Fuge Help

[ahbeaud]

Hey all,

I recently upgraded from a nano to an 80g and added a sump with fuge. I added chaeto about 3 months ago. It’s doubled in size, but hasn’t grown as much/quickly as I was expecting.
I have a grow light on it for 12h, opposite of the DT.

I still have quite a bit of (hair, I think) algae in the DT that I was hoping the fuge would help combat.

Parameters are all normal (I can post them later).
What am I doing wrong?

TIA for all your help!

[BajaReefs]

Lighting? Type of flow?

[ahbeaud]

Lighting? Type of flow?

AquaMars 165w x2
80% blue, 20% white
Whites turn off 10p, on at 8am

4 pumps (different speeds) throughout the tank plus the return.

[inurmind]

What lighting are you running for the refugium?

Doubling in size doesn't sound too bad for growth. Sure it could be better, but it also could still be the same size as you started with -I've heard from numerous reefers over the years of their chaeto just not growing.

Although chaeto can be a great combatant for nuance algae, once the later has a strong foothold, it can be an uphill battle for the chaeto without outside help... you may need to help give the system a leg up by controlling the other algaes and maintaining the water params. Before you do water changes pull out as much of the hair algae as you can pinch or brush off with an old toothbrush to try to remove as much as possible manually and that should help let the chaeto start taking over the nutrient cycle a little more.

Also, are you currently or have you considered using any chemical filtration? I'd still do as advised above but you may want to think about running some carbon/gfo/Chemipure/Rowaphos/Phosban...

My 2¢