Refugium lighting - chaeto vs hair algae

[cablueeyes]

Hey all, I have been in the hobby for over 10 yrs specializing in mainly sps. Sold my thriving tank a few years ago and then started over with a 100 nuvo int. I used to use a light from Lowe’s to grow chaeto in my fuge and never had any nuisance algae in sump or display but with this tank I have a kessil h80 on the fuge and I am having a problem with hair algae in the fuge only trying to outcompete the chaeto… any suggestions on lighting if I were to get a new one or what setting this one would best work on?

Some photos of display…

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Lighting aside, do you dose iron?

I had this issue long ago and an old time reefer suggested dosing iron. When I tried it, it worked. It is perhaps counter intuitive, but presumably it helped the chaeto grow faster relative to the green hair algae.

 

[cablueeyes]

Lighting aside, do you dose iron?

I had this issue long ago and an old time reefer suggested dosing iron. When I tried it, it worked. It is perhaps counter intuitive, but presumably it helped the chaeto grow faster relative to the green hair algae.

I do not dose iron but have chaeto gro and haven’t used it, was see what afraid of it causing other algae to also grow more. Would that be ok to use ?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I do not dose iron but have chaeto gro and haven’t used it, was see what afraid of it causing other algae to also grow more. Would that be ok to use ?

I'd try it, yes.