cheato not growing. hair algea out competing it.

[Michael pugh]

In my refugium i have a fist size of cheato in there. the hair algea is out competing it and growing like wildfire. I dont have any algea in my display which is why I'm thinking it's ok that it is. am I wrong? the tank is newly set up also if that helps troubleshoot why I couldn't get cheato to grow at all.

I have a small power head in the chamber to add the flow and keep the detritus stirred up so my skimmer can remove it and a plant bulb on a clip light.

I'm not running filter socks cause I just hate them. 1st chamber is a xport brick from brightwell that sits right under the drain pipe.

po4 is at .02ppm and no3 is at 10ppm

I'm keep mostly zoas and lps all livestock is healthy

 

[Palyzoa]

Have you tried scrubbing it off regularly to keep it in check? I would think that if it's not growing in your display then you are fine.

 

[cristata.reef]

What's your flow like. I know spinning the chaeto helps ensure that the parts at the bottom of the ball get light and help remove the GHA/prevent it from growing back

 

[Michael pugh]

the flow in that chamber is enough to keep the detritus and cheato ball tumbling. every other water change I clean a chamber in my sump and when I do It's scrubbed one wall of my fuge chamber to remove the gha. I'm just really not sure if it's a good algea to have in the fuge as long as it's not in the display.

 

[Larry L]

I think you just need to keep up with removing the hair algae, and eventually the chaeto will get big enough that it starts to out-compete the hair algae.

 

[Sean1986]

Your numbers are not horrible for No3 and P04.

Your Refugium light may not be strong enough to allow the cheato to out compete. You may need to get a bigger chunk of the cheato as well. What light are you using ?

 

[AlgaeBarn]

I totally agree with Larry. You will need to manually remove the hair algae.

 

[kwhyle]

Macro will not outcompete nuisance algae without a little work. I'm one of the crazy ones that uses caulerpa but there is some chaeto in there. I still get algae.

 

[scott11106]

so i have same problem and the chaeto has died off but the hair algae is growing fast and i saw a couple strands in the display so what sould i do? should i shut ref lights off for a bit to kill off hair algae or what should i do?

 

[Reefer Reboot]

Just from personal experience, a strong refugium grow light, tumbling water current and some stomatella snails to clean the GHA will take you from this,

to this.

Harvesting out two hand fulls a week.

 

[Super Fly]

try placing a larger size/more chaeto in the refugium. The smaller chaeto may not be big enough to outcompete the more abundant GHA

 

[scott11106]

try placing a larger size/more chaeto in the refugium. The smaller chaeto may not be big enough to outcompete the more abundant GHA

i added a power head as i did not have one in the refug and going to get some healthy chaeto today as the original was small and unhealthy i believe so i will try it again, i think with this advise it should be good..