Macroalgae Help!

[Apheoxx]

Hello! So I have been trying to grow Chaeto, and to not avail, it ends up going clear and brown. My nutrients are 15-20 ppm for nitrates and between .1-.003 ppm for nitrates. I have my lights on for an 8-10 hour photo period, with a 60% intensity at 7 inches above the surface, Chaeto being down at the bottom of the chamber. To no avail, problems. I do suspect that it is a flow issue as my sump is not exactly designed for a refugium, so I installed a flow pump just after my filter floss in order to create a sense of turbulence, I haven’t given that test much of a chance to show results as of yet.

I do worry that it might be an iron issues, but the rest of the Chaeto looks pretty healthy, which makes me think twice about this. Even if I had to dose iron, I wouldn’t know how to safely test or dose iron. I do not want to hurt my fish or lifestock by foolishly dosing an element that I have little to no knowledge about. In an effort to combat these problems, I have opted to try ULVA.. Yes. I know. There is the potential for this algae to reproduce in an explosive manner. I am fine with this due to the herbivores that I have in the DT. I have heard this algae is not a picky one in terms of flow and it grows insanely quick.

I would appreciate some answers and some input. I’m kind of handling a mystery here.

 

[New&no clue]

What type of light are you using?

Is anything growing in your refugium sections, GHA, Bubble, or Cyano?

How are things looking in your DT? Are corals growing and have good color, fish doing okay, any algae there?

 

[Apheoxx]

What type of light are you using?

Is anything growing in your refugium sections, GHA, Bubble, or Cyano?

How are things looking in your DT? Are corals growing and have good color, fish doing okay, any algae there?

Corals look fine as well as fish and there is just a small bit of GHA that I clean pretty well