Dinos to cover everything.
And personally I think you don’t need chaeto yet.