Chaeto in reactor was growing great first two weeks, has been slowly dying since then

[chousecat]

I've been running chaeto in a Tunze macroreactor for about a month now, the first two weeks the chaeto was growing like crazy and I was running it for 18 hours. Switch to just a 12 hour light cycle opposite of my tank lights and noticed the growth has stalled to what looks like this brown/red slime covering/choking it. Kinda looks like cyano?

It also has stopped reducing my phosphates. My nitrates remain well at 10ppm but my phosphate has gotten upwards towards 0.7 (I should preface that I have been struggling with phosphates prior which is why I installed this reactor, the chaeto used to bring it down to 0.2)

Any ideas on what is happening to my chaeto? I recently bought some Brightwell Chaetogrow to promote maybe some strength into it?

 

[Pistondog]

I've been running chaeto in a Tunze macroreactor for about a month now, the first two weeks the chaeto was growing like crazy and I was running it for 18 hours. Switch to just a 12 hour light cycle opposite of my tank lights and noticed the growth has stalled to what looks like this brown/red slime covering/choking it. Kinda looks like cyano?

It also has stopped reducing my phosphates. My nitrates remain well at 10ppm but my phosphate has gotten upwards towards 0.7 (I should preface that I have been struggling with phosphates prior which is why I installed this reactor, the chaeto used to bring it down to 0.2)

Any ideas on what is happening to my chaeto? I recently bought some Brightwell Chaetogrow to promote maybe some strength into it?

Can you rinse it off ?
Maybe try to put it in a colander and spray in the sink?

 

[chousecat]

Can you rinse it off ?
Maybe try to put it in a colander and spray in the sink?

I did once with old water change water but it seemed to have grown back, maybe I didn't put enough force into it. Can chaeto tolerate rinses with tap water at the sink? If so, I'll give it a try asap

 

[Pistondog]

I did once with old water change water but it seemed to have grown back, maybe I didn't put enough force into it. Can chaeto tolerate rinses with tap water at the sink? If so, I'll give it a try asap

Not 100% sure, but iwould think so.

 

[chousecat]

Not 100% sure, but iwould think so.

How to clean chaeto of pests?

I know places like Algae Barn offer "clean" chaeto -- which I love (I just bought some, and the product is great and as an art director I love their branding) but I was wondering if anyone has a process for cleaning chaeto. By cleaning I don't mean physically washing it, but more of a QT cycle...

www.reef2reef.com

Mind blown, I'll give this a try. Ty

 

[randalli]

For me the situation is similar. For a loooong time now though there are differences.
How it usually goes: I get new Chaeto and put it in my Tunze MAR. It starts tumbling, it starts growing, it grows so large that I have to cut it within 3 weeks because the container is full. I usually remove the bottom half of the Chaeto since this is the dirtiest part with all the gunk in it. The top half I slosh around in salt water from my tank until the Chaeto look reasonably clean. I give the reactor a mild scrub on the inside and put the Chaeto back. Then the cycle starts over ... grow, cut/rip, rinse. Sometime after the second or third cut-rinse cycle GHA takes over the reactor for some reason and my Chaeto starts to die. And this goes fast. From like no visible GHA at all to a reactor full of that gunk within a week. Now I would I take out the Chaeto and remove the parts that have visible GHA from it. I scrub the reactor and clean it with citric acid to get rid of the last remaining algae.
This only helps sometimes. But most of the time GHA grow back within a couple of days and the Chaeto just tumbles around at the bottom of the reactor getting smaller and growing more GHA until I have to throw it out because it's a GHA ball with some Chaeto sticking out. Then I have to take the reactor apart again and clean it for the next batch of Chaeto I throw in there. Now I get new Chaeto and the process starts again. I usually run the Reactor at mid to full speed. But I have yet no notice any differences other than the Chaeto tumbling faster or slower. The reactor is in my sump in a way so that the pump is before the skimmer to get the most nutrients and the outlet of the reactor then is in front of the skimmer inlet. What am I doing wrong here? How do you peeps trim your Chaeto?

Some data: Triton Method with monthly ICP and quarterly N-Doc tests, Reactor lights are on for 12h usually