Cheato not growing.

I have had cheato in my sump for over a year. It never grows. I am now on my 3rd light trying to find one that is correct. I keep reading the posts where others are willing to share their's because it is getting to thick. The light I now have is a 6500 daylight compact fluorescent. It hangs about 4 or 5 inches from the top of the water over the sump. Can anyone Luna? ALW? tell me what I am doing wrong, or not doing correctly? Please?

 

How deep is the sump itself? I had a 6500 daylight on my frag tank and the chaeto wasn't growing either. Only thing growing was the sea lettuce up closer top the top. The sump section in my frag tank is about 11" in depth and I think the bulb just isn't enough to get to the bottom. Try to somehow lower the bulb closer.....or add another. Good luck!

 

what about its food, if your nitrates and or phos are low or null it may have nothing to feed off? not a pro just taking a guess?

 

Well my phosphate is at zero and nitrates at about 30. I am having an outbreak of red algae in the sand, so obviously that is using the phosphate. I am doing small frequent water changes. The bulb is at 5-1/2 inches above the water level.

 

What type of flowrate do you have going through your fuge? My chaeto seems to be growing, but I have to turn it manually by hand every 3 days or the bottom side starts to bleach. I have very low flow (about 60gph) through my fuge, so it doesn't tumble my chaeto. My fuge is rougly 11G, and I have my light about 3" from the surface, it turns on at 8pm and turns off at 6am. I also add 1 drop of iron supplement directly into the fuge. My chaeto looks bigger, not considering the slight die off that I mention above. I'm using a standard 17W (65W equivalent) CF floodlight that's rated at 6500K. I tried using a 20W (100W equiv.) 5500K flood bulb, but it was burning up the chaeto so I went back to the 65W 6500K.
Try to manually remove the red algae (which I am assuming is actually cyano) to give the chaeto a chance to absorb the nutrients and naturally outcompete that.

 

I thought that mine was not growing well either--my fuge is about 5 weeks old and I did not realize it had grown until I took a pic and compared them side by side.


I am not saying this is your problem, but I think some people exagerate how fast they grow chaeto. You set up sounds just like mine--Red cyano and all--I use a 6500 daylight bulb (coiled flouresent) from GE-bought at Wal-mart.

 

That is a great idea. I will try to turn it every couple of days. I am gonna take a pic today and then again in a week and see if there is a difference. No, there is not much flow through the central portion of the fuge. It is divided, with the pump for the PS in a small portion, then main fuge, then smaller portion with return pipes.
I don't believe it is cyano that is growing. The sand is though I have mixed dark red sand with it. Not in sheets like the cyano I had years back.