# Chaeto care



## poy (Jan 14, 2015)

How many hours of light do you give to Chaeto? Is there also a balance with skimmer usage? I'm finding I can't grow it to save my life


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*cheato*

whats your lighting set up u are using ....
I find sometimes it grows like a champ sometimes it just stops .. I have been using a 6500 cfl bulb and it grows well ...


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## Mikeylikes (Nov 22, 2013)

I'm using a par38 I have lying around. Before that it was a 6500 cfl bulb from Canadian tire. Grew like weed. My photo period was opposite my main. From 11pm - 8 am in the morning approx.


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## poy (Jan 14, 2015)

This is how I have it setup, sorta limited to this setup.. Nano life  . Anyway, I'll cut down chaeto light time from 12hrs to 8hrs and see what happens. The light is running reverse to my tank display lights. I'm trying to get the chaeto growing as my tank and rocks are now clean as ever. Starting to think it maybe too clean! Takes about 3-4 days for me to get any algae to clean off the glass with tank lights on for only 8hrs daily.

If this doesn't work out, I might just convert to a algae scrubber and roughed up knitting mesh


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

What are your parameters? If you aren't growing algae on the glass and can't grow chaeto then maybe there just aren't enough nutrients? It might not have anything to do with your lights, lighting schedule or set up. It might just be food source.


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## poy (Jan 14, 2015)

Crayon said:


> What are your parameters? If you aren't growing algae on the glass and can't grow chaeto then maybe there just aren't enough nutrients? It might not have anything to do with your lights, lighting schedule or set up. It might just be food source.


Phosphate test reveal 0ppm, yay API  Slowly need to dirty this tank up, perhaps extend the time between water changes?


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

poy said:


> Phosphate test reveal 0ppm, yay API  Slowly need to dirty this tank up, perhaps extend the time between water changes?


Depends. Do you dose for additives? i.e. Alk and Calcium? Spreading out your water changes may not keep your Alk and Calcium in the right ranges.

I know there are a few people on the forum who dose Nitrates. Maybe they can chime in.

Unfortunately low phosphates or nitrates is not a problem I have. So can't help you with that!


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## poy (Jan 14, 2015)

Crayon said:


> Depends. Do you dose for additives? i.e. Alk and Calcium? Spreading out your water changes may not keep your Alk and Calcium in the right ranges.
> 
> I know there are a few people on the forum who dose Nitrates. Maybe they can chime in.
> 
> Unfortunately low phosphates or nitrates is not a problem I have. So can't help you with that!


Currently dosing for ALK and Calcium daily to keep parameters in order. Thanks for chiming in  Got lots of time since changes take time. For now it will stay clean, maybe I'll toss an acro in and see what happens.


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

poy said:


> Currently dosing for ALK and Calcium daily to keep parameters in order. Thanks for chiming in  Got lots of time since changes take time. For now it will stay clean, maybe I'll toss an acro in and see what happens.


Wow! A whole new world has opened up!! Started out not being able to grow algae and now you're growing acros!!


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## Jusgiviner (Feb 11, 2017)

Mikeylikes said:


> I'm using a par38 I have lying around. Before that it was a 6500 cfl bulb from Canadian tire. Grew like weed. My photo period was opposite my main. From 11pm - 8 am in the morning approx.


I had this problem as well. Was getting a brown algae in the display but my chaeto was slow growing and my sps colours were pale. Turned out I was nitrate limited and started dosing potassium nitrate. Made the world of difference as now my nitrate I can control anywhere I want but I keep it at 2 ppm. I am using microbacter 7, seachem matrix for extra surface area for bacteria, and a skimmer overrated for my tank. I feed 3 to 4 times a day now and zero algae problems. If there is limited nitrate your corals and any other algae won't grow very well and therefore won't consume the phosphate. If you have already, read up on the red field ratio. Lots of good reading.


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## someguy (Sep 7, 2009)

+1 it may just be low nitrates. Some people also claim higher iron/molybdenum helps as well. 
I remember one of the chaeto reactor manufacturers mentioning this as they sell bottles of these elements to boost growth.


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## canadianeh (Dec 26, 2016)

Care? Mine grew like crazy! I was just using IM refuge light and ran it for 10 hours overnight. Didn't do any other care other than trimming them once every 1.5-2 weeks


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## poy (Jan 14, 2015)

I'll give it another go end of November to early December. The media section has mesh screens up growing algae for now.


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## Rookie2013 (Jan 17, 2013)

i am using the regular 6500k cfl bulbs from HD and my chaeto grows like weeds..i trim a fist size every 2 weeks...How old is your system Mark...maybe low nitrates is your issue..once you add that acro frag let us know how that responds?


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## The-An (Sep 26, 2016)

Jusgiviner said:


> I had this problem as well. Was getting a brown algae in the display but my chaeto was slow growing and my sps colours were pale. Turned out I was nitrate limited and started dosing potassium nitrate. Made the world of difference as now my nitrate I can control anywhere I want but I keep it at 2 ppm. I am using microbacter 7, seachem matrix for extra surface area for bacteria, and a skimmer overrated for my tank. I feed 3 to 4 times a day now and zero algae problems. If there is limited nitrate your corals and any other algae won't grow very well and therefore won't consume the phosphate. If you have already, read up on the red field ratio. Lots of good reading.


I have the same problem, thanks Jusgiviner, I will try your tip see how it works for my tank. Thanks


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## Jusgiviner (Feb 11, 2017)

I use 1 teaspoon of Kno3 for 1 litre of water and I dose about 20mls of that solution into my Red Sea reefer 170 daily. It keeps me around 3 to 5 ppm. The kno3 you can get at alphachem in Mississauga. If you were local I would give some you some kno3 to try. You can also use sodium or calcium nitrate but I've never tried either of them.


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## The-An (Sep 26, 2016)

Jusgiviner said:


> I use 1 teaspoon of Kno3 for 1 litre of water and I dose about 20mls of that solution into my Red Sea reefer 170 daily. It keeps me around 3 to 5 ppm. The kno3 you can get at alphachem in Mississauga. If you were local I would give some you some kno3 to try. You can also use sodium or calcium nitrate but I've never tried either of them.


Thank you so much for your quick reply. I would love to have some to try. I just look up the store alphachem, there are 3 kind, Potassium Nitrate ACS,
Potassium Nitrate, Potassium Nitrate FCC. I should get Potassium Nitrate right? thanks again,


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## Jusgiviner (Feb 11, 2017)

They offered me different grades, food grade, lab grade I think and tech grade. Tech grade was the cheapest but wasn't guaranteed to be pure. I think I bought food grade. There's also a guy... theplantguy.org or .net who sells it and is actually cheaper even after shipping.


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## The-An (Sep 26, 2016)

Jusgiviner said:


> They offered me different grades, food grade, lab grade I think and tech grade. Tech grade was the cheapest but wasn't guaranteed to be pure. I think I bought food grade. There's also a guy... theplantguy.org or .net who sells it and is actually cheaper even after shipping.


super, I will go to get the food grade like yours. Do you still remember how much you paid for example 1 pound? thanks


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## Jusgiviner (Feb 11, 2017)

I think 1 lb was about 35 or 40 bucks. Depending on your tank size it should last a while. Just start dosing slow and test every day or two until you are starting to see colour on your nitrate test. Any questions shoot me a pm and I can help you out on the phone or text.


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## The-An (Sep 26, 2016)

Jusgiviner said:


> I think 1 lb was about 35 or 40 bucks. Depending on your tank size it should last a while. Just start dosing slow and test every day or two until you are starting to see colour on your nitrate test. Any questions shoot me a pm and I can help you out on the phone or text.


Thank you so much for your advise. My display tank is 220 G, and total of water volume is around 300G. my nitrate right now is 0.0 . Could you give me some more advise, how much should I dosing daily until I get 0.2? thank you so much for all your help.


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