This has been an ongoing battle for a year now. I have always had high nutrients (nitrates 20 - 30, phosphates around 0.1) and just let it go. However, both seem to be creeping up significantly.
So about a month ago, I threw one of those plant basket for ponds in my sump, added a 30 gph freshwater pump in there for a bit more flow, got a 6000k LED bulb hanging ~ 4'' above water level and added a hand full of chaeto. The light's on during the hours my DT light's off. So far, the chaeto ball hasn't even doubled in size. It's looking good color wise and not falling apart and I turn it around once or twice a week. My skimmer isn't stripping my tank of nutrients either, because it's working rather poorly.
I've got a few stray strings of caulerpa in the DT that has settled on some live rock. Has been in the tank for months, but is barely growing as well. So slow actually, that I haven't had the need to trim it yet. I have never had any nuisance algae in the tank other than a green film on the glass and some brown stuff on the sand bed for a few weeks.
Any ideas what's going on? Ideally I want my nutrients even below the usual 20 (nitrates) and 0.1 (phosphates) to hopefully improve growth and coloration of my corals a bit, since that has been lacking for months as well.
So about a month ago, I threw one of those plant basket for ponds in my sump, added a 30 gph freshwater pump in there for a bit more flow, got a 6000k LED bulb hanging ~ 4'' above water level and added a hand full of chaeto. The light's on during the hours my DT light's off. So far, the chaeto ball hasn't even doubled in size. It's looking good color wise and not falling apart and I turn it around once or twice a week. My skimmer isn't stripping my tank of nutrients either, because it's working rather poorly.
I've got a few stray strings of caulerpa in the DT that has settled on some live rock. Has been in the tank for months, but is barely growing as well. So slow actually, that I haven't had the need to trim it yet. I have never had any nuisance algae in the tank other than a green film on the glass and some brown stuff on the sand bed for a few weeks.
Any ideas what's going on? Ideally I want my nutrients even below the usual 20 (nitrates) and 0.1 (phosphates) to hopefully improve growth and coloration of my corals a bit, since that has been lacking for months as well.