refugium maintenance/control

[rschneid]

I was doing some maintenance in my refuge and noticed a lot of newish things. I am interested to know what the best practice is for some of these things.
1. I have starfish of some kind (at least 3 of them) in there.
2. I have two or 3 new kinds of algae growing (hair and leafy something or other)
3. I have some phantom creatures and am interested in knowing what they are (so I can stop calling them phantoms) [ they look like phantoms to me :-) ] see 2045

Basically I would like to know which of these things I should try to control if at all.


All opinions welcome.
rich S.

[ca1ore]

First picture is a macro algae, good. Second and third pictures are GHA, ok in the refugium, bad in the display (may overgrow the macro though, which is bad). Fourth picture is a brittle star, also good. Last picture is of flatworms, bad.

[Compliance]

I never had any bad effects from the white/clear 'hooded' flatworms... Planaria? (reddish brown)... can be a real headache - but the white ones are ok in my experience.

I used to run a slow flow refugium and let whatever algae wanted to take over, take over.... hair algae was what won the battle. Newer setup just has the spinning ball of chaeto...

[Reefin' Dude]

how long has the system been setup, and have you introduced any new LR into the fuge in the past month or so?

i have only encountered the white flatworms in the first couple of months of LR being introduced, and this is fresh LR not the cured type. i have heard that this is a predatory flatworm for the bad kind of flatworm that ca1ore mentioned. they tend to be reddish in color. either way i have yet to be able to keep them for more than a few weeks after discovery.

G~

[HiFidelity]

I have those worms, they stay in the fuge and I've yet to see one in the display. I too didn't know what they were and the fact that they stay in the fuge is the only reason why I haven't panicked over them.

Going to watch this to see what others might say about the flatworms...