So back around thanksgiving my Chaeto crashed.
It just started breaking up, falling apart, basically decomposing in the fuge and causing a mess.
I kind of expected that might happen eventually, but I was hoping just some of it would die off, not all of it. I couldn't seem to get it to recover.
So right before Xmas I completely cleaned out the fuge again. Nothing was left but the Chaeto. It had consumed all the other macros.
I was also starting to see nuisance algae in the display. Diatoms on the sand, slimy/stringy stuff and fluffy stuff on the rocks, gorgonians, even my urhchins.
Not a ton. A quick look at the tank and it looks fine. It's when you start to look at the details, and i've been trying to blow it off the rocks every few days, too.
Seemed to me like there would be plenty of nutrients, so I put in an order for more macros.
Got some chaeto and a couple red species again. Put them in the tank right after Xmas.
A week later, the chaeto is decomposing again! What the duck?
Now I started talking with Triton USA. It seems like I plenty of nutrients with the nuisance algae growing in the display, and even in the fuge. My nitrates are always low but usually register around 1 or 2 ppm. But I hadn't checked in a while. This was Triton's main concern after my explanation of events. So I tested again and..... nitrates were ZERO. Crap. Triton says that the algae in the display is a byproduct of the elements that are being dosed that are supposed to feed the algae bed. But the algae bed needs the main nutrients like nitrates to grow or it will die back.
So now I'm back to Nitrate dosing with the Spectracide Stump Remover.
Over the past week or two I've got nitrates back up to around 2-5ppm. Trying to keep it around 5 now and we'll see how it goes.
Still have the stuff in my display. The chaeto is still not looking good but gotta give it time.
I think the reds are doing ok.
Here's the kind of stuff I've got in the display...
:lol:
