Good Morning,
So I am on my third round of chaeto and not understanding what I am missing. My tank is 8 months old. I thought I was past the uglys and starting to mature.
The first round as soon as I added it to my fuge it fell apart and went everywhere. I spent a couple of days trying to gather it and put it back in its chamber, but at the time I was just getting past a brown algae bloom. The chaeto just melted, not enough nutrients. My NO3 and PO4 were 0-0 with the ATI & Fluval test kits I had. I knew I had nutrients but the algae was taking it all up.
The second try was after the algae bloom died back, between my CUC and a few water changes, it just went away. I started seeing coralline on my dry rocks so I tried again. Replaced test kits. NO3 up to 10 ppm (Salifert) and PO4 up to .009 ppm (Hanna Phosphorus). Chaeto once again just fell apart and went everywhere. Bought a $6 cheap netted breeder box from PetSmart and hung it between the chambers and put all the chaeto pieces in it. Chaeto tumbles great now and I turned my Kessil H80 up to 24 hrs. a day. It still wasn't growing.
Third attempt, I added another golf ball size ball to the breeder. NO3 staying between 10-15 ppm. PO4 was up to .08 ppm for a couple of weeks. I cleaned the GHA that had started in my fuge when I did a water change. I have only been doing them when I need water for a QT, otherwise not doing routine WC's. Trying to get nutrients up. Brown algae and GHA bloomed in DT again. Chaeto is bright green, but not growing at all. NO3 still 10 ppm and PO4 dropped to .003 ppm. Coralline is exploding on my rocks.
I am running a Hybrid lighting set up, 2 - Kessil A360X's and T5's. T5's have been turned off for the last 2 months and Kessils run at 60% Intensity and Color only 10 hours a day thinking that would help keep the algae down.
I keep telling myself if I can get the algae beat back the chaeto will take over on the nutrients and start to grow.
What am I missing?
Thanks for your help in advance!
So I am on my third round of chaeto and not understanding what I am missing. My tank is 8 months old. I thought I was past the uglys and starting to mature.
The first round as soon as I added it to my fuge it fell apart and went everywhere. I spent a couple of days trying to gather it and put it back in its chamber, but at the time I was just getting past a brown algae bloom. The chaeto just melted, not enough nutrients. My NO3 and PO4 were 0-0 with the ATI & Fluval test kits I had. I knew I had nutrients but the algae was taking it all up.
The second try was after the algae bloom died back, between my CUC and a few water changes, it just went away. I started seeing coralline on my dry rocks so I tried again. Replaced test kits. NO3 up to 10 ppm (Salifert) and PO4 up to .009 ppm (Hanna Phosphorus). Chaeto once again just fell apart and went everywhere. Bought a $6 cheap netted breeder box from PetSmart and hung it between the chambers and put all the chaeto pieces in it. Chaeto tumbles great now and I turned my Kessil H80 up to 24 hrs. a day. It still wasn't growing.
Third attempt, I added another golf ball size ball to the breeder. NO3 staying between 10-15 ppm. PO4 was up to .08 ppm for a couple of weeks. I cleaned the GHA that had started in my fuge when I did a water change. I have only been doing them when I need water for a QT, otherwise not doing routine WC's. Trying to get nutrients up. Brown algae and GHA bloomed in DT again. Chaeto is bright green, but not growing at all. NO3 still 10 ppm and PO4 dropped to .003 ppm. Coralline is exploding on my rocks.
I am running a Hybrid lighting set up, 2 - Kessil A360X's and T5's. T5's have been turned off for the last 2 months and Kessils run at 60% Intensity and Color only 10 hours a day thinking that would help keep the algae down.
I keep telling myself if I can get the algae beat back the chaeto will take over on the nutrients and start to grow.
What am I missing?
Thanks for your help in advance!