Struggling to keep my Chaeto alive

Cool Cat

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I'm having a hard time keeping my chaeto alive and growing. It does well for about a month, growing and looking healthy. My tank will look great then the top layer starts to turn white and starts to die off. When I see white spots I remove it from the fuge, but it seems that the chaeto never bounces back and my tank starts to look shabby again. I'm sure you need some more tank info, but I'm not sure what info you need? I'm using a 300 watt Mars Hydro grow light that is about 12" from the chaeto and a 12 hour reverse lighting schedule. The tank is 100 gallons with a 30 gallon sump and a 40 gallon breeder that is used as the refugium. It is stocked with a pair of ocel. clowns, azure damsel, bicolor blenny, 4 chromis, purple fire fish and a watchman goby. Dosing ATI essentials 3 part and I feed twice a day with pellets, flakes and assorted frozen foods. The fuge also has 3 mangrove "sprouts" that have been growing for about a year. Any tips? Is it just starved of nutrients? Do I need to add fish? Just want to make this work because when the chaeto is growing my tanks looks awesome! Thanks!
 

dylanst.onge

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Maybe all of the other macros are sucking up more nutrient not leaving enough for ot to grow? Also is anything else under that light? In my experience I just use a 20w led grow bulb to grow cheato. It could possibly be burning it from to strong of light
 
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Cool Cat

Cool Cat

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Maybe? The mangroves are under that light, but they are such slow growers not sure if they are out competing the chaeto.The chaeto I get comes from by brother's fuge grown from the same light. His is a 90 gallon tank with a 75 gallon sump and a frag tank plumbed together. He has the opposite problem of having too much chaeto growth. He has about twice the stocking that I have. Maybe that is the route I should go.
 

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