help with macro growth - Page 2

malsavant · #26 07/09/2007, 08:25 AM

Is that tank plumbed to something else or is that an only chaeto tank?

I forgot to mention earlier that I've noticed that chaeto grows better if it is floating near the surface. I think this is because it is able to absorb more co2 near the surface. That is just my theory which is based on observation of chaeto and freshwater plants like riccia fluitans.

chris melb · #27 07/09/2007, 06:59 PM

Only a Chaeto tank, i have about 3-4 pep shrimp so a Chaeto/pep tank, it is not plumbed to anything, its a shallow tank think 200-250mm high. I also have micro bubbles which help with gas exchange, i introduced a night cycle last night to check night PH, (before lights come on in the morning) only dropped to 8.0. Im really hoping i can get this to grow, i believe im doing the right things. welcome any suggestions

mysterybox · #28 07/09/2007, 07:48 PM

a vast amount of people have given up on Chaeto. It just melts away. Randy was one of those, too! I had to switch to the "dreaded" caulpera. No big problems yet!

kau_cinta_ku · #29 07/09/2007, 09:33 PM

chris you have nothing to feed your cheato if it is juse a tank with cheato and water and a few shrimp. you need some sort of nitrates and phosphates to feed it

chris melb · #30 07/09/2007, 10:13 PM

I do have Nitrates and Phosphates in the tank, i also dose Nitrates to keep it at 10ppm.

malsavant · #31 07/10/2007, 01:42 AM

A pure chaeto tank. Very interesting. What are your plans for the tank if you don't mind my asking?

What kind of flow do you have in there? It looks a little stale in there and also an air pump might help. I think the best set up for chaeto is if you can get it rolling like tumbleweed, but that is often a bit difficult to do. Putting in a fish might also help.

chris melb · #32 07/10/2007, 02:07 AM

At the moment im using it as QT tank, and experimenting with Chaeto growth atm. Have no real long term plans for it. It has 200l/hr flow through a powerhead, on the half of the sectioned off tank the chaeto is in (roughly 25L) so the flow isnt that bad, if in the right spot the chaeto will tumble, it does move around in the tank. the pics were taken using my phone camera so they arent all that good. I do have a bioload in there at, have a few pep shrimp which get fed everyday.

sunfishh · #33 07/10/2007, 02:18 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by kau_cinta_ku
chris you have nothing to feed your cheato if it is juse a tank with cheato and water and a few shrimp. you need some sort of nitrates and phosphates to feed it

I have to agree. Try adding a chromis damsel and see how if your cheato improves.

chris melb · #34 07/10/2007, 02:51 AM

Are you recomending i do, simply to increase my bioload cause?already have 3-4 Pep shrimp that are fed just as much as 3-4 damsels or chromis in 50l tank increasing my bioload anymore may be too much.

I have N03 10ppm
and PO4 is also present

malsavant · #35 07/10/2007, 10:45 AM

You may want to add another pump for surface agitation. Also what is the wattage of the light you are using?

sunfishh · #36 07/10/2007, 03:57 PM

Chris yes that was the idea. If you think that bioload provides enough food for the algae then I agree with mal. How many watts are your lights and what spectrum are they?

chris melb · #37 07/10/2007, 09:26 PM

i use a spiral compact 6,700K 24Watt, the tank is only 200mm high, i will add some more water flow see if that helps

chris melb · #38 07/13/2007, 06:51 AM

Just an update the Chaeto since increasing the water flow (2days ago) has constantly been tumbling (20 spins per minute), flow has been increased to 700lph. its looks alot more compacted, has formed a nice round ball, doesnt seem to be sheding. The lighting doesnt look as intense as before as i have angled the lighting to were the chaeto now spins (up the back).

Plantbrain · #39 07/13/2007, 02:44 PM

This assumes that the test kit is correct if that NO3 measure is from that.

If you do a massive water change and then dose a specific grams weight of KNO3, then you will have a preciselt, reference standard like concentration.

Or if you measure the NO3 test kit against and known standard.

Many hobbyists take it for granted that their test kit is accurate over the range of interest.

Many are not.

Regards,
Tom Barr

chris melb · #40 07/13/2007, 08:41 PM

Thanks Tom, it could be that my test kits arent accurate, and that i have no N03, if the chaeto doesnt start growing soon, i will do a 100% water change and dose a specific amount of N03. But using my test kits i have two (Salifert & Sera) both are showing an increase of N03 from 10ppm to around 15-20ppm, so im assuming for now that there is some N03 present in the water. For my chaeto to grow.

soulbabel · #41 08/07/2007, 09:09 AM

My initial batch of chaeto I ordered online and received 3 days later in the mail. That batch melted away, because it was in the mail during the summer heatwave and probably died on its way to me.

I didn't want to try that again this summer, so I made sure to find a local source for my chaeto. I received two clumps, from two different people. They didn't do too well when I first added them to my refugium, they had alot of shedding. However, there's nothing in my tank, except for base rock, so its pretty sterile and lacks a natural source to nourish the chaeto. So I did two things:

1. I added a Hagen Nutrafin CO2 reactor (although, I've heard that macroalgae gets its carbon from something else in reef tanks, so I don't know how necessary this is)
2. I added AqSafe Aquatic Tabs. It's a fertilizer for pond plants, but doesn't have any copper that other types of fertilizers seem to have.

It will be awhile before I add any livestock, but my chaeto has gone from shedding, to becoming a more dense clump. I'm finally starting to see the clump actually gain in size, so things are going good so far. If you already have lifestock, I would try my solutions vary sparingly, or perhaps, try and grow the chaeto out in a separate aquarium or bucket with a powerhead to provide flow. Then add the chaeto to your fuge after it looks healthy again.

I've only been doing this the last two weeks, so I don't know how successful my method is yet, perhaps I can give an update after more time has passed, that is, if anyone's interested.

chris melb · #42 08/07/2007, 10:31 PM

I have managed to get my cheato to grow, for me the tumble and high flow made it grow i harvested 70% of it and placed it in another tank with high flow, and it didnt grow, i tested and had N03 and PO4 above the levels in the previous tank in which it was growing orginally. The temp was 5 degrees celcuis less though, so the next week i uped the temp to 25 degress celcuis, and a week and a half later still showed no growth. Iron was also dosed daily. Ive now done a 70% water change to see if that helps the cheato grow.

I notice that when in the first tank when the cheato started to grow it really clumped up may have been because of the tumbling motion. This second tank has the cheato in the same amount of flow, but it doesnt tumble it spins. Im going to wait a few more weeks to see if it starts growing due to the water change, and if not i will change the flow creating a tumble flow vs a spin flow see if that makes a difference.

Apart from the different movement (tumble Vs spin), my other guess could be that the N03 and P04 were possibly too high, although i couldnt see any hair algae, there may have been some ephiytes growing on my cheato slowing posibly stopping it from growing, it never started shedding and remained green but never grew despite a higher level of N03 and P04 then the tank it was previously in.