u/Grokto

Since I killed eight batches of chaetomorpha, I stuck in a free half-cup of gracilaria (hayi I think), that a chaeto vendor sent free. The rest is history. Tossed the half cup of gracilaria in the reactor with two cups of chaeto. Left on vacation; three weeks later a few threads of dying chaeto and five cups of the gracilaria. Now I have a refugium full of it and a reactor is full of it that gets emptied monthly. Nitrates 2.5-4. Dosing neophos to maintain 0.04-0.08. I still give it a little chaetogro but it needs far far less. The Fuge spawns amphipods, copepods and collonista snails. No idea why chaeto wouldn’t grow but it didn’t like chaetogro, it didn’t like a gyre tumbling it, it didn’t like life in a hamster ball. It didn’t like cheap grow lights. Didn’t like a Kessil 160H…

My guess is gracilaria hayi. Whatever it is it has solved nutrient export for me. I got the amount in the photo when ordering Chaeto. It was sold as dragons breath but I’m not sure it’s a halymenia. After seven or eight attempts to grow Chaeto and having it dissolve, I now have a reactor and a fuge full of this stufff. Chaeto refused to grow despite dosing Chaetogro, a kessil h160, a reactor, a hamster ball… this red stuff expands almost over night.