What conditions to various algae survive?

[AKReef]

I placed an order back in Jan for some chaeto. It looked nice and healthy and I thew it in my sump under a Kessil A80, but over the next two months it basically turned brown and wasted away. I should add, that I have a brand new tank that has been running for a couple of month (cycling) and I was ghost feeding the tank a cube of mysis a day to get everything cycled. No other live stock in the tank, other than a few snails to try to consume nuisance algae

I placed another order in late March. This time I got chaeto, ogo gracilaria, and sphere gracilaria. Other the last 30 days I'm seeing the chaeto slowly waste away again. However, it looks like the gracilaria is doing just fine.

Do you think the gracilaria will be enough on it's own for nutrient uptake in the tank? Any idea why the gracilaria is doing well when the chaeto isn't?

 

[landlubber]

I've suffered the same issue lately after having great luck with my refugium when I first set it up. assuming you have nutrient levels capable of supporting chaeto (above zero), the correct trace elements to keep it happy and a decent light source it theoretically should grow.
I've conceded to paying for an ICP test to find out for certain what my tank is missing.