How can I have chaeto out compete hair algae ?

[christwendt]

So a month ago I nearly killed my chaeto. I was left with a golf sized ball. It’s still alive but barely has grown. GHA keeps growing on it and competing. It’s also growing all over the walls in the refugium. I keep removing but it’s not helping. What can I do to help the chaeto grow back so it can over grow the GHA like it used to before I nearly killed the chaeto. Would lowering the light level help kill the GHA but allow the chaeto to still live?

 

[Lavey29]

Are you dosing chaeto gro weekly in your sump?

 

[TheGrimReeferTx]

How did you almost kill your Chaeto?

With a good light, I have had chaeto absolutely take off. A good CUC is important to clean up unwanted algae.

 

[TheGrimReeferTx]

Are you dosing chaeto gro weekly in your sump?

How long have you been dosing this?

 

[Lavey29]

How long have you been dosing this?

When my tank was young, I dosed it twice a week. Now that my tank is established I don't dose it anymore but do dose Red sea ABCD which includes iron. My chaeto grows huge and requires cut back every 2 weeks.

 

[TheGrimReeferTx]

When my tank was young, I dosed it twice a week. Now that my tank is established I don't dose it anymore but do dose Red sea ABCD which includes iron. My chaeto grows huge and requires cut back every 2 weeks.

Looks really good!

 

[Lavey29]

Looks really good!

I should clarify when my fuge and tank was young I dosed chaeto gro. Now I only dose red sea ABCD. The Neptune gro light is the key to chaeto growth for me also and you can drop the light to the water surface so no light spill and algae in other chambers.

 

[christwendt]

Are you dosing chaeto gro weekly in your sump?

I follow reef moonshiners and dose all required elements for chaeto. Iron, iodine , manganese. It died from over using rox carbon initially but it’s fine now. It’s been alive for a month and is health dark green. It’s just covered in hair algae too. And hair algae is growing in the sump refugium section. Before when the chaeto was primary algae, i never had this problem. But I’m having a problem getting the chaeto to put compete the hair algae.

 

[christwendt]

How did you almost kill your Chaeto?

With a good light, I have had chaeto absolutely take off. A good CUC is important to clean up unwanted algae.

I only have algae in my sump refugium section. I killed my chaeto by using too much carbon to remove medications so I stripped it of needed micro elements. I have fixed the micro elements ( my chaeto has been alive for a month). It’s having a hard time coming back though because it’s a small amount of chaeto and green hair algae keeps choking it out. I have zero algae in my display tank.

 

[christwendt]

Are you dosing chaeto gro weekly in your sump?

I dosed chaeto grow to fix what killed my chaeto. I used too much fox carbon and it stripped needed elements for my chaeto. The problem with chaeto grow is it causes huge spikes so I prefer to single dose iron normally which I’ve gone back too. Look at my ICP I have nearly 30x recommended iron from dosing chaeto grow once. This icp test is after killing my chaeto and fixing the problem. My problem is I can’t get the green hair algae to not out compete and grow over the chaeto. I can assure my elements are fine for chaeto now look at my Icp. I’m wondering

Is there anyway to promote chaeto growth over GHA ? I keep removing the GHA but it’s very hard to remove when attached to chaeto. I don’t want to buy a new ball of chaeto because I don’t want to risk any pests in my system. I’m trying to keep the original chaeto that nearly died back to life. I would harvest 5 gallon buckets full prior to over doing rox carbon.

 

[VintageReefer]

Why not grow an algae that is more efficient at nutrient removal than both chaeto and hair algae?

 

[Royal_pudding]

Having the same problem. But, GHA is localized to only the refugium so I dont really view it as a problem, should I?

 

[christwendt]

Why not grow an algae that is more efficient at nutrient removal than both chaeto and hair algae?

Any suggestions? I don’t want anything that can go sexual and spread to display.

 

[christwendt]

Having the same problem. But, GHA is localized to only the refugium so I dont really view it as a problem, should I?

Yea I’ve wondered if it’s a problem but I like how easy chaeto is to remove. GHA sticks to all sides. I’ve read GHA is better at nutrient removal too.

 

[VintageReefer]

Any suggestions? I don’t want anything that can go sexual and spread to display.

Turf algae or slime algae in a dedicated scrubber. I have 1000 par of red 660nm led growing turf algae. I had a basket ball of healthy chaeto, harvesting every 2 weeks and a tank with hair algae patches despite this. I added a turf scrubber and in the first month the scrubber became established and started growing its own algae and in the second month all my chaeto was starved out and the hair algae in my tank started to thin, turn white, and die.

Then my tank went through an algae outbreak as the scrubber assisted in freeing up phosphate bound in the rock. As the phosphate came out of rock, it turned into hair algae, and then it would die.

By the month 3…maybe 3.5 months, I had no more chaeto, hair algae and the rocks were no longer phosphate bound. Ran like this for years and never had another algae issue. Until I did. And I investigated and my scrubber air pump died. I replaced it and within a few weeks all the new hair algae died off and tank display was back to being over 90% algae free. Theres a spot in he back rockwork that gets some hair algae time to time, conditions must be good there. But overall, tank is algae free from any normal viewing position. Haven’t done a water change in 2 years, and took my skimmer offline 1 year ago

Due to the nature of turf algae, its at least 5x more efficient at removing excess nutrients from water compared to an equal amout of chaeto or hair algae. Did not have an impact on bubble algae for me, which I don’t have a lot of, but I do get some here and there that I still need to manually remove.

Feel free to check my tank page if you want to see pictures of my setup, and I’m available to answer any questions

 

[VintageReefer]

I just installed a scrubber on my nano tank 10 days ago and it’s in the beginning phase of growing turf algae. Scrubbers do not need to be seeded, they will grow the algae on their own from cells in the water + conditions inside the scrubber

You might get slime algae at first, it’s normal and extremely nutrient dense. The sad Adler the slime algae, the more nutrients it’s pulled. This needs to be removed, screen cleaned and brushed, and tied algae will grow after a few cycles of this

This screen was pure white and I already have a film growing on it. 3/5 led are shaded during this startup phase to not burn the new developing algae. Once I have a algae colony I can in shade the leds and run the unit full power

The 75g tank in my tank page has been using a scrubber as primary filtration for 10 years, but I did change directions about 2.5 years ago and went from sps mixed reef to LPS dominate reef

 

[christwendt]

I just installed a scrubber on my nano tank 10 days ago and it’s in the beginning phase of growing turf algae. Scrubbers do not need to be seeded, they will grow the algae on their own from cells in the water + conditions inside the scrubber

You might get slime algae at first, it’s normal and extremely nutrient dense. The sad Adler the slime algae, the more nutrients it’s pulled. This needs to be removed, screen cleaned and brushed, and tied algae will grow after a few cycles of this

This screen was pure white and I already have a film growing on it. 3/5 led are shaded during this startup phase to not burn the new developing algae. Once I have a algae colony I can in shade the leds and run the unit full power

The 75g tank in my tank page has been using a scrubber as primary filtration for 10 years, but I did change directions about 2.5 years ago and went from sps mixed reef to LPS dominate reef

Very neat I have read about algae scrubbers and using turf scrubbers but it’s one more pump/ manifold. I really had no problems for 2 years with chaeto and ideally would love to get it going again. I just have so much equipment already and trying to limit more equipment. Chaeto was super easy and low maintenance. If I can’t get this going I may have to look into alternate methods. Do you submerge the scrubber ?

 

[VintageReefer]

My scrubber floats in my refugium section (formerly chaeto) of my sump and has no plumbing or manifolds. It’s a floating box with a led module built into the lid. Water/air is provided by a standard dual outlet air pump. Due to this style there is no risk of overflowing, no light spill, and it is virtually silent. I filled the remaining space in the refugium chamber with live rock and turned it into a cryptic filtration zone with 3” sand bed, pods, sponge, and the rock.

Once every 10-20 days I take out a solo cup of turf algae and throw it out. Keeps my tank at .02 - .05 phosphate and 2-5 nitrates.

 

[SPR1968]

Yea I’ve wondered if it’s a problem but I like how easy chaeto is to remove. GHA sticks to all sides. I’ve read GHA is better at nutrient removal too.

I have this very same problem, but I’ve not really worried about it because it’s all contained and does what it’s supposed to do so…..

 

[Dan_P]

So a month ago I nearly killed my chaeto. I was left with a golf sized ball. It’s still alive but barely has grown. GHA keeps growing on it and competing. It’s also growing all over the walls in the refugium. I keep removing but it’s not helping. What can I do to help the chaeto grow back so it can over grow the GHA like it used to before I nearly killed the chaeto. Would lowering the light level help kill the GHA but allow the chaeto to still live?

Healthy macro algae can ward off most or all GHA growth. If it can’t, we might conclude the Chaeto is not healthy.