Brown Algae growing on Cheato

Discussion in 'Algae' started by grubbsj, Oct 31, 2010.

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  1. grubbsj

    grubbsj Gigas Clam

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    Location:
    Outside of Seattle, WA
    While my cheato is slowly growing, it is being covered with more and more brown algae...the cheato is a deep, dark green under the brown...

    The cheato is full of "bugs"... it seems that quite a bit of the baby brine shrimp I hatch and feed to the DT are finding their way into the refugium and have grown into adults... :)

    IMG_0103.JPG

    You can see my current chemistry on the links below.... NO3 floats between 2 and 10 ppm... PO4 between 0.00 and 0.1 ppm (by Hanna Checker)... when the PO4 comes up, I add back in the GFO until testing shows 0.00... and yes, I know we over feed the tank... :-/

    Does anyone else see this occur in their sump?

    Do I need to be concerned with "cleaning" the cheato?

    If you do clean you cheato, do you do more than just...shake it vigorously in a bucket of salt water and put it back?
     
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  3. steve wright

    steve wright Super Moderator

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    grubbsj
    I would rinse it as you described as otherwise the algae affects the amount of light available to the Chaeto

    Steve
     
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  4. grubbsj

    grubbsj Gigas Clam

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    It seemed to be the right thing... thank you for the quick reply.
     
  5. grubbsj

    grubbsj Gigas Clam

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    Follow on note:

    The chaeto looks much better now...

    Here's a shot of the rinse water:
    IMG_0114[1].jpg


    More valuable, here's a close up of what was washed out, a 3 inch plastic petri dish, 1/4" of sample, through the zoom of an iPhone and a 10x lighted magnifying glass. Can you see the little bugs? With out the benefit of movement, they are hard to see... holding very still, I could see many "tiny" bugs and several adult brine shrimp.
    IMG_0115[1].jpg


    Summary: It appears that the chaeto is a great filter for floating 'stuff' and a foundation upon which the brown algae can grow.
     
  6. steve wright

    steve wright Super Moderator

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    where is the shot of the clean chaeto then?

    Steve
     
  7. grubbsj

    grubbsj Gigas Clam

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    Outside of Seattle, WA
    Fair enough:

    This first one (though a bit out of focus), shows the color difference of the thick thread (right side) chaeto purchased last year, and the thin thread (left side) chaeto purchased from Magnus.
    IMG_0117[1].jpg

    Here a more in-focus pic of the clean, thick thread, chaeto (right side of photo). As well, you can easily see the diameter difference of the chaeto threads...

    IMG_0116.jpg
     
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