Refugium algae

Hey all,

So like many of you I have a refugium in my sump. I'm currently keeping cheato and ulva in there and slowly it is disappearing. It seems like the massive amount of pods that are living in there are eating all of it. When my tank finished its cycle I ordered a mixture of different algeas from indo pac. The pods consumed all four bags of algae within a month. My fuge is 20"long by 8" wide and the entire surface of the water was covered in macro algae to about 6" deep. It was a lot. Since my refugium was almost empty i added another large ball of cheato from my lfs. That was a week ago and its already half way gone. My concern is that this process is actually detrimental. Right now I am having a phosphate issue that is causing another cyano outbreak. I am wondering if this could be happening because the pods are breaking down the macro algae back into the elements that the algae once absorbed. I barely feed my tank and have only coral and inverts.

I think part of the problem was insufficient lighting in the refugium since nothing seemed able to grow. So I decided to swap my coral-life macro gro light for a 20" t5 fixture. After doing some reading on freshwater planted tanks I thought it would be good to try using a 670nm bulb with a 460nm bulb. The reading i was doing about planted tanks that those were within the most important ranges for growing algae. I added the fixture today so well see what happens.

any thoughts?

 

What type of light are you running over the fuge?

 

Just edited my op. I just switched a 25w cf bulb for 36w t5.

 

bump

 

bump

 

That should work for spectrum.
If not consider a 5100-5500K CFL. The stronger the better. Maybe put two since the pods are eating so much then after it recovers try cutting back to one. Also if you're not feeding the tank it may not be getting the Nitrate and PO4 it needs. Also it needs iron. According to Reefkeeping you can't really overdose iron so consider a bottle of Kent Iron.

Also if you run your tank with high PH... don't. Strive for average PH & average alk. High PH forces out CO2 if your alk gets low..which the chaeto needs...(depending on the alk )

 

Take the wads of Cheato out and swish them into your DT every so often...that will thin the pods out and feed your fish too.

 

The cheato may be dieing due to low Nutrients. Then it dies causing the cyano to bloom.