Chaeto dying...?

[assafelbaz]

Hi.

I got new ball of chaeto 2 weeks ago and i have placed it in my sump. The previous ball was too small and it was dying slowly until it was gone... My new ball starts to show the same results, which means that i have something wrong here.

The setup is 15W CFL bulb of 6,500K that placed near the glass. The sump is 2.5 gallon (for the 10 gallon display tank). The flow rate is about 50 GPH.

The signs are the white turning of the color of the chaeto, and the green algae on the glass.

Nitarte, Nitrite and Ammonnia are 0ppm, PH is 8.0.

What should i check?

Thanks.

 

[FishyReef]

It probably needs more flow, and you may not have enough nitrates in your system for it to thrive.

 

[assafelbaz]

hah.. So when you have Nitrates it's not good and when you don't it's not good either... What to do?

I'm happy that i don't have Nitrates..

 

[FishyReef]

People add chaeto to help reduce nitrates. Chaeto uses nitrates and phosphates to grow. Yes, it's good that you don't have nitrates - probably means the chaeto is doing its job! But it also needs nitrates to grow. I don't recommend changing anything. Maybe someone else will chime in on the nitrate issue. In the mean time though, it does need stronger flow and that might be why it isn't thriving.

 

[Old_Moe]

+1 on flow.

My intake was clogged on my mini pump in my Chaeto chamber and it started to shrink. I fixed the flow and now it is the nice healthy green color. I have it set so that the ball of chaeto tumbles in the flow.

 

[wontonflip]

+1 fishy reef My chaeto in my old 45g doubled in size in no time, at the same time eating up all the nitrates. In the end, the ball shrank significantly because of low bioload. But my nitrates were constantly 0 :)

 

[phastroh]

Here is my story on this.

I have a Fuge as part of my sump. It sits all the way to the left and the only water going into it is from my Carbon Reactor. I got a case of Cyano and at the same time my Chaeto shrunk to nill.

I since purchased 3 new chunks from Live Aquaria which their stuff blows anything I can get locally away. Always in perfect shape and green as can be.

So I put it in and it also starts to fade. It was at half new size.

So I installed my GFO Reactor(2 Little Fishes & BRG High Capacity GFO) and moved my Nano Korallia to blow across the surface (as high as I could without being out of the water) and it has been growing like a damn hog.

Now my Nitrates and Phosphates read 0 and always have. Cyano can make it read that way but the Chaeto itself has always had at least something to eat.

I say to stick a small powerhead to blow up real high not under it. Oh and I swapped from a 5000 to a 6500 bulb. The quick on type squiggly. It sits no more than 6 inches away and I stir it maybe 1 time every 2 weeks at water change.

Just a few things to think about. I used to push it to the bottom of the fuge and that made it worse.