Dead debris covering Chaeto

[ZoWhat]

my chaeto is not bright green. I dont have a traditional baffled sump where I can "tumble" the chateo.

its more in a refugium section of a 100g rubbermaid sump with good flow flowing thru it.

my chaeto is covered with brown dead debris (maybe dead algae?)

seems like chaeto acts more like a filter sponge, lol.

I have pulled it and SWISHED it in a bucket

I did that last month but this brown debris keeps slowly coming back.

PICS TO FOLLOW...

Thoughts?

 

[DylanE]

Mine is the same way. Even when I blast it with a power head in the sump it always has a brown film in the surface. It still grows, produces tons of pods, and pulls lots of nutrients. Doesn’t look pretty, but does a great job.

 

[ReeferReefer]

Are you using mechanical filtration before it?

 

[Highgrade]

Possibly dinos or other slime algae.

 

[ZoWhat]

 

[Highgrade]

Hard to tell with all the red. Any pics under white light?

 

[ZoWhat]

Hard to tell with all the red. Any pics under white light?

I jumped the gun and pulled the chaeto swishing it in a 5g bucket

 

[Highgrade]

I jumped the gun and pulled the chaeto swishing it in a 5g bucket

My chaeto will get the occasional detritus build up which shaking out from time to time will dislodge it. My sump area is low flow with no tumbling. I flip the chaeto every 24 hours so I don't end up with dead spots. What type/brand of light are you using in your fuge and what is your lighting cycle?

 

[ZoWhat]

https://www.amazon.com/Newhouse-Lig...row+par+bulb&qid=1561398761&s=gateway&sr=8-54

 

[Highgrade]

https://www.amazon.com/Newhouse-Lig...row+par+bulb&qid=1561398761&s=gateway&sr=8-54

I've seen many people use this bulb and it can grow chaeto no problem. How many hours are you running it?

 

[ZoWhat]

12hrs overnight

 

[Highgrade]

12hrs overnight

That photo period should be good. Any longer and you most likely would experience other random nuisance algae or burn up the chaeto.

 

[lapin]

Since my remote fuge has very little flow, it had sort of the same issue. I stuck a airline tube and stone in there and that seem to help a lot. You need to watch for salt creep from the bubbles.