First Reef (Mixed) Tank... And I'm absolutely in love

[gerajn01]

I have a 100gal tall bowfront tank with a 40gal sump. Tank was gifted so I'm thankful but will definitely be going with an 8' wide and 24"-30" tall tank in the future. I use an ice cap 3 & 4k gyro, bubble magus skimmer, rollermat and dosing pump, three XR15 gen5 blue radio s, ATO (I forget the brand). I'm honestly not sure the brand of return pump or sump as it was gifted. Anyways, I am attempting to run a refugium but can't seem to keep my chaeto alive (phosphate and nitrate present). But I'll keep after it. I attempted to do a negative space rick scape but definitely didn't turn out like BRS tutorial. I'd love to know what you all think. I'll try to upload a more frequent tank shot. Happy Reefing

 

[lapin]

Nice

 

[MarshallB]

I think the scape looks good.

I had a lot of trouble with chaeto when i started up my tank. I was trying to run the fuge 12 hours a day with a baseball size amount. Always died off. I then put in a basketball size worth of chaeto and started the light off at 3 hours a day and increased it weekly. It now works too well and i'm having to cut the time back down due to having no readable amount of phosphate.

My theory is there just wasn't enough chaeto to out compete other types of algae in the sump. I'd clean out all the other alagae and week later its back, and the chaeto always looked worse.

 

[gerajn01]

I think the scape looks good.

I had a lot of trouble with chaeto when i started up my tank. I was trying to run the fuge 12 hours a day with a baseball size amount. Always died off. I then put in a basketball size worth of chaeto and started the light off at 3 hours a day and increased it weekly. It now works too well and i'm having to cut the time back down due to having no readable amount of phosphate.

My theory is there just wasn't enough chaeto to out compete other types of algae in the sump. I'd clean out all the other alagae and week later its back, and the chaeto always looked worse.

That's super interesting. I've never heard of reefers turning the lights off/keeping them active for only 3hrs a day. Is the thought to minimalize the light to starve out the competing algae until the chaeto has a chance to thrive? Thanks for your response