Cheato growth

[blaze98]

For some strange reason my cheato keeps dying. If I put in a fresh batch of cheato within a few days it will turn hard and thick as opposed to thin and stringy like it is when it arrives. After replacing my fuge light and seeing no difference I am thinking it may be an issue of flow through the sump. I have my fuge light on a reverse schedule as my main tank and I have tried a 24 hour cycle. The 24 hour light cycle normally leads to cyano in my fuge and only my fuge. My sump is designed with the drain section first, the return area, and a fuge on the far left. I have a ball valve controlling how much water enters the fuge area, but even open completely it doesn't seem to help the issue of flow. The problem I think I have is that my cheato doesn't tumble, is this necessary for proper cheato growth? If this is the case I may have to redesign my sump.

[jason the filter freak]

mine doesn't tumble but flow though the cheato is important in my exp.

[blaze98]

I threw a powerhead in there for a week or so but all that did was keep drawing the cheato into the intake and seem to make it break down faster.

[tygger]

"hard and thick," doesnt neccessarily mean that its dying. Does it fall apart into tiny pieces?

[blaze98]

smaller pieces fall off then it gets hard, it will shrink from the size of a softball to the size of a baseball and no new growth appears

[cabrego]

Well, I do not think it takes much to get cheato to live. What kind of light do you have? What is your Ph and Temp?

[Mich]

The same thing always happens to my chaeto after a couple years in systems where I never change the water. My theory is that I'm depleting some essential mineral that it needs to survive. A large water change with fresh salt mix usually remedies this. Also, if you have recently upgraded your protein skimmer to an optimally efficient model you could be starving it. This won't cause it dissolve but it will grow slowly in a denser brilo esque wad as opposed to a spaced out thready mass.

[zygote2k]

I have tons of chaeto in my sump and it doesn't move at all. I also have a powerhead in there to keep the cyano and slime algae at bay. There are different types of chaeto too. I have the brillo pad type and also the long sphaghetti type. Mine hasn't died at all, but it is the only filtration in my system too.

[blaze98]

Thanks for all the input guys. Cabrego, I am using a 6500k CF bulb from home depot and my pH hovers around 8.0. Maybe I will give the powerhead another try, I only left it in for a week before I dismissed it. The thing that is confusing me is that it starts off as the spaghetti type as zogote mentions, but after 3 weeks or so it ends up as the brillo pad tightly wadded type. I have no problem getting the cheato to grow in my 30 gallon fish only tank and the lighting is NO bulbs, it stays tringy in this tank and there is only a koralia 3 in there.

[treesprite]

Do you have snails or crabs or something in there that could be eating at it?

[CHUBAKAH]

Blaze, when your up in two weeks I'll give you some of what I have. Everyone I have given some too claims it thrives, and it does in my system with very low nutrients.

[blaze98]

@Forrest...I don't have any crabs in the fuge, only stomatella's and asterina stars. Mark, I will definitely give some of your cheato a try .

[treesprite]

My chaeto mysteriously disintegrated slowly over many months and eventually I replaced it with caulerpa because I thought more chaeto would have the same problem. Last week when I gave away my urchin it occured to me that the urchin may have been eating it. I have chaeto in there again now and hopefully it will grow and grow and take lots of nutrients with the prunings.

 

Don't stomatellas eat algae?

 

Who has chaeto just fine under a 24-7 fuge light? I thought the light would make it grow more as it does with caulerpa, but maybe it's part of the reason my chaeto died.

Edited April 14, 2009 by treesprite

[extreme_tooth_decay]

Chaeto never grew well for me. I switched to caulerpa also, with the added benefit of growing food for my tangs, and it grew like crazy.

 

It was nice because I would harvest about a gallon bag once per 10 days or so, which my tangs would eat in 2 days.

 

I always used a reverse light cycle, and the 5000k (ish) bulbs melev recommended.

 

tim

Edited April 14, 2009 by extreme_tooth_decay

[sen5241b]

I had chaeto die off after my florescent lights went from about 25 watts down to only 10 or 15 (1 bulb burned out). I put two 15 watt halogen bulbs a few inches from the chaeto and the stuff is now growing like crazy. I have excellent flow thru the chaeto. BTW, halogen lights are not the best choice because they produce a whole lot of heat.