Kessel H380, dose anyone use in a refuguim ??

[ReefGoatfish]

so for years i just used a curly bulb/ miracle mud for reverse lighting in the fuge,( separate from the sump) moderate amount of fish in a 120, cheato always growing like crazy, harvest once a week ,NO3, PO4 very low, had a tank mass kill from a dieing softy (no more softies) complete fresh restarted about 5-6 months ago, doing a couple of things different, doing gfo and carbon (effluent goes into display and changing monthly) and the Kessel H380 on the fuge ( reverse lighting w/mud and a couple of live rock pieces) started about 2 months ago, got a ton of brown and red/purple algae in the fuge , ( a little brown algae in the display) cleaned often , reduced time down to 4 hrs a nite, kept coming back, meanwhile bought cheato 3 times , won't grow, dies after a few weeks, 7 anthias , one clown, NO3 5-10, PO4 .05 - 0.0, went back to curly bulb , no more brown /red algae, cheato wont grow still, GEO cal reactor set to dkh at 9 , small dosing to keep calcium at 400+ and mag at 1300,
so,,,,, questions are : too soon for ? fish , gfo, carbon, H380, is the gfo keeping the cheato from growing? if so, then why isn't the gfo taking care of the NO3??

Thank for your time, mike,

[scuzy]

Well if you don't have any nutrients in your tank the chaeto will die. So you might need to add some bio load to get the greens growing.


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[nycman]

I run an H380 over my fuge. I started my tank a little over a year ago and for the first 6-9 mos or so I had trouble growing Chaeto and other macros in my fuge. Green hair algae seemed to be the only one doing well. I also run an turf scrubber that grows GHA very well. The tank is low nutrient with 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates. About 3 or 4 months ago the fuge completely changed and allowed for massive growth of Caulerpa (even though I started it with only 2 or three leafs), with GHA nearly disappearing. So my conclusion is the H380 works well, the Caulerpa seems to be better than Chaeto in a low nutrient systems, and the fuge and tank need time to mature.

[ReefGoatfish]

Thanks for the reply's, yup nutrients could be the trouble , but why then would the other algae grow so well if low in nutrients, chaeto grew great before with 0 no3 and po4,,,,, so you don't think the gfo could be part of it ? but it is a new tank and that's my biggest wonder, and yes you could be right about the load, 8 2-3 inch fish , auto feeding pellets twice a day and a bunch of frags in about 160 gallons of total water is not much, well at this point i'm going to try cutting out the gfo, and keep the curly 5000k bulb , still no nuisance algae,
no3 and po4 low , but something there, i also got so more chaeto as the other bunch was from when i had the kessel on there , maybe it stunned it ??? what do you think??? i just don't want the nitrate and phosphate getting out of hand , thx for your time

[roberthu526]

I don’t think GFO can reduce NO3. It’s just for phosphate.


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[harvin6]

try dosing some iron... your system might be iron deprived .

[lpsouth1978]

I did not want to spend a fortune on my fuge light, but had heard some great things about having a high powered lights over the fuge. I have used the curly bulbs in the past and always struggled with chaeto growth, so I searched the internet and found this light.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have been VERY happy with it so far. in just a couple of weeks my chaeto had tripled in size. I think this is a great alternative to the much more expensive H380.