chaeto breaking apart

I got my chaeto a couple months back, it went from a baseball size to a basket ball size and looking great. I have read some places that you should cleaning your chaeto from time to time. I did this by filling a 5 gallon bucket of the tank water pulling the algae out and shacking it through the bucket. Now my chaeto has been laying on the floor looking a worse green color. It does not float or any thing, my water has stayed the normal amounts and I have 2 6500k bulbs on the cheato. So my question is did I kill the stuff doing this or just stress it out? I have put a power head to it to help move it around and all that has happen is it has broken up into single pieces. I have done some reasearch and can not find any thing that is that clear on the issue. Any suggestions or info would be helpful. Thanks

 

There's a median in which your chaeto consumes and exceeds the necessary nutrients to survive. That's why it's important to maintain by removing extra as the plant grows.

 

I have begun to remove the free floating chaeto, I am wondering if though the hole colony is dieing or just some of it? Also this has only happened after I cleaned it so I am wondering if I did this to it?

 

Rip it in half, toss half and let the rest grow again. That's how it works.

Jeff

 

It's unnecessary.