I've had Chaeto in an InTank refugium with their submersible lights for a few weeks now, maybe even a month, and haven't noticed any growth. Does this stuff take some time to grow? I've been reading it's like a weed. It's not dying, but there is some detrius or something on the top layer of the macro, but not much. Thanks

If there is a nutrient that is limiting, then it will not grow.

It all depends on your tank, how it is stocked, whether there is an excess of nutrients, whether the light is intense enough and the right spectrum for photosynthesis... Many other factors.

Is there nusance algae in your tank? How old is your tank? How often do you do water changes? How "full" is your tank (fish/corals)? Do you overfeed?

dsoz

Stronger lighting?

slow growing macro is a very good thing, imo.

I have had a slight bout with green hair that I just recently won. I'm doing weekly water changes, excellent parameters. I did overfeed a bit in the past due to ignorance. Im cutting down to once every other day feedings now, and I've trained my fish to eat from a turkey baster to help eliminate waste Tank only has one small open brain, two clowns (that will eventually outgrow tank, but are small right now) a YWG and a small cleanup crew consisting of 4-5 small snails and a few hermits. Tank is about two months old now.

Dosing iron will help and smaller amounts of iodine helps too don't over dose only dose these if your lights are good wats you no3 and phosphate value

u got bad light. if nutrient is limiting then it would still grow (maybe not that fast) but in a lighter green.
when i had poor lighting on mine it didnt grow as fast and rather dark green. after i ramped up the lighting they started to explode and wasnt very dark anymore.

If you are feeding I don't see why you would need to dose iron or iodine.

Also, coloration has more to do with light type than nutrients IME.

If you grow it under light that has a good amount of blue/purple, it grows densely, dark green and rough like a brillo pad. If you grow it under light that is primarily red/orange/yellow, it grows looser, lighter green and more like spaghetti.

You should look up how different colors of light affect plant morphology.

Well I recently had to buy another ball of chaeto, as mine had all but suddenly dis-appeared... ??? It's my understanding from a previous post by Mr Fosi that chaeto sometimes doesn't do very well in new displays...

Here's the weird thing though... All the spaghetti looking stuff fell apart and and dis-integrated, however, the leaf-like projections on my chaeto ball remained..? And I have LOTS of green algae growing around my refugium and lights that I am constantly having to wipe off, so perhaps they blocked any good light penetration into the chaeto ball itself?

No chaeto that I have seen has "leaf-like projections". Sounds like you had another algae wrapped up in there.



Maybe, but I don't think that's it. Chaeto doesn't fall apart from low light IME.

FOsi is the chaeto god so listen to the master hehe

I wonder what kind og algae was in there then??? I know some had to be chaeto... Let me see if I can find a similar pic...

Like this,


Is that stuff bad?

ok, upon further research, it looks like feather Caulerpa. Will this stuff go sexual?

Caulerpa taxifolia

Yes to the "going sexual" and a huge yes to being invasive.

Thanks Fosi, it's coming out of the refugium tonight!

Just saw a special on Caulerpa taxifolia just the other day, it was called killer algae, taking over coast lines, that's why its illegal in California, when it grows it actually just clones itself over and over, make sure you get ever last piece or it will begin to grown again.

I actually had a tank that crashed because of this problem That stuff is impossible to get rid of. And once it is there, it will keep on growing and it will spread. The best thing to do is to get rid of the rock in which it is growing on or at least chip that section off.

I was only in the refugium. And I scrubbed the walls of it last night. So I should be ok

The light is fine

Yeah I'm not real worried about the lights, they must be doing their job because I've got algae growing all over them.

Click to view attachment

I have the same problem with my cheato I have a biocube 29g also bought stevie Ts In Tank Fuge and the cheato still isn't growing also have the plant pictured above growing all over one of my rocks is it good or bad?

Make a thread in the ID forum and link back here if you need to.

If you are talking about the brown/maroon "plant" in the foreground, then you need to post a pic that is in focus before any substantive ID can be offered.

ok ill post in the id forum and try to get a better pic