Shrinking Chaeto....

[SnowboardKid26]

Hey guys... i have had a refugium attached to my system now for about 3 months, for the first month or so, my chaeto grew well. Now I seem to be having it break up and die off. The only changes i have made, are adding a GFO reactor, and i thew a pencil uchin in my fuge that was being a punk in my tank. Would the urchin be eating my chaeto? There are a couple of hermits and a couple astrea snail in there, just to keep things tidey. What could the problem be? Any help is apreciated.
SBK

 

[graveyardworm]

GFO reactor? The urchin may be eating the cheato.

 

[SnowboardKid26]

GFO = Rowaphos

 

[SnowboardKid26]

Anyone got any more ideas? Anyone had similar issues?

 

[flipteg]

when i started dosing iron, my chaeto bounced back... i have a 30 gallon cube with an estimated 26 gallon water volume and i put about 3 drops of Kent chelated iron every day...

 

[SuperNerd]

Doesn't GFO leak iron back into the tank = good for the macros?

I would also keep an eye on the urchine.

 

[graveyardworm]

My guess would be that the GFO is removing enough PO4 to compete with the macros. Remove the rowaphos and see what happens.

 

[SnowboardKid26]

update: Definatly the urchin. No matter how many times I pull him off of the cheato he goes right back. ANd I watched him for a while when the light came on last night, and he was definatly munching.