Chaeto doing fine??

[match55]

I got this marco algae 2 days ago
try to control my nitrate a little bit

since chaeto doesn't like too much current/flow, so I put it in the corner of my refugium, but i don't know if its doing fine or not, some part of the chaeto seem to turn little gray/white; and a lot of free flower trapped on it, + the white things that grow on my glass also start grow on my chaeto.
just want to know if it will be fine like that.
lighting is 20" ,19watt aquarium light.

 

[Ratrik13]

I'm using Chaeto in my fuge as well as in my display tank. If I remember right, mine did something similar, but i just kind of attributed it to system shock since I didn't acclimate it or anything like you would with more sensitive life. Honestly, I wouldn't worry to much about it though cause I've only managed to kill a little bit of it by letting part of it dry out when my fuge broke and had to be drained while I fixed it (I just cut that part out and froze it to be sure it was dead before i tossed it).

Whats really interesting is that I've had colonies of it springing up in my display where a tiny piece has broken off of the main bunch and gotten caught in the rockwork. Some of these colonies are in incredibly low light areas but so far it keeps growing. The only difference is that it's a much much deeper shade of green. I also wouldn't worry to much about the "little white things", mine had those when I got it and still does. I've never quite figured out what they are, but I assume they are probably some kind of micro dusters, pods, sponges or something.

Btw, don't know where you got the idea that it doesn't like Flo, she's always been Chaeto's favorite waitress at IHOP. All kidding aside, my understanding is that most people grow chaeto in high current parts of their fuge or sump where it's encouraged to tumble in the water column. I've heard they do this for reasons ranging from "It does this in nature" to "It has to tumble or the parts on the bottom don't get any light and die!" My belief/limited exp with it suggests that it doesn't HAVE to tumble unless your growing it in a huge colony and the bottem is so shaded it gets NO light. I recently saw a pic of a 55g that was used as a chaeto fuge and only held a 2 foot ball of chaeto that was kept spinning to get light at the bottom. The really crazy part was that it was divided in half like every two weeks or something like that. I'm of the opinion though that most people tumble it because it seems to stay in more of a "ball" form if it's tumbled. Mine is not tumbled in the least anymore and it's a freaking serpents nest with parts actually growing up and out of the water.

Sorry for the long winded post, hope this helps. Just relax, take a deep breath, and remember, chaeto's a nitrate sink because it's hard to kill, but like all things, it can take time to adjust to an environment.

 

[match55]

I'm using Chaeto in my fuge as well as in my display tank. If I remember right, mine did something similar, but i just kind of attributed it to system shock since I didn't acclimate it or anything like you would with more sensitive life. Honestly, I wouldn't worry to much about it though cause I've only managed to kill a little bit of it by letting part of it dry out when my fuge broke and had to be drained while I fixed it (I just cut that part out and froze it to be sure it was dead before i tossed it).

Whats really interesting is that I've had colonies of it springing up in my display where a tiny piece has broken off of the main bunch and gotten caught in the rockwork. Some of these colonies are in incredibly low light areas but so far it keeps growing. The only difference is that it's a much much deeper shade of green. I also wouldn't worry to much about the "little white things", mine had those when I got it and still does. I've never quite figured out what they are, but I assume they are probably some kind of micro dusters, pods, sponges or something.

Btw, don't know where you got the idea that it doesn't like Flo, she's always been Chaeto's favorite waitress at IHOP. All kidding aside, my understanding is that most people grow chaeto in high current parts of their fuge or sump where it's encouraged to tumble in the water column. I've heard they do this for reasons ranging from "It does this in nature" to "It has to tumble or the parts on the bottom don't get any light and die!" My belief/limited exp with it suggests that it doesn't HAVE to tumble unless your growing it in a huge colony and the bottem is so shaded it gets NO light. I recently saw a pic of a 55g that was used as a chaeto fuge and only held a 2 foot ball of chaeto that was kept spinning to get light at the bottom. The really crazy part was that it was divided in half like every two weeks or something like that. I'm of the opinion though that most people tumble it because it seems to stay in more of a "ball" form if it's tumbled. Mine is not tumbled in the least anymore and it's a freaking serpents nest with parts actually growing up and out of the water.

Sorry for the long winded post, hope this helps. Just relax, take a deep breath, and remember, chaeto's a nitrate sink because it's hard to kill, but like all things, it can take time to adjust to an environment.

Don't feel sorry for the long post!!
it helped me a lot, I will just wait and see what will help to my little chaeto
just wanna make sure I get this right, so I should put my chaeto in a high current place?
oh, do you read your refu light 24/7?

 

[Ratrik13]

If you want to, you can put your chaeto in high current so it tumbles or you can keep it in low current and just trim it to keep it compact. It seems to just be a matter of personal preference and available space. I keep mine in low current cause I wanted it for pod habitat and nutrient export.

I run my fuge light on a 12 hour timer. I use to run it 24/7, because that's what everyone recommended for fuges. I then found out most of thouse were old articles about using calurpa (sp?). So, after doing more reading, someone brought up a good point in their article. Everything, even plants have natural cycles, you run the lights 24/7 to STOP calurpa's (sp?) life cycle because (it's believed) that part of that cycle is when it goes sexual and melts down. With Chaeto, you don't have that problem, my understanding is it never goes sexual, so you may as well let it complete it's daily cycle. I would actually run my fuge on a reverse cycle of my display tank since it's been shown to help keep pH stable among other reasons.

 

[match55]

If you want to, you can put your chaeto in high current so it tumbles or you can keep it in low current and just trim it to keep it compact. It seems to just be a matter of personal preference and available space. I keep mine in low current cause I wanted it for pod habitat and nutrient export.

I run my fuge light on a 12 hour timer. I use to run it 24/7, because that's what everyone recommended for fuges. I then found out most of thouse were old articles about using calurpa (sp?). So, after doing more reading, someone brought up a good point in their article. Everything, even plants have natural cycles, you run the lights 24/7 to STOP calurpa's (sp?) life cycle because (it's believed) that part of that cycle is when it goes sexual and melts down. With Chaeto, you don't have that problem, my understanding is it never goes sexual, so you may as well let it complete it's daily cycle. I would actually run my fuge on a reverse cycle of my display tank since it's been shown to help keep pH stable among other reasons.

alrite, thanks lot buddy!!^^