Chaeto turning white...lighting advice?

[blueberryblue]

The link above will send you to the 100watt fuge light i have, that is about 8-10 inches from the chaeto, I cant really get it much higher due to my setup and the way the light adjusts. I've read things that chaeto can grow well with as much as 1000 par and have seen positive reviews from people using this light so I figured it could work to outcompete my hair algae issue. I dont even feel a temperature difference in the fuge and my chaeto doesn't seem "crispy" as others have suggested is a product of it being overlit. My nitrates hover around 5, I dont have a phosphate checker but I have previously ran gfo with the tank and the same fuge light and it grew fine. At some point in the last 3 months, my ball of chaeto started to randomly turn white despite me throwing away half of it and lowering the light, raising it, and messing with the photoperiod. The chaeto has successfully grown with this light but randomly decided to die after changing nothing to the tank. I've tried nearly everything with it. a month ago, I purchased a new ball of chaeto after i dealt with the hair algae that grew from the onset of the first chaeto's death. For about 2 weeks, it grew large and was pulling a lot of nutrients. I took out half of the new growth once It got big and I started noticing it turning white in small spots. Since then, it has been slowly turning white on the outsides, even though I have been rotating it every day to negate any flow issues. I purchased chaeto gro and dosed as recommended (prolly a bit more as I was worried it was an iron issue) but it has continued to turn white. I'm at a loss and am considering purchasing a lower wattage light, the health of my tank depends of the chaeto because my bioload is moderate to high and the hair algae will start to outcompete and bother my corals. and I have a puffer who is super messy lol.

My salinity hovers around 1.025-26, Alk is 8.5-9. Any advice??? I can attach pictures if it could help, but the chaeto just slowly turns white and breaks apart from the ball, from the outer portions of the ball.

Thanks for any help!

 

[TX_REEF]

The link is not loading, but if that’s 100 watts of LED light that’s way too much and you’re bleaching your chaeto out. Tone it down!

 

[Dan_P]

The link above will send you to the 100watt fuge light i have, that is about 8-10 inches from the chaeto, I cant really get it much higher due to my setup and the way the light adjusts. I've read things that chaeto can grow well with as much as 1000 par and have seen positive reviews from people using this light so I figured it could work to outcompete my hair algae issue. I dont even feel a temperature difference in the fuge and my chaeto doesn't seem "crispy" as others have suggested is a product of it being overlit. My nitrates hover around 5, I dont have a phosphate checker but I have previously ran gfo with the tank and the same fuge light and it grew fine. At some point in the last 3 months, my ball of chaeto started to randomly turn white despite me throwing away half of it and lowering the light, raising it, and messing with the photoperiod. The chaeto has successfully grown with this light but randomly decided to die after changing nothing to the tank. I've tried nearly everything with it. a month ago, I purchased a new ball of chaeto after i dealt with the hair algae that grew from the onset of the first chaeto's death. For about 2 weeks, it grew large and was pulling a lot of nutrients. I took out half of the new growth once It got big and I started noticing it turning white in small spots. Since then, it has been slowly turning white on the outsides, even though I have been rotating it every day to negate any flow issues. I purchased chaeto gro and dosed as recommended (prolly a bit more as I was worried it was an iron issue) but it has continued to turn white. I'm at a loss and am considering purchasing a lower wattage light, the health of my tank depends of the chaeto because my bioload is moderate to high and the hair algae will start to outcompete and bother my corals. and I have a puffer who is super messy lol.

My salinity hovers around 1.025-26, Alk is 8.5-9. Any advice??? I can attach pictures if it could help, but the chaeto just slowly turns white and breaks apart from the ball, from the outer portions of the ball.

Thanks for any help!

Depleted trace elements and phosphate would be things to consider. I don’t see water flow as a factor because it initially grew well then stopped.