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View Full Version : algae in refug..

flyhigh123
02/15/2006, 01:59 PM
my question is,

In my main tank, I have no hair algae or brown alage. Its crystal clear,

But in my refugium, I am getting a lot of the brown mushy algae all over the refug and chaeto. I run 2x32 PC in the refug for about 8 hours. I do have a phosban running in the tank.

What is causing it to grow in the refug? any ideas? Is it the light type?
mr pink floyd
02/15/2006, 02:09 PM
thw whole point of a fuge is to grow the algae there and not in the tank
Ironman
02/15/2006, 02:18 PM
flyhigh123,

I have the same thing growing in my fuge and on some of my chaeto. Again, that is the whole purpose of the fuge.
flyhigh123
02/15/2006, 02:21 PM
oh ok... cool... lol.. i thought the refug should still stay clean and grow chaeto... i'm worried that the brown algae will overtake the refug and block the light to the chaeto...
trippyl
02/15/2006, 02:24 PM
I'd agree with the previous posters, this is what a fuge is for. BUT WHAT THEY NEGLECT TO TELL YOU is that you should be cleaning your fuge. if you see a tangle of brown algae in the fuge, pull it out. More will grow.

Note that you aren't really using the fuge correctly if you don't continuously harvest some of the growth that is occurring down there.

I do a weekly routine in my DSB fuge, where I stir the sand, suck out as much crap that comes out as possible, and harvest algae. I am adding to that routine a weekly vortex diatom filter process, where I will be stirring the sand once or twice weekly, and using the vortex filter to clean out any DSB crap.
Ironman
02/15/2006, 02:38 PM
Algae that is growing out of control should be trimmed periodicaly.

As for cleaning my fuge I don't. I keep a light load of clean up crews in there to keep some algae and ditritus in check.
trippyl
02/15/2006, 02:53 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6748343#post6748343 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Ironman

As for cleaning my fuge I don't. I keep a light load of clean up crews in there to keep some algae and ditritus in check.

Clean up crews count to some degree. I think there is a misconception that no maintenance of fuges is normal or even desired, when in fact (as I have learned from experience) it's simply not true.