gha in sump

[enricocoron]

So my Chaeto pretty much died in my sump again and it's got a lot of hair algae in it but not so much in DT. Which leads me to an obvious question, can I just grow hair algae in my sump and recruit Emerald Crab(s) to trim it as a nutrient export method? 4 tries with Chaeto and it never thrived, I had two kessil A 80s over about a 10 gallon compartment and added chaeto grow, phosphates and nitrates were available to it it just always got out competed by other types of algae.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

So my Chaeto pretty much died in my sump again and it's got a lot of hair algae in it but not so much in DT. Which leads me to an obvious question, can I just grow hair algae in my sump and recruit Emerald Crab(s) to trim it as a nutrient export method? 4 tries with Chaeto and it never thrived, I had two kessil A 80s over about a 10 gallon compartment and added chaeto grow, phosphates and nitrates were available to it it just always got out competed by other types of algae.

You might do an egg crate grid down there to give more surface area for the GHA to grow, then peel it off periodically. That's what I do. It likes light and good flow. White egg crate seems to grow it faster than black. White egg crate is available at my local hardware store.

The majority of my refugium is different macro algae, but I've a GHA 'entry way' at first overflow wall with white egg crate grid.

 

[enricocoron]

So it's a perfectly acceptable nutrient export method to grow hair algae or whatever macro likes it in there? I thought the emerald crab would help out since they seem to love gha and no chance he will nip polyps in the sump

 

[damsels are not mean]

So my Chaeto pretty much died in my sump again and it's got a lot of hair algae in it but not so much in DT. Which leads me to an obvious question, can I just grow hair algae in my sump and recruit Emerald Crab(s) to trim it as a nutrient export method? 4 tries with Chaeto and it never thrived, I had two kessil A 80s over about a 10 gallon compartment and added chaeto grow, phosphates and nitrates were available to it it just always got out competed by other types of algae.

If the crabs are eating it, where's the export? Unless you're gonna be making crab legs once a week. But yes GHA is actually much better at exporting nutrients than any macroalgae, it grows a lot faster. How big is your tank though? 10G of growth is very little if the tank is any bigger than like 30gal. You'd probably control nutrients better by just having more corals or display plants.

 

[enricocoron]

I guess the export is into the body of the Crab in the same way the export is into the macroalgae, of course if it dies everything is released back so not the best 'set it and forget it' approach.

 

[enricocoron]

Oh and the tank is a 60 gallon cube. I guess the sump is small for the DT because it had to fit in a cube stand, it also sucks leaning in there to do any work. I think its still worth it to grow GHA though even if the chamber is on the small side, I've got a lot of corals but they need to grow out before they will start removing enough nutrients by themselves. I guess I'll just carry on with the GFO and live with elevated Nitrates

 

[damsels are not mean]

I guess the export is into the body of the Crab in the same way the export is into the macroalgae, of course if it dies everything is released back so not the best 'set it and forget it' approach.

It becomes export when it leaves the tank. If you never prune the macroalgae it's not export same as if you never make crab legs the crab can't be export.