Macroalgae outcompeting chaeto?

[Palmer]

Hi there,

I noticed that in my sump chaeto stopped growing and turned very brittle to the point of just withering away. I had never seen this happen in my aquarium. When thinking about the cause the first thing that came to mind was a macroalgae that came with some live rock I purchased a couple of months before. It was in a frag system that shares water with my display. This red macroalgae I found grew like wildfire and had to be trimmed back on a weekly basis to keep it from overtaking the frag tank. My assumption is it took the nutrients out of the water the chaeto relied upon essentially outcompeting it. Anyone else ever have this happen?

Palmer