Red Algae Growth in refug

[Rsxjh]

Should I be concerned??

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[blovely76137]

I wouldn't I have it and Keith told me that if u put a power sweep powerhead in there it will stop so I did and it stopped and made my green algae bloom like crazy


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[mtraylor]

That stuff is usually fueled by excess nutrients. I have seen it during curing of new rock. GFO will help get rid of it.

 

[Rsxjh]

I was thinking about a power head in the chamber. I'm running gfo already.
I drop dt's and fuel twice a week for corals, along with once a day feedings - alternate mysis, brine, pellets
A small nori sheet everyday for tangs

Too much nutrients?

 

[mtraylor]

@Rsxjh wrote:

Don't worry about the power head. This is just my opinion, and what I have learned thus far. When I was adding dt's, I didn't get anything from it but algae problems like you have as well as others. It didn't do anything I could notice to the corals. I had that crap in the display. I kept trying different kinds, making it myself because it was fun, and thought about getting a reactor to make it. Thank goodness I didn't do it.

If you dont have anything that you need to target feed like a sunset polyps. I would stop dosing the dt's and the fuel. You don't need it. I have a well mixed reef, and it wasn't stable until I stop dosing crap in the aquarium. JMO. Once you stop dosing and change your biopellets, that stuff will go away and your tank will start to look better. It takes some time to level out though. Probably a couple months.

 

[mtraylor]

@Rsxjh wrote:

Don't worry about the power head. This is just my opinion, and what I have learned thus far. When I was adding dt's, I didn't get anything from it but algae problems like you have as well as others. It didn't do anything I could notice to the corals. I had that crap in the display. I kept trying different kinds, making it myself because it was fun, and thought about getting a reactor to make it. Thank goodness I didn't do it.

If you dont have anything that you need to target feed like a sunset polyps. I would stop dosing the dt's and the fuel. You don't need it. I have a well mixed reef, and it wasn't stable until I stop dosing crap in the aquarium. JMO. Once you stop dosing and change your GFO, that stuff will go away and your tank will start to look better. It takes some time to level out though. Probably a couple months.

 

[mtraylor]

I just went through the same thing with my biopellets. What I found was that everytime my biopellets got low, I would get that red algae and some other nasty green stuff too. I would have to add more biopellets, and then I had some sort of green crap growing on my back glass all the time I was running the pellets as well as some green hairy crap. I kept telling myself it was the brand and the amount that I was using, but it just boiled down to me asking myself a couple questions.

1. did I have this problem before the reactor?
Answer:No

2. Why did I add reactor?
Answer: Not sure. Everyone else had one and it looked cool. Nitrates weren't measurable. [smilie=nerd.gif]

Anyway, I took my biopellet reactor off the aquarium and I'm getting back to normal now. I guess all the tests are some fun until they start ruining your corals. [smilie=smile.gif]

Just thought I would share.

 

[Rsxjh]

I quit dosing DT and fuel... I added some motion and its getting worse. I also just noticed an ammonia spike .25... Do I clear out and start the fug over... I haven't had any luck with growing macro. Help

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[mtraylor]

Just hang in there. I'm not sure you need the extra motion, but I guess it doesn't hurt. The extra water movement really works well in the display, but in the refuge it depends on what type of algae you are growing and if it likes allot of movement. If you quit all the extra feedings, the algae sooner or later will run out of food. Its been a couple weeks, but sometimes takes over a month to get rid of it. At this point I wouldn't change a thing. Just stay with steady fready. It will balance out.

Now a couple things that will help speed the process up would be the following.
1. A couple good water changes. One say today and one like 7 days later.
2. If you have a reactor for phosban, change that out and add new media.

I noticed you said you havn't had luck with algae. Well I had the same problem before and it was really getting frustrated. What I found out was that I had the wrong spectrum of light on the algae for it to grow What kind of light do you have on your fuge. I use 2 home depot clamp light holder $8, and a home depot 6.5K fluorescent flood lamp $6 and it works great.