Frag tank disaster

[BradB]

6 months ago, I took down my refugium and replaced it with a frag tank. At first this seemed like one of the best decisions I made. Most of my coral losses were tiny frags getting knocked off rocks. I had to sell fresh cut frags or keep frags in my display. I had lots of corals that weren't healthy, but weren't beyond saving, and looked unattractive in my display. All of these problems, instantly solved!

But I thought it would be a good idea to keep a little Chaetomorpha in one corner of the frag tank. I knew I was behind on cleaning it, but today I literally removed 20 gallons of Chaeto from a 60 gallon frag tank. Lots of frags dead or in bad shape from being strangled and shaded. Nothing sellable for the upcoming frag swap. And this took up pretty much my whole day. Also had lots of corals fall off plugs (or overgrow them) and start growing on my egg crate.

Anyone have similar experiences with Chaeto exploding? It seemed to grow so slowly in the refugium, and now I am worried I will have some other problems, without it taking up whatever it was taking up. My nitrates are consistently below measurable, and phosphates are currently unmeasurable with a hanna ultra low, and I change GFO whenever they start to show on the hanna.

I am also worried I will burn the heck out of my remaining frags, but I am not sure how to prevent this. Not everything was equally shaded, and most of it looks like it needs more light. Running a Mars Aqua 300w (really about 150 watts of LED light) over a 4x2 foot area.

 

[eddius_maximus]

How long of a time period were you away from your frag tank? I can't imagine the problems caused by removing your chaeto (in terms of nutrient export and light intensity) would be too dire unless we're talking weeks of chaeto clogging everything up.

FWIW it doesn't take an excessively dirty tank for explosing chaeto growth. I pull out basketball sizes every couple weeks and my nitrate/phosphate were never exceedingly high prior to adding my fuge.

 

[BradB]

It wasn't like I came back from vacation. I've been pulling chaeto over the past 6 months. Last weekend was when I started seeing it as a serious threat and not just an extra chore, but I didn't have time to tear the whole thing apart like I did today. So I lifted off as much as I easily could remove. In 1 week, it more than grew back. When it is in a tall, vertical area by itself, it doesn't change size much. But spread out just enough threads over 8 square feet of full lighting, and bam!