Chaetomorpha
 

Hi, Everyone.

So I have an Algae reactor that's about 1/2 full of Chaetomorpha and it refuses to grow. I'm having a nutrient issue right now and my nitrates are 20 and my phosphates are 0.6ppm. Anyone experience this? How do you kickstart this? I'm on a 12 hour light cycle. I'm thinking about pulling out all of the algae and starting fresh.

Let me know what you guys think.

Note, I tested phosphates with a Triton test.

How long have you had it setup? As you know nothing happens overnight.

oh.. good
what about Iron ?
nitrates/phosphates are just 2 of the elements needed..
iron can be a big one too..

What kind of reactor? lighting?
How long has it been running?
Any other issues with the tank?

Perhaps you don't have a problem. If there is not enough nutrients the stuff wont grow. Is there a reason why you think 20 and .6 is high?

Months, I had it on a very low light period, only 5 hours, because it was stripping too many nutrients out of the water, and now that I caught up with feeding and fish stock, I've increased the light period and it's not stripping enough.

I have an all SPS tank and some of my SPS lost their coloration and stopped growing, For example, my pink Floyd is grey instead of white. I also lost one coral but I'm not upset about that.

My iron is high but that has been normal for the system. I'd like the algae to pull some iron out.

No other issues other than some SPS corals are darkening and have slowed growth which spiked my alk to 9. I lost one digitata but not worried about that. Growth is slowly back with some corals and the rest are hanging on fine.

Thanks everyone for the fast responses!

You can run the light on the reactor for longer than 12 hours. 18hrs might be worth trying.

You can quickly drop NO3 and PO4 with a water change too, but I'm sure you knew that.

Yep I know, and I'm preparing to do another big W/C in a few days. I just want a more permanent solution than doing a big W/C but that won't hurt.

Thanks,
Joey

Have you given any thought to using gfo for your po4? Don't know what size tank you have but if you have the room you could add a reactor if you haven't already. An easier route just to try it out could always throw a bag of chemipure elite in. So far a bag has always done the trick for me. A lot of people with sps claim as long as po4 is low nitrates can be higher with no I'll effects. Can't remember there names off hand but I recall reading one person's thread who says his nitrates are as high as 50 with no issues in an sps dominant reef.

I dose a lot of the ZEOvit products and Chemipure and GFO strips out alot of the coral foods and elements. This is good advice, but for my setup it's a last resort.

My tank is about 70 gallons of water volume.

Thanks,
Joey