Why can't I grow Cheto?

[Damon Jensen]

I don't seem to be able to grow any macroalgae. The tank has but up for 3 years.
200gl FOWLR, Predator tank. (Probably over stocked definitely over fed)
Blue line trigger 8 in
Clown trigger 6 in
Picaso 6 in
Queen angel 5 in
Dog face 7 in
Naso 4 in
Rock mover wrasse 7 in
File fish 3 in
Cleaner wrasse
White eye eel 22 in
Tasseleta eel 20 in

Ammonia 0, phosphate over 3, nitrate over 4 ph 8

I also have a 20 gj observation tank with a cow fish and niger trigger.....same levels

450 watt led grow light originally I had a kessel H80., but I thought I would step up the watts.

Best I ever had was mangrove growth, but never and macroalgae.

Science experiment I bought a Santa Maria HOG 1X and put that on the 20 gl. 4 days, one little strand of growths.

I used to leave the algae growths on the back of the tank, but I have recently been cleaning it off. For the last 2 months I have been doing 50gl on the big tank and 5gl on the small water changes. Before that is was 20 gl on the big tank and 5 every other week on th 20gl.

CuC basically snacks. Fish are healthy, but I still want to reduce nitrate and phosphate.
Any ideas?

 

[vetteguy53081]

They need a low level of nitrate, iron and moderate to good light and some water flow

 

[Damon Jensen]

So the nitrate is preventing the growth? I had the kessel on for 2 1/2 years, the high level lights are more recent.

I thought the macros need the nitrate and were nitrate reducers?

Thanks for responding

 

[ELChingonsReef]

That's what I thought too. My cheato grows very slowly. I've had a peice about the size of a softball for two months. It's grown some but not much. The only reason I got it was for nitrate export. My nitrates were at 20. Now their down to 13 . I seem to have more hair alge than cheato in my fuge. Maybe the light is too intense. Who knows but cheato is not helping me much and it makes a big mess in my sump. I'm not sure it's worth it anymore..

 

[reddevilant]

How much water flow do you have going through the chaeto? While I don't have experience with chaeto, I do have a lot of different types of macros in my display and whenever I had one that was just kinda surviving rather than growing a lot it was usually an issue of flow or lighting.
-Lighting doesn't seem to be a problem since you upgraded and as long is it's not too close and burning the algae then that's probably not your issue.
-Fast growing macros tend to need a lot of flow as that's what allows them to diffuse O2, CO2, and other nutrients through their membranes.
-Nitrates shouldn't be preventing growth as I've had nitrates as high as 30 ppm (was not my intention to let it get that high lol) and still had my macros grow very well but at that high of levels nuisance algae will out-compete them easily IME.
- I hope you mean 0.3 for phosphates instead of 3.0 lol
-My only other thought would be possible deficiencies in other key nutrients. Iron and magnesium are two other elements that seem to be really important for macro growth and dosing Brightwell's Chaetogro has worked very well for me

 

[AlgaeBarn]

How much chaeto did you start out with? It's possible you had too much chaeto for your nutrients and the consumption rate was too great? When it died or started to die off what did it look like? How high did/do you have the light over your refugium?

 

[Damon Jensen]

How much water flow do you have going through the chaeto? While I don't have experience with chaeto, I do have a lot of different types of macros in my display and whenever I had one that was just kinda surviving rather than growing a lot it was usually an issue of flow or lighting.
-Lighting doesn't seem to be a problem since you upgraded and as long is it's not too close and burning the algae then that's probably not your issue.
-Fast growing macros tend to need a lot of flow as that's what allows them to diffuse O2, CO2, and other nutrients through their membranes.
-Nitrates shouldn't be preventing growth as I've had nitrates as high as 30 ppm (was not my intention to let it get that high lol) and still had my macros grow very well but at that high of levels nuisance algae will out-compete them easily IME.
- I hope you mean 0.3 for phosphates instead of 3.0 lol
-My only other thought would be possible deficiencies in other key nutrients. Iron and magnesium are two other elements that seem to be really important for macro growth and dosing Brightwell's Chaetogro has worked very well for me

Thank you. I would say my water flow is good, but to be honest I am not sure how I would measure. I run my pump at about 1/3 capacity it is a Vectra L2.

I did start to dose chaeto gro, but it had no impacts.

I used Salifert for my Phosphate and 3 being the highest measurement...it was definitely 3....checked again a few minutes ago. I used red sea for nitrates high range NO3 32 ppm....both are way high. I have checked my new water and ro traces are detected.

My bio load is high , CuC are just extra food. I cut some food and feed slower to reduce excess waste. I did 50gl with twice a week for about 4 weeks.

End of the day fish are fat, apparently happy, mellow for aggressive fish. The Cheato is really to help keep phosphate and nitrate lower. I just think it is interesting my friends in the hobby Chaeto grows,like weeds.

Thanks,for the help

 

[Pistondog]

Raise the chaeto up on live rock or other to the surface to maximize par.
You really can't have too much light unless it is burning the chaeto.
I have a 2 inch bed at water surface and harvest 1/2 every 3 to4 weeks.

 

[Damon Jensen]

Raise the chaeto up on live rock or other to the surface to maximize par.
You really can't have too much light unless it is burning the chaeto.
I have a 2 inch bed at water surface and harvest 1/2 every 3 to4 weeks.

Thank you