Why is my chaeto turning white?

[vanmo92]

My chaeto has done well for months then about a week ago it started turning white and disinegrating. it seems to be more in one spot. Like I take away all the dead stuff and put some green in that spot then it has the same issue. The spot is directly under a bright light. It seems to be spreading to other parts the bundle but not to much. Why is this happening? The only thing I can think f is lack of nutrience but It is a 72 gallon with a 10-15 gallon sump. Livestock is 110 lbs of liverock, 1 foxface, 2 clowns, 6 chromis, and 1 6-line. Feed fomula 1+2 flakes 1 or 2 times a day. My skimmer is an ASM G3. I dont do a lot water changes, but I would thing that that would be better for the chaeto. Any suggestions would be great.

[alizarin]

Something similar happened to me a couple months ago I had some chaeto in a 40g and a 10g nano. I had cheato thriving in the 40 for more than a year. First it disintegrated my 40 and I put a clump from my 10 back in the fuge after cleaning it out. Then a few weeks later the 10 disentegrated but the 40 was fine. What I narrowed it down to was these possibilities:
* Leaving the lights on 24-7 and low nutrients (this is probably the problem)
* Chemical warefare between different macro algaes I had.

Here's my thread
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=981298&highlight=chaeto
and a similar one
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=993277&highlight=chaeto

What kind of photoperiod are you lighting the tank with? And would you say your water quality is pristine?

[vanmo92]

My lights are on for about 14 hrs a day. And I do have some grape calurpa and some ohter plant growing in there, but it seems like if it was chemical it would affect more than that but that sure is a possibility.

[vanmo92]

I dont think that my water quality is pristine but I dont thing that it id that bad either. My skimmer is pulling out a lot of crap but I dont know if that has anything to do with this problem.