Preventing GHA smothering?

[Alpha_and_Gec]

I used to have a clump of caulerpa that was smothered by rapid GHA growth that was growing too quickly for me to remove. How do I prevent this? I'm thinking of picking up some chaetos over the weekend because caulerpa ended up not tasting great, but I don't want the same thing to occur. How do I prevent this?

Also, I don't have enough space to put a powerhead in my sump, and my return pump is planned to be sock - covered in addition to not being very strong, so flow is out of the option unless I put it in the dt, which I hope I won't need to do(ugly).

 

[Rtaylor]

Less light maybe? Chaeto might help, it might not. CUC is a good option.

 

[Alpha_and_Gec]

Less light maybe? Chaeto might help, it might not. CUC is a good option.

I ain’t got any CUC that eats hair. What kind of lights does GHA like? I could try tuning it down, but I’m not sure if it’ll benefit the chaeto.

 

[Alpha_and_Gec]

Right, I got chaeto this week and it’s been doing fine, I flip it twice every day and as far as I can see GHA isn’t getting to it. What should I do to get it off if it does grow onto the chaeto?

 

[Dan_P]

I used to have a clump of caulerpa that was smothered by rapid GHA growth that was growing too quickly for me to remove. How do I prevent this? I'm thinking of picking up some chaetos over the weekend because caulerpa ended up not tasting great, but I don't want the same thing to occur. How do I prevent this?

Also, I don't have enough space to put a powerhead in my sump, and my return pump is planned to be sock - covered in addition to not being very strong, so flow is out of the option unless I put it in the dt, which I hope I won't need to do(ugly).

Epiphytic growth like what you describe can mean that your macro algae is sick and can’t keep its surface clean. Lack of flow can give the advantage to filamentous algae growth because its large surface arae to volume.