Macroalgae outcompeting chaeto?

[Palmer]

Hi there,

I noticed that in my sump chaeto stopped growing and turned very brittle to the point of just withering away. I had never seen this happen in my aquarium. When thinking about the cause the first thing that came to mind was a macroalgae that came with some live rock I purchased a couple of months before. It was in a frag system that shares water with my display. This red macroalgae I found grew like wildfire and had to be trimmed back on a weekly basis to keep it from overtaking the frag tank. My assumption is it took the nutrients out of the water the chaeto relied upon essentially outcompeting it. Anyone else ever have this happen?

Palmer

[asylumdown]

It's entirely possible, but isn't the point of chaeto to sop up nutrients? If you've got a species that's even more efficient and aggressive and it's not taking over in places you don't want it to be, I'd call that a win!

What light do you have over the chaeto vs. over the red stuff? If it's a frag tank the red macro algae might be getting better quality light and therefore able to grow faster.

[pinkreef]

Sometimes mine seems to take a break and then start up growing
quickly again

[Palmer]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

It's entirely possible, but isn't the point of chaeto to sop up nutrients? If you've got a species that's even more efficient and aggressive and it's not taking over in places you don't want it to be, I'd call that a win!

What light do you have over the chaeto vs. over the red stuff? If it's a frag tank the red macro algae might be getting better quality light and therefore able to grow faster.

Yes I didnt worry about it initially for the same reasons. The red macroalgae is a bit of a pain in the sense that you have to prune it ALOT and it just takes up so much space when it grows. I am not sure what the difference between its growth and how much it actually removes compared to chaeto. I mean I dont know I can say more growth of red macro means more nutrients removed than chaeto etc. But it would appear it wins vs chaeto if my experience says anything. One thing that did happen that I didnt mention is after a large pruning of red macro I used chemi clean to deal with a patch of cyano and it really stunted the macro red algae growth. Oh and the difference in lighting is red macro has a maxspect LED and the chaeto has one of theose household energy savors on a shop light lol....

Palmer