Algae invading algae: Have you had unwanted algae in your good macroalgae?

[Wasabiroot]

I have chaeto in my make shift refugium in my redsea e170. I get green hair algae with it all the time. As far as I am concerned I just need to clean it up a bit every week. In my opinion the point of the refugium is to take extra nutrients out of the display, so isn't the "pest" algae doing that too?

True. Algae out is nutrients out, even if it ain't so pretty.

For what it's worth, my Gracilaria did best when I had a circulation pump in the refugium constantly turning it. Although it forms "holdfasts" (whatever the equivalent term for Rhodophyta is) it seemed to appreciate the tumbling and it made the GHA harder to adhere, but the pump was constantly clogged, even with a prefilter.

 

[OberlinMichael]

I currently pull out the algae every two weeks or so but am only running the refugium lights for 8 hours at night since my nutrients were low and I did not have much nuisance algae in the display tank. I used to run the refugium as much as 14 hours a day when I was dealing with a massive GHA outbreak in the display tank. For the pot scrubbers I bought a pack of 15 on Amazon for $10.99 and put 7 in each basket and use the spare one in my laundry room sink. I have been planning to reduce the pot scrubber count to 4-5 to see if more water area allows the turf algae to grow better. Right now I get the most growth on the sides of the pond baskets. I got plastic put scrubbers since they provide surface area for beneficial bacteria, substrate for turf algae to grow, and homes for copepods.

You can purchase a 7 pack at a dollar store for $1.25.

 

[TommyP]

I have chaeto in my make shift refugium in my redsea e170. I get green hair algae with it all the time. As far as I am concerned I just need to clean it up a bit every week. In my opinion the point of the refugium is to take extra nutrients out of the display, so isn't the "pest" algae doing that too?

Do you have the add on sump or just back area? Can u share more on the fuge