New Refugium user questions....

[kenargo]

Question; I upgraded my 130 (plenumn) to a 180 (refugium) and have a
question or 2 for those more familular with refugium systems (refugiums
are new to me and there isn't much reading that talks about the details.

The system has been running well for 6 months now and today when I was
inspecing the refugium I noticed an abundance of red and green tuft
algae which had a large swath of my Chaetomorpha. The Chaeto had grown
from a ball about 1x softball size to 5x (I had not trimmed it ever).
I spent the better part of the morning tearing out the tuft algae and
salvaged about 1 softball-sized mass of Chaetomorpha, the remainder is
in an aerated bucket.

My question: Those of you running Refugiums; how often do you
divide/trmim your algae? and how agressively do you trim?

I have only a few critters in my refugium lots of pods; large and
small, a couple of snails and a micro star or 2. Should I be concerned
about (sand) stirers? and what would a suggestion be? (BTW: I am using
Miracle Mud). I am concerned that the mudd will become compacted
without any stiring critters (i was thinking of adding some sand
sifting snails). I could add a sand sifting star but I was concerned
that it would eat all the the pods.

Thanks,

[graveyardworm]

Unless you plan on putting food in the refugium, then dont bother with the snails. I assume you're talking about nassarius.

How large is the refugium, how much flow, what kind of lighting?

My fuge is pretty big, 35g, so I let my cheato get pretty big before pruning, and usually take out about half. I trim it as often as necessary. For sand stirrers you could put in some LR from display, but not necessary the critters will find their way in.

[kenargo]

The tank is a 180 gal, the refug is 45 gal. I run 2 36 watt compact PC lights, 24x7 and 2 Mag 7 pumps (total 1400 g/h).

I was most concerned about the hair algae that started to cover the cheato; the cheato seamd to not be doing well once the hair took hold (so I agreeively trimmed to remove as much hair as I could).

[graveyardworm]

I've never had a problem with HA on the cheato, so not sure what thats all about. Usually once a week I also fluff up the cheato to make sure light and flow is getting in good. My cheato ball right now is about the size of two basketballs.

[amutti]

I know I'm going to get flamed for this . . . but bristle worms work great. My LFS had a tank with a lot and gave me a bunch when I asked (for free). They eat detritus that enters the refugium as well as burrow into my live sand.

[graveyardworm]

Why would you get flamed? Bristleworms are great

[amutti]

Some people have negative opinions of bristleworms . . . a few species are bad and the whole group gets a bad rep. Sort of like Asterina stars . . . most are great and safe . . . a few species will destroy all the zoos or/and sps in your tank . . .

[biomekanic]

Chaeto doesn't really need to be lit 24/7, you could just light it opposite of your main display. Mine grew better without the 24/7 lighting. I had a 5 gallon fuge/sump, and in the main section I would take out 1/2 of it every 6 weeks. About the size of 1/2 a soccor ball.

[armagedon48]

i have red fuzz like algae that has taken over one of my refugiums. (click on my red house and look for the photo of my fuge, the bottom tray is infected with red hair algae). the other trays are fine.
the algae has the potential to keep your nitrates at 0 however once the nitrates hit 0, it stops taking up phosphate. so you can either dose nitrate (potasium nitrate, which is saltpeter), or use phosphate removing media. i was told that algae takes up something like 20+ parts nitrate for every 1 part of phosphate.

[reefgrief]

I may be preaching to the choir, so take these hints with a bit of salt if you know this info already.. but chaeto will only compete with slime algaes if it can grow faster than the slimes .. SO:

cutting light intensity, removing phosphate with an absorption chemical and reducing photoperiod to 12 hrs or so will reduce the red slime algae, if that is what you have.

To prevent recurrance: Allow the refugium and tank to "settle in" for 90 to 120 days before having more than 1 or 2 fish, since over feeding creates phosphate/nitrate issues, that your bacterial population is not yet sufficient to handle. (the refugium is really designed for nitrite to nitrate converting bacteria. the chaeto will take up the nitrate, but if too much phosphate is present you will get slime blooms. (not so different from bluegreen algae freshwater blooms in farm ponds)

Hope this helps, and accept my apology if you knew this already

[kenargo]

Thanks, Adding a phosphate remover was the 1st thing I did after seeing the algae (phosphates are non-detectable now so hopefully the problem stays away). While the tank is new but everything in the tank came from an old tank (8 years in this house; 15 years total) so I am not so worried about bio-load. The main "difference" is that I no longer has a plenumn and I no longer run a skimmer (but levels are remaining in check and where i would expect them to be). I suspect these last 2 changes where a leading cause of the algae (just need to let refugium cycle more (it's 6 months and counting).