Chaeto not growin

[jason604]

I bought a handful of chaeto from JL about 4-5 months ago and put them in my sump and it hasn't grown even a teeny tiny bit lol. I used one of them plant growing light bulbs from Home Depot that's dipped green or blue cant remember 60w. Since it burned last month I'm using a reg 60w bulb. I sure it's prob cuz of my lights. If that's the case is there any cheap lights that will promote its growth? I've read about other reefers chaeto growing like mad. Does growing even matters for my water quality? The chaeto is still as green as ever.

[Madreefer]

I cant grow it either, but i like it that way. I've tried tumbling it and different lights and still nothing. :biggrin:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-01/sl/

[HaZRaTTy]

Take this for what its worth,

When I first added a ball of cheato to my refugium it didn't appear to be growing either but after 5-6 months it wouldn't stop it quickly tripled and took over the space in my refugium in no time. It grew so fast I couldn't give the stuff away fast enough.

Give it time, all I used was a 6500k bulb from HD

[Proteus]

I couldn't grow it either. It would disintegrate and litter my tank.
I know there are no measurable nutrients in my tank.

I do wonder though if macro algeas happen to give off benificial compounds to our tank inhabitants

[FWC]

My Chaeto grew like mad for the first several months, than just kind of stopped. It doesn't die out at all, but it doesn't grow either.

[mark]

Since it burned last month I'm using a reg 60w bulb.

seems you already know your problem

[IanWR]

I assume that even simple plants like chaeto still need a supply of nitrate and phosphate to grow. If one ran GFO, had a lot of good mature liverock, didn't feed heavily, etc I imagine you could end up in a situation where the plants were starved. Maybe they stopped growing because your phosphates and nitrates were very low? If thats the case, then yahoo! mission accomplished. :)

[GoFish]

Is your chaeto very deep below the surface of the water? Mine used to be 10" below the surface and it didn't grow for months until it floated to the surface one day, now it grows very quickly :idea:

[FitoPharmer]

I do wonder though if macro algeas happen to give off benificial compounds to our tank inhabitants
The short answer is: YES!

[Proteus]

The short answer is: YES!

Long answer: ?

[neoh]

I couldn't grow it either. Once I get a fuge LED bulb the stuff grows like wildfire.

[jason604]

Is your chaeto very deep below the surface of the water? Mine used to be 10" below the surface and it didn't grow for months until it floated to the surface one day, now it grows very quickly :idea:

My chaeto either most of the time floats or is about 2-3" below water surface. It litterly did not even grow 1cm since I bought it about 5 months ago lol. Still green as ever tho. I don't really check water parimeter much buy the last time I checked nitrate it was 15 because I expoxy some stuff in tank and my slimmer went nuts and overfilled and all the nasty stuff went right back into my system. This actually happened 2x lol then I did a water change a week after yes I know that's very bad lol. But all my coral and fish etc seem happy as ever. Next week I got some new LPS and did a revive dip and forgot to rinse it off b4 I it in tank and same thing happened to skimmer. My tank is normally 0-5ppm nitrate. How can there be litterly no growth in chaeto at all in this long period of time? Is chaeto not growing a bad thing?

[jason604]

Just did a nitrate test its at 20ppm lol damn. Gotta do water change now I guess =P. also why is high nitrate bad again? I don't see any coral dying or unhealthy I think.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Try a CFL 6500k phillips daylight bulb. This has always worked great for me. 13w or 27w is fine.

[Magickiwi]

Try a CFL 6500k phillips daylight bulb. This has always worked great for me. 13w or 27w is fine.

What's that bulb worth? More than $40ish?

[duncangweller]

Shouldn't be anywhere near that. Prob just available at home depot for a tenner. I have the bulb recommended by Melevs reef and it is a bit of an odd spec and that only cost $18 and that's pricey I'm told.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

[hillegom]

Yes, for sure HD. Buy the cfl "daylight", thats the one with the 6500 K

[Wheelman76]

Try a CFL 6500k phillips daylight bulb. This has always worked great for me. 13w or 27w is fine.

+1 , two pack at Canadian tire for around $15

[hillegom]

Doh
Missed the "daylight" part of Anthony's post

[jason604]

Try a CFL 6500k phillips daylight bulb. This has always worked great for me. 13w or 27w is fine.

thanks i will try this =)