Chaeto crashing

[WoodDragon]

The last 10 days or so I've noticed my chaeto starting
to turn clear and break up into little pieces and I do
mean little. My first though was I did not have enough
light on the fuge so I added a 65w PC I had sitting around.
Well it is still crashing and my N03s have shot way up the last
the last few days. At this point it is all coming out of my tank
not leaving any of it.

I know that Chaeto is a great algae but with this experience
I'd be hard put to add it back to the tank.

But what do y'all think went wrong with it?

WoodDragon

 

[Serk]

Could be several things...

Not enough flow...
Not enough iron...

Not enough (Insert whatever here, we just don't know enough really)...

I used to never be able to keep Cheato, it'd always disintegrate on me like that. Caulerpa however did fine for me. I'd occasionally get some Cheato from someone, and it'd just fade away...

Eventually, I don't know if my tank just got "right" for it, or if I got the right strain for my system, or what, but it eventually just took off for me and has done great ever since.

 

[waterbeing]

@Serk wrote:

My experience exactly.... except I still can't get it to grow. Grape Caulerpa does OK but not great. Cheato grows fine in my other tank. :?

Hopeful Chaeto grower
Doug