My chaeto has been slowly bleaching white at the top and i am noticing my cyno covering more of my sand bed then usual. is there any other macro you guys recommend as a good nutrient exporter. i would rather stay away from caulerpa i have had it before and it has gotten into my DT and caused problems for me.
Macro recommendations
- Thread starter Jarrett
- Start date
- Location
- Mt Sinai, NY
Cheato is safe and grows easy.
What are u lighting it with?
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What are u lighting it with?
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a light i got from home depot. the bulb is a utilitech 5,000 K i don't know really any information for about bulbs but my chaeto was growing for awhile under this light but once i introduced a GFO reactor it seems like it started to turn white.
- Location
- Bridgewater, NJ
That's because the GFO reactor is taking out the phosphate that the chaeto need to grow. With a GFO reacor, there's really no need for any macros to export nutrients.
Really? That's interesting... cause I have chaeto and caluerpa growing in my sump and they are growing and as green as can be with running GFO.
Now to the OP. What you want to do is try and eliminate the cyano first. Try killing the lighting for a few days as well as trying to suck up or manually remove as much as possible, then put a powerhead faced towards the location of where the cyano is growing.
Now to the OP. What you want to do is try and eliminate the cyano first. Try killing the lighting for a few days as well as trying to suck up or manually remove as much as possible, then put a powerhead faced towards the location of where the cyano is growing.
i honestly think thats a myth skene any cyno i have seen grow has been in high and low flow. for me its in high flow. i have very high flow in my tank (sps dominated). the problem with the cyno i have is it grows only on the sand i have very little algae on the rock. so in order for me to take the cyno out i have to scoop my sand bed out of the tank which is fine but then i eventually have to re add new sand to the tank. i have amazing tank husbandry and i have never been able to avoid this stuff it blows my mind. 15 gallon water changes every week, 0 phosphates, 0 nitrates, feeding every other day, their are only 4 fish in my tank, good protein skimming (swc 150 bmk), Only use RO water. so i am at a loss.
- Location
- Bridgewater, NJ
Maybe you have a bigger tank with more nutrients. Maybe you feed more. Maybe you're using less GFO than you're supposed to. Maybe he's using more. Nowhere did I say it wasn't possible. I run bio pellets on my tank and have a sump full of chaeto, caluerpa and flame algae. They all do well because I'm running a third of what's recommended for my tank. Every reef tank is different. Just because it works for you doesn't mean it works for everyone.
How long ago did you add the GFO? If your phosphates were pretty high and you sucked them out quickly with the GFO that could cause your chaeto to not have enough nutrients. Hence the whitening.
Yes, the cyano is a problem but I don't think that has anything to do with the chaeto dieing off.
- Location
- Mt Sinai, NY
Jarrett, are u running an on off cycle? I found with my.cheato, the right bulb and a 18 on, 6 off cycle, I now harvest every 2 weeks. I also run GFO. Have no fish in there and haven't fed in 6 weeks. Cheato still grows.
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- Location
- Mt Sinai, NY
How much do u have? Does it completely fill the area it in? Or does it still have room to grow?
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na probably fills 3 1/4 of the space it still has plenty of space to grow on all 4 sides. and only the top part turns white the bottom is still nice and green. but regardless if it was doing a good job wouldn't i see a decrease in cyno not an increase.
- Location
- Mt Sinai, NY
There u go. Jarrett, Dubs grows macro like crazy...I asked him a bunch of questions to finally get mine dialed in..
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i might just take it out, i feel like the parts that are turning white are releasing crap back into the tank. the cyno has been getting worst when it has usually been under control. and nothing has changed in the system other then that.
- Location
- Bridgewater, NJ
I would take a good portion of it out, not all of it. How long ago did you add the GFO reactor?
i just don't get why cyno even grows in my tank when i take such good care of it lol. this might be way out their but i have always wondered if i added bacteria to the tank would that help at all? i feel like my bacteria load in my tank is really low. i have a friend who has had a tank for probably 2 years and he has had his rock for about 5 and he does things against every rule in the book and still manages to have a beautiful reef and no algae and the only thing i could contribute it to or even guess how he is so lucky is because of how aged his rock is. i don't know if that makes sense or has nothing to do with it but it was always my theory.
its been almost a month now howze and i only did half the recommended amount the brs calculator told me to. 18 table spoons for my 75 gallon, and i only did 9. i was going to clean it out and replace this week or the next you think i should up the amount of gfo
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