Cheato overtaken by other algae...Now what?

[Chris6]

My tank has been running for approx 2.5 years. 

 

12.5 gallon display

6 gallon sump with refugium

 

Filtration-

Filter pad

Chemipure blue

 

Refugium-

Live rock and chaeto lit by 5000K par 30

 

My chaeto was growing like crazy and I was harvesting some nearly weekly. A few months ago it started getting full of other hairlike algae and just kind of stopped growing. Now algae is taking over the live rock and chaeto. I've tryed shaking the chaeto out in my weekly water change but doesn't seem to help much. Not sure what to do next. I feel like I need the live rock because I probably only have about 4 lbs in my display. 

Should I just give up on the chaeto and run the live rock unlit or start over with a different ball of cheato? 

 

 

 

[Chris6]

Pic of sump

[MainelyReefer]

Maybe try increasing the flow?  Like putting a little powerhead facing the chaeto.  I used to have similar issues and it worked itself out but mine is in an AIO so I had limited options on what to adjust so I just harvested the dirty pieces and rinsed the best and only kept those.  Also are you running anything to reduce algae? I'm using vibrant currently and my chaeto is all but dead now

[Chris6]

1 hour ago, GraniteReefer said:

Maybe try increasing the flow?  Like putting a little powerhead facing the chaeto.  I used to have similar issues and it worked itself out but mine is in an AIO so I had limited options on what to adjust so I just harvested the dirty pieces and rinsed the best and only kept those.  Also are you running anything to reduce algae? I'm using vibrant currently and my chaeto is all but dead now

Thanks for the response,

I was thinking that too but the only powerhead I have laying around is 425 gph and that seems a bit much but might still try it. 

No I'm not running anything else to reduce the algae. 

[Chris6]

I'm really leaning towards removing the chaeto all together and just having the live rock in the dark. I clean my sump monthly so I'm thinking it should be ok. It won't be anymore of a detrius trap then it already was. Maybe still even add a power head.