Am I A Cheato Moron?

[crombastic]

So, I've managed to successfully kill two clumps of cheato algae in the past month. I'm under the impression cheato should grow easily.

 

It's in the fuge of a 29 gallon biocube with a 15W PC light on it. The light period is about 9 hours from 11 pm till 8 am. Salinity is at about 1.024 and nitrates are at approximately 10. Another detail is that when water evaps it creates a somewhat harsh "waterfall" effect into the chamber. Could this disturb it enough to die off?

[StevieT]

raise the water level up in the chamber so it is always soaking

increase the photoperiod to at least 12 hours if not 24

[crombastic]

cool, i'll give that a try

[kidninja]

just a quick question, how long did it take for the chaeto to die once you had it set up in your tank?

 

cuz i have a clump of chaeto in my fuge but im not sure if its growing or dying haha

[CrownOfficial]

how did you kill it?

its almost impossible to kill.

give it some more light.

and submerge it.

[danthenewreefman]

More light more flow will help things, also spread it out into a thin bed so it all gets light...should float to the surface once its full of O2 bubbles after a day.

 

Light 24 hours if possible, does many good things...

[timdanger]

i suggest ditching the PC light and just getting a 6500k CFL bulb and a clamp on fixture from Lowe's. Cheap, easy, and dramatically increased my chaeto growth to the point where i harvest every 2 weeks or so. i'm running a reverse lighting cycle with my display, which ends up being 12 hours.

 

edit: this is the light i'm talking about (notice chaeto growing up and out of the water!):

 

[Gigaah]

I suggest a 3k 23watt CFL bulb and 16/day light. This is the best option IMO if you get too much standard algae perhaps a 6k.

[johnmaloney]

chaeto gets better growth if you don't keep it on 24/7, but it wont die with the lights on

[juniormmm]

chaeto gets better growth if you don't keep it on 24/7, but it wont die with the lights on

What kind of light cycle do you recommend John for best growth? I used to keep mine on for 24/7 and had great growth. About a month ago i changed to about 18 hours and have noticed it seems to be growing slower.

[Fish Ace]

Something I was told by my LFS is that cheato needs are dependent on PO4 load. I know my PO4 is nearly 0 and I have a good slow growth. but that's in my 125g dt with a 65 watt cfl.

[coolwaters]

Less sand?

 

or fill up the sump a little more. its smells bad if it hits air.