Chaeto in display tank

[flanda]

I have a 65 gallon fish-only tank with three large fish (tomato clown fish, blue tang and lunar wrasse), no refugium and a 407 Fluvial filter with two carbon bags and phosphate removing pads, both changed monthly. It has been impossible to keep nitrates under control, even after trying GF reactors, vodka, feeding less, nitrate removing solutions, expensive skimmers, increasingly frequent water changes, etc. etc. the latest was an 85% water change and I still can't get it below 40 ppm. The blue tang in particular is constantly showing signs of stress so I can only attribute it to the nitrates. PH is 8.3, salinity is 1.024, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, temp 78. Very constant, with a regular weekly and monthly maintenance schedule.

Instead of having to move to a bigger tank, with a refugium, my question is whether it is worth trying to add chaetomotrpha algae directly into the tank as a last resort to controlling nitrates in this tank. I figured it could also help with the Tang's nutrition. My idea was to put the chaeto in some kind of container with slots to keep it from growing out of control but at the same time give the tang a chance to nibble. I'm not doing this for looks. It's purely practical. Worth doing it is it replacing one problem with another?

Any comments would be appreciated.

 

[flanda]

I forgot to add that all the new water in the changes is RO/DI with 0 nitrates.

 

[SantaMonica]

Tangs don't eat chaeto. Nevertheless, it won't grow in the display because the flow through it, and the light on it, is too weak.

 

[Freenow54]

I have no experience on that but even if it did work it would still be in the tank. I used a hang off the back made for that purpose had its own light, and pump and worked. However you have to clean it as whatever it converts is not healthy for your tank I almost lost all my corals over night because of my negligence. \luckily I only do things one at a time and narrowed it down . What happened was the refuse that was made was being cycled into the display. Quit using it. Fluval makes other media. ClearMax which they say removes phosphate , nitrites, and nitrates. Another is Zeo- Carb says it removes heavy metals organic contaminates discoloration , odours , and toxic Ammonia. I use both. Also used to use a product called Nitrat is a nitrate absorption resin says can regenerate over 250 times. Cannot remember why I stopped using it. Was back when I only had my 1 Tank. Another product I do use , and can vouch for is Nitra-Guard. It goes int the fluval as well

 

[flanda]

Thank you so much for the information. I'll forget about the chaeto idea and keep trying other things. I've tried ClearMax and multiple other phosphate removers in reactors but they didn't help much. My last experiment was a vodka doser but nitrates didn't go down and then the glass seemed to get a white, cloudy film so I got rid of it. I do water changes every two weeks so -to my dread- I am going to revise my weekly maintenance and start weekly 15-20% water changes and see how that goes. Seems to be the only solution.

Thanks again for your help.