Chaeto in refuge keeps glass cleaner?

[tonym10]

I just sectioned off a part of my sump for Chaeto, I use the light from Home Depot that I found on threads here, run light 12 hours. Anyway, it seems like my front glass does not get as filmy as it used to, I added the Chaeto wednesday , and this morning (saturday) is the first day i used the magnet on glass since adding the algae, and there was really nothing there to scrape off. Before adding the algae i cleaned the glass every couple days , and it was a noticable differance. Is this somehting expected or is it coincidental?

 

[artful-dodger]

well, not unexpected. One of the main reasons for growing Chaetomorpha or other macro algae is to use nutrients (nitrate/phosphate) that would otherwise be food for micro algae in the tank. In theory, it should cut down on the micro algae and therefore glass cleaning.

Congrats, I think you've hit a home run!

 

[tonym10]

Yes, I started the Chaeto to stop a small growth of hair algae I have, phosphate reading of .20 . But I never thought about the affect on micro algae on glass.