Growing Cheato???

[rinker]

Not sure why my Cheato is not growing?
I started a sump 3 months ago. It is divided into 3 chambers. The first chamber has the flow back from the main tank and also has the protein skimmer sitting in it it. The second chamber is about 5 gallons in size and has the Cheato I purchased 3 months ago with some of my live sand on the bottom. Third chambers is the return pump to the tank.
I have strong PC lighting directly on the sump about 10 hours a day, but the cheato is not growing. It is still nice and green and the display is very healthy with plenty of soft corals, and a few fish. Any idea why?

 

[itom37]

It probably is growing. It can be hard to tell it's growing, but one day you'll notice that it's like taking over your refuge. It might help to fluff it up a bit, as it might b getting denser without appearing to grow. I think ruffling it a bit is good for growth overall.
Is it keeping your nitrates down? If so, it probably is growing.

 

[spiked09]

It really depends on the light spectrum. What are you running?
I had a discussion on another forum about if it matters how fast it grows, as long as it's healthy. I was like you and thought I needed to grow it fast but in the end I just ended up throwing more away and sooner. I used to donate it to fellow reefers or local stores but now I live in the boonies so there is nobody to take it.
I decided that as long as it was healthy, nice and green with no brown mushy parts then there is no real hurry. It is serving it's purpose once you have nice sized chunk on the go. I just spread it out and crop little bits every other week or so.

 

[big]

Nice and green is good. One thing it loves is lots of flow, maybe a little PH in that chamber would help if the flow is too low.

 

[snakeblitz33]

If you only have a few fish, it won't grow very fast because of the low bioload. If you had a high bioload it would probably grow faster.