Chaeto hardly grows...

[spinsonic]

So I hear they grow like weed, but for some reason mine doesnt. Going on 4 months without pruning... seems like its grown but not by much. I'm using 13w florescent 6500k bulb, and is on 8 hours a day.

How often do you usually prune yours? am i running wrong color bulb?

[567234ta]

You probably need more wattage, my cheato was growing but just what seemed a regular rate, it had plenty of room to expand so I never pruned it, it filled about half of the section it was in. maybe doubled in size over a 2 month period to fill that half section. That was using a florescent 6500k bulb of 26 watts and a clip on reflector from home depot. I changed to my 400 watt metal halide 15000k and it is growing out of control now, my phosphates have always been undetectable with any test, so all it is growing from is the light. after 2 weeks I had to prune about a 5 gallon bucketful out as it was taking over everything.

[screamingibis]

I would go with light on 16 hours a day

[BigCountry74]

toss it out and replace it with an algae scrubber.
:D

trust me :D

[rrasco]

I've had the same problem. 13w 5000K CFL. Stayed green, but grew cyano on it, and I've never pruned it.

I just switched both of my fuges out to 24w 2700K CFLs, but I added an ATS to the top of the reef sump, so hopefully that chaeto never grows. :D

[Navyblue]

I used to have an 18W CFL bulb lighting the chaeto, it grew really slowly. Then I added another 18W bulb. The chaeto started to overflow the container.

[rrasco]

Anecdotal evidence suggests wattage is at play here.

[GPB]

I use a 38w LED spot from Lowes. Works good. Have decent growth. Try supplementing with a little iron is helpful. The more you feed your fish the better the growth.

[a.browning]

I use a 23w compact flourescent 6500K bulb with great growth. Do you have detectable nutrients? Also, could be low iron. I dose iron when my chaeto starts to turn more of a white color, and it turns back to green within a few days.

[tylersarah]

toss it out and replace it with an algae scrubber.
:D

trust me :D

Prove it. Picture?

[danil]

My advise - throw it away unless its refugium and you need it to grow your pods for your pods eating creatures. Why - it seems like you don't need it. Your water is clean enough to suppress it from growing... if true you might strip it too much (not because your chaeto) for your corals. How's your corals growth? Chaeto can grow with any light or even without it (yes some ambient light will keep it growing) in high nutrient system. It seems like your bio load is low or you have good skimmer and do regular WC. To make corals grow your water has to be a bit dirty unless you apply specific technique for ULN system.. not your case here since you are trying to grow chaeto. These guys don't even bother.

[jdezek]

I had high nitrates good lighting and water flow and couldn't keep it to save my life. I gave up on it.

[spinsonic]

okay maybe i'll upgrade the bulbs to 23w. the stuff stays green and all, but just dont grow much.

i havent had nitrates or phosphate issue since carbon dosing and gfo, but just wondering why this stuff doesnt grow like everyone says.

[negia22]

I was on the same boat with you, my chaeto did not grow as much as when I had less phosphates and nitrates, then when I bought my sun coral, I feed a lot more than I usually do, then out of no where it grew back again, so based on observation they grow faster if you have nitrates and phosphates and not when you have less...

[rrasco]

okay maybe i'll upgrade the bulbs to 23w. the stuff stays green and all, but just dont grow much.

i havent had nitrates or phosphate issue since carbon dosing and gfo, but just wondering why this stuff doesnt grow like everyone says.

How long have you been running GFO? In theory GFO should strip the water enough chaeto won't grow.

Do you have any algae in the tank?

[danil]

okay maybe i'll upgrade the bulbs to 23w. the stuff stays green and all, but just dont grow much.

i havent had nitrates or phosphate issue since carbon dosing and gfo, but just wondering why this stuff doesnt grow like everyone says.

OK. It seems you don't want to read our posts.. you just want cheato to grow :). Its easy! Start feeding like crazy. Put spoons of flakes (the one with phosphate on the label) every morning and evening and I can guarantee in few weeks you will have tons of it. Is it what you need? Or it would be better to take a look on your main system demands? Cheato is a plant it needs phosphate and nitrates as plant food to grow. If your system has low level of nutrients cheato won't grow is that simple. You are running GFO, doing carbon dosing - basically doing everything to lower your nutrients. All above will suppress cheato from growing.

[morgan175]

I use the small flood light 6500k with a clip on reflect. have seen better growth.

[spinsonic]

OK. It seems you don't want to read our posts.. you just want cheato to grow :). Its easy! Start feeding like crazy. Put spoons of flakes (the one with phosphate on the label) every morning and evening and I can guarantee in few weeks you will have tons of it. Is it what you need? Or it would be better to take a look on your main system demands? Cheato is a plant it needs phosphate and nitrates as plant food to grow. If your system has low level of nutrients cheato won't grow is that simple. You are running GFO, doing carbon dosing - basically doing everything to lower your nutrients. All above will suppress cheato from growing.

LOL i'm sorry Danil! didnt see your post for some reason. :clown: Makes sense.... was hoping to grow some to stir fry for dinner. ;)

nitrates 0, phosphate .04 no wonder it aint growing! :lolspin:

[usmc121581]

I use 2-18 watt fluorescent bulbs, I to could never grow cheato. Come to find out my system may have been nutrint poor, bu it was fading at 20ppm. But some one sent me 3 cheato balls and I feed fish more and those 3 baseball size balls turned into a full 20L full of cheato. But my tank would never read below 20 ppm so I started vinager dosing 4 weeks ago and grates are down to 5 and th cheato seemed to grow slower.

[spinsonic]

I use 2-18 watt fluorescent bulbs, I to could never grow cheato. Come to find out my system may have been nutrint poor, bu it was fading at 20ppm. But some one sent me 3 cheato balls and I feed fish more and those 3 baseball size balls turned into a full 20L full of cheato. But my tank would never read below 20 ppm so I started vinager dosing 4 weeks ago and grates are down to 5 and th cheato seemed to grow slower.


yea i once couldnt get nitrates to register below 2, and having to change gfo on a weekly basis to keep phosphates below .12

Started dosing 7ml of vodka not too long ago, and for the first time nitrates at 0, with phospates at .00-.04. havent had to change gfo in over 3 weeks too, which is nice!

[iamwrasseman]

all in all you need good lighting to grow it at any rate . you also need nutrient for it to grow with as its pretty simple . i have three tanks that all run off the same sump with a huge matt of cheato . when i bring in 4o to 50 new corals into the shop my cheato grows like weeds and doubles in size in the matter of a week . when i am low on corals and have no new additions for a week the cheato just stops growing . bring in another 50 corals and poof its like magic and starts growing like mad . when coralsare harvested they are chipped off of huge rocks and there is plenty of "die off" on the underside of them ,this produces major nutrient in the water and thus the cheato grows well until the nutrient is gone . thats what were trying to do with the cheato is suck up nutrient levels within the water provided from decaying matter and food or fish poop .

[cherubfish pair]

In addition too good lighting, try some circulation in the refugium. Since the chaeto is packed and notted up, water flow needs to get into it to bring food, CO2 and to removed respired O2. A little powerhead can do a lot.

Flipping the wad over every once and awhile should keep cyano from growing on top.