Chaeto turning white and dying, what am i doing wrong?

JosephM

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Exactly what the title says. I’ve done some research as to why but the thing is is that it was doing great and flourishing to where I was harvesting 1-3 quart bags of chaeto every other week. My last harvest I took a little too much out to where there was maybe a golf ball size (when compressed) and that’s when it started dying. I have a cheap grow light off Amazon. Im dosing iron. Nitrates at 10ppm and phosphates rose up to 0.1ppm after adding new livestock and harvesting chaeto. My fuge is low flow but has never been an issue in the past. Could it be that now that is so thinned out my light is frying it? The light is literally 1” from the surface (to minimize light getting to the rest of the sump), but once again it’s always been like this. I have a 29gal reef tank with 20gal sump. I do turn the chaeto every couple nights or when I can remember and I think lights are on 12 or 14 hrs. Maybe try 6hrs on 6hrs off? Im Just at a loss and will take any insight or advice
 
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JosephM

JosephM

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Sounds like u have some nutrients so the normal reason is out. Have you dosed anything for killing algae recently?
Not at all, live phyto, chaeto, and solid cuc have been all I need to take care of all nuisance algae or at least manage it.
Maybe stop dosing iron? Lol. Your wcs dont have iron in it?
D
I dose minimally, 2ml weekly. I don’t do water changes regularly. Dose ESV 2-part which has trace elements.
 
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JosephM

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Just did a super deep clean in my sump and DT. Lots of GHA and some other unknowns in the sump. Might’ve been taking the nutrients before the chaeto could get it. Made a heck of a mess out of my DT but we’ll see how it looks tomorrow. It’s past midnight and took well over an hour of scrubbing and blowing with a turkey bastero_O
 

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