Ever Had Cheato Die Out Before?

[jdh22]

Has anyone ever had thier Cheato die out before? I know it sounds crazy but my cheato that I added two months ago has really thinned out, broken apart, and is about half the size of the original clump I bought (about the size of a softball when bunched up).

I have a 6-8 mth old 90g fowlr that I am gradually migrating to a reef with a 25g sump / refug. The cheato is in the refug with a 3" bed of sand, a few small rocks, and no live stock except for an occational bristle worm.

In the display I have a 3" sand bed with 120lbs mix of Marshall Islands and Figi. I started with dry sand and 75lbs of live rock.

My livestock in display:

3 damsels
1 lawn mower blenny
1 coral banded shrip
3 mexi turbo snails, 5 astrea snails , 5 nassarius snails, and 5 cerith snails.

2 healthy patches of Zoas & plenty of coraline algae


My temp ranges from 78-81 with SG at 1.024-1.026. my Nitrates, Nitries, and Amonia have all been at 0 for the last 3-4 mths.

I have 2 small PC's (approx 40-50 watts total I think) over the sump which run from 7:30am to 9:00pm, although starting some time last month my timer broke and the lights were on 24/7 until just a couple of days ago. Im now manually turning on and off.

Everything else in the tank is really healthy so what does everyone think is going on?

[demonsp]

What type of light and hows the cheato placed in there?

[jdh22]

I looked and its actually only 18watts total (2x 9w PC 10K). The lights are mounted directly above the refug & Cheato, about 6" off the water level and whats left of the cheato floats around 1"-2" below the water level.

[jamiep]

Does your 3" sand bed not give you bother? I thought it was 2" and less or 4" and more, anything in between was a bit dodgey?

[chatyak]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11009712#post11009712 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jamiep
Does your 3" sand bed not give you bother? I thought it was 2" and less or 4" and more, anything in between was a bit dodgey?

I would have to agree with this. Although I am no chemist (can't stand it actually) I have been told by fellow experts that 3 inches or so seems to be no mans land where poisons will accumulate as opposed to less than 2" or over 4".

I don't think this could be why your chaeto was dying though.... could it?

[jdh22]

I have never heard about that about sand depths before. So far I havent had any problems.

[jamiep]

Oh no, it was just something I noticed! Sorry for going off topic! Infact I might be good for your chaeto as the poison end up as Nitrates! Man I thought I'd finished class for the weekend! Ha - fishkeeping!

[dragonette]

usually cheato will perish due to lack of flow.

[poppin_fresh]

I have never been able to keep it and I'm not sure why.

In all reality you dont want to be able to grow algae. If it grows like crazy, you have too many excess nutrients.

[dela]

Who cares how deep the sand is? Your lighting is grossly under powered. 18 watts of fluorescent lighting is not enough. While this might work fine for slowly growing some other caulerpa, it will not be enough for the cheato.

Also, do you run a skimmer, carbon, or any other kind of mechanical filter. I try and have my macro before the mechanical filtration. That way it will see the purest water in the system.

I looked and its actually only 18watts total (2x 9w PC 10K). The lights are mounted directly above the refug & Cheato, about 6" off the water level and whats left of the cheato floats around 1"-2" below the water level.

[George Grogan]

I use these:

http://www.melevsreef.com/fuge_bulb.html

I have 2 X 19W on my 20L refugium, and I get great growth!

[jdh22]

I run a Micron bag, skimmer, carbon, and have cheato. But I think you may be right about the lighting, Ill try uping the wattage and see what happens.



<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11010729#post11010729 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dela
Who cares how deep the sand is? Your lighting is grossly under powered. 18 watts of fluorescent lighting is not enough. While this might work fine for slowly growing some other caulerpa, it will not be enough for the cheato.

Also, do you run a skimmer, carbon, or any other kind of mechanical filter. I try and have my macro before the mechanical filtration. That way it will see the purest water in the system.

[mg426]

I have my chaeto in a 30 gallon fuge with a DSB and some LR. I run one 65 watt 10k bulb over the fuge. My chaeto grows like crazy. My nitrates and P04 are at zero. I pull out a very large (basketball sized clump) every two weeks. I could never get my chaeto to (tumble) . I just use the flow through my refugium for circulation.

[dela]

I think it's fair to say that the cleaner the water, the slower any algae will grow. That is the point of growing macros no?

I used to run a 10K 250W MH unit on a skimmerless tank and would export 1 basket ball sized chunk of cheato every month. I changed things around, set up a new tank with a skimmer, carbon, phosban, set up a small cheato tank with a 10K 70W MH unit. I don't get a fraction of the growth I used to get.

[rbursek]

Mined died off after I cut it in half, I replaced it about 2 months ago and the new stuff is doing okay now, water params where and are the same and so is the lighting, I do not know what the cause was, I do not get any new growth though, but nitrates and phosphates are 0.
Bob

[Gary Majchrzak]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11009575#post11009575 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jdh22
I looked and its actually only 18watts total (2x 9w PC 10K).
not enough light to grow Chaetomorpha in a low nutrient environment