Your GFO is battling your Chaeto for phosphates. Macro algae's need both phosephate and nitrate to grow, if you remove the phosphate with GFO, there isn't enough for your chaeto to grown and remove nitrates too. I know it sounds backwards, but try removing the GFO. Algae also like a warmer, lower Kelvin light to grow well. You may try dropping to a 3500 or 4000K bulb over your sump. In that vein, screw in CFL bulbs degrade very rapidly and should be replaced every 3 months. How often do you harvest the chaeto? You should be removing some each month, if not more to keep what's remaining growning quickly. I've also found with my own tank that keeping the Alk a bit higher seems to help keep nuisance algae at bay. Try raising your alk to 10 dkh, you'll want to lower your Ca down to 450 though or you might get a precipitation even. A dozen or so snails, is far too few for a 75 gal, especially a new one. Try adding about 50 more snails, mostly astraea, cerith and nerite. And as Midnight said, at 3-1/2 months your system is still in it's infancy. Go slow and let things sort themselves out. Phil
Originally Posted by Midnight I know 14 weeks sounds like a lot, but lets convert that to 3.5 months for the sake of perspective. At three months the tank is still really new and trying to find its way. The cloudiness is likely a bacterial bloom, removing the chaeto not the best thing. Next time try to prune the dead spots and keep the ball rolling. Chaeto needs lots of light and lots of flow. Coraline will grow when it is ready, is it growing on the glass or pumps? If so then scrape this to encourage a spread. If not, then it just isn't ready to grow. 500 calcium is probably a bit high. If you are getting actual red slime, ie cyano, in a new tank it is likely from the newness of the tank and just needs to realize that this is not its home. Good luck, give it some time, and don't rush to anything. The only place the corraline is growing is on the LR it came on. No spreading yet. I will try and scrape some off in order to promote growth. Last night I read up on light cycles over the refugium. I noticed that Im probably not giving my Chaeto/Refug. enough light. The 6500K light bulb was also mounted about 12-13 inches off the water. Probaly had no benefit being that high. Anyways, thanks for the advice.
I know 14 weeks sounds like a lot, but lets convert that to 3.5 months for the sake of perspective. At three months the tank is still really new and trying to find its way. The cloudiness is likely a bacterial bloom, removing the chaeto not the best thing. Next time try to prune the dead spots and keep the ball rolling. Chaeto needs lots of light and lots of flow. Coraline will grow when it is ready, is it growing on the glass or pumps? If so then scrape this to encourage a spread. If not, then it just isn't ready to grow. 500 calcium is probably a bit high. If you are getting actual red slime, ie cyano, in a new tank it is likely from the newness of the tank and just needs to realize that this is not its home. Good luck, give it some time, and don't rush to anything.
Go to Profile
Mark as Read
