Help with Chaeto

[JurisHP]

My tank is 14 years old....I have always had high Nitrate and Phosphate issues, and have tried everything. I am now back to a refugium, and to that end am using my center compartment in the sump, lighted by a Kessil H160 Tuna Flora. I bought a baseball size (2 of them) bunch of Chaeto and now, a few weeks later, it has practically disappeared, and my Nitrates and Phosphates are as high as always.

I am running the light on the Grow setting at almost max intensity, for 16 hours/day.

A new batch of Chaeto is arriving today.

Any suggestions as to how to get it to grow and not die off so fast?

 

[PSU4ME]

I feel your pain, I cannot get chaeto to grow but I did get the red ogo to flourish. Have you tried another type of macro?

 

[DaveK]

When you say "high Nitrate and Phosphate" what readings are you getting?

A few things to check -
Since you have it in the middle of your sump, it's possible the flow might be too much.
The Kessil light you have is very powerful. It's possible that might be too much light and of a different spectrum, which the Chaeto may not like, or needs time to get use to the new light color. If you get more algae, try keeping the light low initially and increase it litte by little over several weeks.
You might need to get the nitrates and phosphates lower first. Sometimes you run into cases where the algae likes some but not too much of these items.

I also agree with PSU4ME's advice. Sometimes no matter what you do, you find that you just can't keep that one thing you want, be it macro algae, fish, or coral, and need to go with something else.