New system - nutrient export/chaeto reactor issues

[4x4cubereefer]

So I've started a new system and it has been going very well till now.

My chaeto reactor doesn't seem to be growing any chaeto/very minimal growth with brown sludge all over it most of it is darker green with some being bright green ..

Nutrients are at
10ppm nitrate &
1.0 phosphate which takes about three days to get back there after addition of lanthanum chloride to drop to around 0.01-0.05 ppm

110 gallon system
Stocking: a pair of tomato clowns & a tomini tang so far.
2 established bio blocks in sump plus 5-8kg established live rock & around 22kg of dry up top .. I'm guessing it's leaching po4 as the system is bare bottom/clean sump & very well maintained .. the reactor is on reverse light cycle for 12 hrs a night & has been running close to three weeks now I feed a small amount of rinsed frozen mysis/formula 2 each afternoon or night along with daily nori for the tomini .. I'm all about natural methods of export as I previously used an algae scrubber with great results but I chose chaeto this time & it seems to be doing squat there's good nutrient levels there it's in a reactor I'm doing 7 litre water changes morning & evening via an auto aqua awc touch so there's plenty of iron & my RO/DI unit measures 0 TDS
How should I move forward ?
I'm thinking nopox but I want to get the reactor going ?

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[mcgyvr]

What light are you using on it? May just need more light..
You certainly have nutrients...

1ppm of phosphate IMO is highly excessive and I would immediately remove the established live rock as I would assume thats the source..
The other rock (that was once dry) is sufficiently populated with bacteria by now that the loss of the other rock will cause no problems at all..

I would test that rock once removed and if its the source just throw it out and replace with new phosphate free dry rock.. The treatment cost is higher than the replacement cost..

 

[4x4cubereefer]

What light are you using on it? May just need more light..
You certainly have nutrients...

1ppm of phosphate IMO is highly excessive and I would immediately remove the established live rock as I would assume thats the source..
The other rock (that was once dry) is sufficiently populated with bacteria by now that the loss of the other rock will cause no problems at all..

I would test that rock once removed and if its the source just throw it out and replace with new phosphate free dry rock.. The treatment cost is higher than the replacement cost..

I'm using this reactor on it;
https://www.h2oaquatics.co.uk/filtration-skimmers/alr3-algae-light-reactor

Well thats what I was thinking I don't understand where it's coming from .. it's really got me stumped to be honest.

& I agree I keep seeing 1ppm every 2- 3 days or so & in a tank of this volume/low bioload with daily water changes & feeding a reasonable amount I can't understand where it's coming from .. I presumed the rock also but for such a small amount in the grand scheme of things I wasn't sure if that could be the culprit or not .. I'll remove it tomorrow and toss it in the bin.

What's your thoughts on the reactor ? in your experience should I give it more time ? I'm thinking to lower nutrients to say 5ppm nitrate & 0.3 phosphate with nopox so the algae reactor still has some nutrients to get going then once growth takes off stop the nopox & test daily ?



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[mcgyvr]

How long has it been running for?
Is the algae falling apart/getting smaller?

I know nothing about those reactors nor how the lighting is setup in them..
I'm not sure they have enough light.. Seems a bit on the small side IMO..

 

[JWClark]

What type of dry rock? Pukani takes about a year to get phosphates out but is great afterwards. Can't get anymore.

If plenty of nutrients but no growth you might need to supplement iron.

I actually used an ARID chaeto reactor to pull the phosphates from my pukani. Worked like a charm but then the chaeto crashed and I could never get it going again. In my case it was just too big for the system I have now. May use on the next build if I still have.

 

[4x4cubereefer]

The tank itself is about 6 weeks now with one-two weeks cycling time till levels went to where they should be with established media bio bricks & live rock in sump .. the rock up top has no GHA in sight but is showing diatoms although minimal "still going through the uglies" .. it seems to be cycled though in saying that as I can see lots of bubbles leaving rocks now & again "nitrogen gas" I presume.

The chaeto reactor itself was kicked off around three weeks ago, it doesn't seem to be shrinking at all but more just sitting stagnant & not really doing anything .. it's dark green.

Yesterday I give the reactor a Good thorough cleaning bumped the light cycle up to 22 on/2 off in the hope of getting it to take off .. flow through the reactor is around 2000lph as per the manufacturers instructions I also added some GFO to help hold my phosphates around .01-.02 after knocking them down from 1ppm with lanthanum chloride.
I guess that's all I can do until I start seeing some kind of growth/harvesting in the reactor then make the decision to cut the GFO till I get a guage on where levels will sit nitrate and phosphate wise with the reactor .. oh and the reactor is actually a pretty good size & I'm pretty sure "if I can" get it growing it should be able to handle this tanks bioload *two clowns/two tangs/3-4 dispars* as a friend of mine used one of these and he had much larger fish then mine in a 125 all up would've been easy 15 fish small & large with good levels just the reactor. . the catch is getting it growing though .. & I have considered iron dosing but my tank is setup with an automatic water change system where I change 7 litres morning & night for trace element replenishment/nutrient export etc ..
Thus this way I don't have to worry about anything other then CA/AlK/MG once I have lot's of sps & NO3/PO4 .. as everything else will balance itself out as it works out to roughly 25% weekly just done every day that's all .. so theoretically I'm dosing tons of iron but no bananas.
Go figure ?

How long has it been running for?
Is the algae falling apart/getting smaller?

I know nothing about those reactors nor how the lighting is setup in them..
I'm not sure they have enough light.. Seems a bit on the small side IMO..

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[mcgyvr]

Patience...tanks is just so new...
Give it time to get through the uglies and mature some...
Ive never seen chaeto do well on such a young system..