why is my Chaeto dying

[scott11106]

so i have a new 300g with a 100g sump (see my build for details) and i have 2 kessil h80's in the refugium section of the sump with a bunch of broken up pieces of live rock. i put some
Chaeto in a while back and it seems to continue to die off, i have tried pulling lights down a bit and tried different settings on the h80 and nothing seems to be working.

i really could use some advise on this...are my lights too high? is there something i am missing?

water parameters are good and all tests are in line..

 

[lickyricky]

so i have a new 300g with a 100g sump (see my build for details) and i have 2 kessil h80's in the refugium section of the sump with a bunch of broken up pieces of live rock. i put some
Chaeto in a while back and it seems to continue to die off, i have tried pulling lights down a bit and tried different settings on the h80 and nothing seems to be working.

i really could use some advise on this...are my lights too high? is there something i am missing?

water parameters are good and all tests are in line..

You tank may be too clean. Happens to me too.

If nitrate is zero the chaeto has nothing to consume and will die. Try cutting back you light cycle on the chaeto area.

 

[Smprc]

Sorry to keep posting on your threads Scott, but I feel that I am literally just a half step ahead of you in the process....guess what, my chaeto also died...pretty much all of it. 2 main things, number 1 as lickyricky said, our tanks are tooo new, nothing for the chaeto to eat, second, how long did you have the lights on? My tank is 5 months in, I started with dry everything, cycle took longer, diatoms everywhere, I quaratine fish so it takes 3 to 4 weeks to add a single dang fish in there...lol...I didn't rush to put corals in because I went with triton and had to set up all that (not to mention it wasn't available for like 3 or 4 months), testing to get to the "right" dkh. I am finally at the point where I am starting to see green algae grow in the tank and I am going to start adding chaeto in the fuge.

as a side note, I watch the BRS videos and in one of the ULM videos, their chaeto also died....lol...so I didn't feel as bad, their conclusion was that they had too much light, now because its them they pretty much got an instant bioload thanks to WWC and what not, but you and I are not so fortunate

I clearly am no expert, but add the chaeto once you have a bioload in the DT. I am going to be adding chaeto next week and will only be turning on the kessel for 2 or 3 hours every other day. I'll report back to you. Also, a HUGE mistake I did...I just dumped my chaeto in the fuge and it got blown around all over the place...stupid me...now I am going to put it in some small netting bag until it grows out. just my 2 cents man. hope it helps.

 

[lickyricky]

Sorry to keep posting on your threads Scott, but I feel that I am literally just a half step ahead of you in the process....guess what, my chaeto also died...pretty much all of it. 2 main things, number 1 as lickyricky said, our tanks are tooo new, nothing for the chaeto to eat, second, how long did you have the lights on? My tank is 5 months in, I started with dry everything, cycle took longer, diatoms everywhere, I quaratine fish so it takes 3 to 4 weeks to add a single dang fish in there...lol...I didn't rush to put corals in because I went with triton and had to set up all that (not to mention it wasn't available for like 3 or 4 months), testing to get to the "right" dkh. I am finally at the point where I am starting to see green algae grow in the tank and I am going to start adding chaeto in the fuge.

as a side note, I watch the BRS videos and in one of the ULM videos, their chaeto also died....lol...so I didn't feel as bad, their conclusion was that they had too much light, now because its them they pretty much got an instant bioload thanks to WWC and what not, but you and I are not so fortunate

I clearly am no expert, but add the chaeto once you have a bioload in the DT. I am going to be adding chaeto next week and will only be turning on the kessel for 2 or 3 hours every other day. I'll report back to you. Also, a HUGE mistake I did...I just dumped my chaeto in the fuge and it got blown around all over the place...stupid me...now I am going to put it in some small netting bag until it grows out. just my 2 cents man. hope it helps.

Exactly! It needs food like everything else, in this case it consumes mainly nitrate.
Zero nitrate = dead chaeto

 

[PatW]

I ran chaeto with a cheap light and it flourished. Then I ramped up my display tank lights and the display algae out competed the chaeto and it died. So I got a Hanna refugium light and the chaeto flourished and then died. I got a Hanna ULR phosphate tester and dis overhead my phosphate was 0. Nitrates were always about 1 ppm. I dosed phosphates up to .o2 ppm and the chaeto flourished. Bulk Reef Supply has a series of videos on chaeto that are very good.

 

[mitch91175]

Wow you guys really like a squeaky clean tank. Not only will your chaeto die on you, but your SPS and other coral likely will have issues as well (may not be your case, but it happens). I personally find it funny to try to shoot for 0ppm on both phosphates/nitrates then end up having to dose both of those to keep the tank thriving. I am by no means an expert, but logic tells me that if I strip all nutrients out of my tank and livestock that I keep need some nutrients and I have to add them back by other means doesn't make a lot of sense in my book.

I feed my tank, run filter socks, and keep my skimmer going. What ever my fish don't eat my cleanup crew does or it get caught by the filter sock or skimmer. A buddy of mine was amazed at how clean my tank is by how much I feed. All of my fish are happy and fat. Healthy enough that I had an ick outbreak and they just kept chugging along like nothing happened. Eating everything I put in the tank as well.

After seeing a friend of mine have an amazing SPS dominant tank without all the stripping every single nutrient out of his tank, it makes you wonder why be overly concerned with having 0 phosphates and 0 nitrates at all? Companies that sell the stuff to completely remove every drop of nutrient are out to take your $$$. Yeah some stuff helps, but I do not feel at a point where any of my living critters need to suffer from it.

My chaeto thrives in my DT because I do not try to get to 0 anything besides ammonia and nitrite.

 

[lickyricky]

Wow you guys really like a squeaky clean tank. Not only will your chaeto die on you, but your SPS and other coral likely will have issues as well (may not be your case, but it happens). I personally find it funny to try to shoot for 0ppm on both phosphates/nitrates then end up having to dose both of those to keep the tank thriving. I am by no means an expert, but logic tells me that if I strip all nutrients out of my tank and livestock that I keep need some nutrients and I have to add them back by other means doesn't make a lot of sense in my book.

I feed my tank, run filter socks, and keep my skimmer going. What ever my fish don't eat my cleanup crew does or it get caught by the filter sock or skimmer. A buddy of mine was amazed at how clean my tank is by how much I feed. All of my fish are happy and fat. Healthy enough that I had an ick outbreak and they just kept chugging along like nothing happened. Eating everything I put in the tank as well.

After seeing a friend of mine have an amazing SPS dominant tank without all the stripping every single nutrient out of his tank, it makes you wonder why be overly concerned with having 0 phosphates and 0 nitrates at all? Companies that sell the stuff to completely remove every drop of nutrient are out to take your $$$. Yeah some stuff helps, but I do not feel at a point where any of my living critters need to suffer from it.

My chaeto thrives in my DT because I do not try to get to 0 anything besides ammonia and nitrite.

For some of us it’s a battle. I never intended to run a ULN system but no matter what I do I cant seem get get nitrate above 1ppm. My Skimmer is over rated for my tank so maybe that has something to do with it?
I’ve debated having my apex turn the Skimmer off for half the day just to get a readable level of nitrate.
When I do get higher nitrate levels all I get is algae and still a zero reading (because it’s all locked into the algae maybe? So how do I get nitrate in my water column to benefit my SPS?

 

[scott11106]

the only thing i am doing is running skimmer, socks and i gave a reactor with carbon and a reactor with gfo, maybe i should stop the gfo ?

 

[mitch91175]

For some of us it’s a battle. I never intended to run a ULN system but no matter what I do I cant seem get get nitrate above 1ppm. My Skimmer is over rated for my tank so maybe that has something to do with it?
I’ve debated having my apex turn the Skimmer off for half the day just to get a readable level of nitrate.
When I do get higher nitrate levels all I get is algae and still a zero reading (because it’s all locked into the algae maybe? So how do I get nitrate in my water column to benefit my SPS?

You can stop it from running at night and that will definitely help. You can also not skim wet if you are doing so. I'd suggest getting some more chaeto (plug I have so nice healthy that I am selling, but you can get from anyone), feed your tank more than you currently do and your nutrients will increase. I feed minimum 3 times a day a variety of foods. I also have 6 tangs (nice sized tangs 4-6, and 1 small chevron), 2 dwarf angels, melanarus wrasse, 2 engineer gobies, 2 clarki clowns, and a hawk fish. CUC consist of 2 sand-shifting stars, 2 conch snails, a few hermits, cerith/nerith/nassarius snails. I FEED LIKE CRAZY and everybody is happy.

Heck I was told by my friend that I needed to even feed my frag tank like I do my display tank to keep the nutrients up. I did it in a heartbeat just because I know that a properly setup system can handle the feeding; plus I have an Achilles tang in there that I want to fatten up then put in the display.

 

[mitch91175]

I go by the rule of every time I feed, as long as my fish can clear the water within 5 minutes that is enough. Think about it, 5 minutes is a lot of food for them to consume.

NOTE: I also run carbon and GFO too, but since I feed so much, I never strip my system of all nutrients. Don't change the GFO frequently either.

 

[lickyricky]

I go by the rule of every time I feed, as long as my fish can clear the water within 5 minutes that is enough. Think about it, 5 minutes is a lot of food for them to consume.

NOTE: I also run carbon and GFO too, but since I feed so much, I never strip my system of all nutrients. Don't change the GFO frequently either.

I just run a Skimmer, 100 micron sock, Carbon, and puregen

 

[mitch91175]

I also run my Growstar UFO for 23 hours with a 1 hour resting period. Just added so red macro that is taking off as well.

 

[mitch91175]

I just run a Skimmer, 100 micron sock, Carbon, and puregen

Yeah so if you are running all of that, there is no reason that you cannot feed your tank a lot.

 

[lickyricky]

Yeah so if you are running all of that, there is no reason that you cannot feed your tank a lot.

Ok cool. I actually scaled back on feeding because of brown algae in the sand and green slimy algae on the back wall. The back wall algae is gone now

 

[nereefpat]

The goal of an algae scrubber isn't to grow algae, it's to reduce N and P. You have no N and P.

 

[mitch91175]

Ok cool. I actually scaled back on feeding because of brown algae in the sand and green slimy algae on the back wall. The back wall algae is gone now

Your gonna go through that because you likely won't have any beneficial algae competing with brown algae, but that phase will go away if you have macro and a CUC. Also the algae on the back glass is a good thing as long as it isn't out of control. Helps keep snail alive (specially larger turbo snails). They will take care of it for you.

 

[mitch91175]

Not suggesting you buy from me (but you can if you want), but here is a link to my thread for chaeto. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chaeto-for-sale.384090/

Look at how green it is and thick my strands are. I have had the same chaeto in my DT for 4 years.