Keep killing chaeto

[rostalee]

Will I kill my tank without a refugium ?

For some reason I can keep My low grade SPS and montipora alive in my mixed tank, with soft corals, gorgonias, mushrooms and zoas.

But I can’t not keep chaeto alive in my algae reactor. I have limited sump space with protein skimmer, socks, and pump for chiller and UV.

400L aqua one aqua reef. All 8.0, salinity 35ppm, ph 8, temp 26, nitrate .9, phosphate 0.12

I’m happy to just not have a reactor/refugium. But is this bad in the long term. My chaeto just really really slowly dissapears.

 

[DrkNMighty]

You should be fine not running one. Most people use them for nutrient control or breeding area for copepods. If you don’t need either of those I don’t see the harm. Maybe someone else will chime in.

 

[slingfox]

Plenty of people run successful reef tanks without a lighted refugium.

 

[Llyod276]

Prolly light. If you do water changes, you don't have to do run a fuge/reactor. Might need more frequent water changes though. I run a 75g with a fuge and i still have higher than normal nutrients.

 

[Koty]

Cheato need a good supply of trace elements. Once I started dosing them It grows like crazy. THere are many benefits to a refuge. Mine is creating a stable supply of pods and other critters to my DT that has many pod eaters.

 

[Peter Houde]

I run a refugium with a supposedly chaeto-specific light, but I can't keep the stuff alive there. A (very) little hangs on in my sump, which also runs a chaeto-specific light. Danged if I know why I can't get it to grow. I do a water change roughly weekly and dose AFR daily.

 

[Llyod276]

I've been using this light for 3 or so years and never had problems with growing anything, good or bad.

 

[rostalee]

Prolly light. If you do water changes, you don't have to do run a fuge/reactor. Might need more frequent water changes though. I run a 75g with a fuge and i still have higher than normal nutrients.

But it’s in an algae reactor. Gets lots of light. Run light from 9pm to 9am to offset tank lights.

 

[rostalee]

Cheato need a good supply of trace elements. Once I started dosing them It grows like crazy. THere are many benefits to a refuge. Mine is creating a stable supply of pods and other critters to my DT that has many pod eaters.

Should I send off an icp test to check? I Dose small amounts of coral essentials by hand. (A+B+C)

 

[Llyod276]

I run mine 24/7.
Youre not using algeafix or related products are you???
I mean my nutrient levels are higher than yours and i harvest weekly...

Maybe try a different type of algea?