Chaeto Fail, please help!

Jfox33

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Hello fellow reefers! I just started my reef tank this April (2020) and After 2 months (June) I added Chaeto to my tank. At the time I had 3 clownfish lots of excess nutrients (why I added chaeto). At first, it did well and then stopped producing bubbles (O2) and now lately it is full of bubbles but upon further inspection its mush and full of other algae like bubble and hair algae growing on it. About 2 weeks ago I started dosing ChaetoGro alongside MicroBacter7, Reef bio Fuel and NeoPhos (I can't keep phosphates above 0, so I dose it). I just added a timer to my skimmer to turn off for 4 hours after dosing just to make sure it isn't skimming all the stuff I just dosed. I also upgraded from a crappy white LED that didn't grow anything to a cheap $20 Amazon grow light (which is plenty bright). My theory is since I have only ever used RO water and have never done a water change after 3 months; I assume I'm lacking in some trace mineral. Therefore, I am deeming this a complete fail because I'm making this post right now, and if anyone can shoot me some advice that would be awesome!

Aquarium Chemistry
PH: 8
Salinity: 1.024
DKH: 8
Calcium: 330
Phosphate: 0 (but dose 1ml NeoPhos a day)
Nitrate: 10
 

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Stop dosing microbacter and bio fuel. They are not needed in this case. This will also help prevent 0 phosphate. Also never add biofuel without a skimmer going as you can get bad bacteria blooms.

As for trace, consider chaetogro from brightwell. I have had good luck with it.
 
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Jfox33

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See I dose ChaetoGro which has everything to grow chaeto well including iron. I've been dosing that for a month and no new growth. It could be that the nuisance algae is out competing the chaeto but I thought chaeto was supposed to do that not the other way around.
 

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Trye flux rx. It wiped hair algae out of my macro. Its only unsafe with caulerpa.
 
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Jfox33

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I guess I made it sound like I have a nuisance algae problem, but I really don't. It's barely present in my refugium because the chaeto isn't doing anything. Basically on the sides of the refugium I have a film with some small bubble algae and some small hair algae and just a mush of dying chaeto. I should be chemically ok because I'm dosing ChaetoGro, MicroBacter7, Reef Bio Fuel, and NeoPhos (everything ChaetoGro recommends when ChaetoGro doesn't solve the problem). I just can't imagine that little stuff is out competing my chaeto with me dosing everything chaeto needs to thrive. My other thought that comes to mind is that I got a bad bunch of chaeto from the start but I got it from a reputable source: Algae Barn. I have attempted to purchase some more Chaeto from Algae Barn, but they (and other sources) are currently out of stock. Let me know if you think of anything else that could be the problem!
 

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Again stop microbacter7, reef biofuel, and neophos. You are basically stopping the chaeto from getting the waste it needs by adding microbes that are outcompeting it. Stop those and you will be fine, otherwise you chaeto is just going to sit there and do nothing.

Half of microbacter is useless since you already have nitrifying bacteria and you can get bottles of hetertrophs if that is what you want. Biofuel is "fueling" the growth of bacteria which are stripping waste out of the water of which the chaeto could have used. Neophos is also prevent the chaeto from getting phosphate
 

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Just a brief suggestion. Try to keep your Nitrate to Phosphate ratio to about 10-20. So if Phosphate is .1mg/L then Nitrate should be about 1-2mg/L, Phosphate 1.0mg/L then Nitrate about 10-20mg/L. 1mg/L =1ppm. If you drop below 10 then you will see blue and above 20 we start to see green.
 

Deezill

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Again stop microbacter7, reef biofuel, and neophos. You are basically stopping the chaeto from getting the waste it needs by adding microbes that are outcompeting it. Stop those and you will be fine, otherwise you chaeto is just going to sit there and do nothing.

Half of microbacter is useless since you already have nitrifying bacteria and you can get bottles of hetertrophs if that is what you want. Biofuel is "fueling" the growth of bacteria which are stripping waste out of the water of which the chaeto could have used. Neophos is also prevent the chaeto from getting phosphate
I 2nd that stop dosing MB7 i have purchased Chaaeto several times this year and I was dosing MB7 and Chaetogro. I had a problem keep phosphates at the recommended level of 0.03 Now they are back up there since I stopped dosing the MB7. I am not sure what MB7 has to do with anything but I now have pO4 levels at 09 - .13 Nitrates are at 10. Now I can get my Chaeto back cause mine dissappeared too.
 

Jimmyneptune

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Just a brief suggestion. Try to keep your Nitrate to Phosphate ratio to about 10-20. So if Phosphate is .1mg/L then Nitrate should be about 1-2mg/L, Phosphate 1.0mg/L then Nitrate about 10-20mg/L. 1mg/L =1ppm. If you drop below 10 then you will see blue and above 20 we start to see green.
How about Nitrate of 55 and phosphate of 1.3?
 

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