Algae sucks, what would you do?

SantaMonica · Jun 21, 2014

Wow that fish room is where I would be all day and all night

basile · Jun 21, 2014

Kworker said:
Manual removal, some snails, water changes and a GFO/Carbon Reactor will do the trick.

The tank is also 6 months old, it may just be going through a stage. A system will go through many stages after the initial cycle. Just tough through it, you will be clear of it before you know it.

I am against using a "fuge". Best to actually manually remove what is causing the algae.

I encourage you to read more about refugium because your missing a lot of info on them. I don't know anybody who is againts a fuge , not having one ok , but againts??? Thats very strange. I'd like to hear your objections to it , if you please...

basile · Jun 21, 2014

SantaMonica said:
Wow that fish room is where I would be all day and all night

LOL thanks , its in my PC room and its also my cats room , lol , so i can works beside my tank, i build this for me , not for my guest , but for me , so i can see it all the time. If you want to see more pics of it here's my thread.
https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/me...ty-my-150g-starfire-reef-tank-build-up-7.html

Kworker · Jun 21, 2014

basile said:
I encourage you to read more about refugium because your missing a lot of info on them. I don't know anybody who is againts a fuge , not having one ok , but againts??? Thats very strange. I'd like to hear your objections to it , if you please...

Already have.

Believe me, I was all for them and debated in there favor for a while. Most people implement them into their system without even understanding what exactly is going on.

To briefly explain a bit more on the short bit of what I said. In order for the macro to grow it must have nutrients you do not want, the best thing to do is remove what you do not want. By implementing a "fuge" you are encouraging macro to grow and take away the nutrients, okay. Now when it grows and no longer can get what it needs and strips what is unwanted from the water it will have die-off thus introducing those nutrients back into your system.

Of course, it also depends on what a person is trying to emulate in their tank. However, I do not seek levels of high nutrients in my aquarium so I opt out of fuges and do WC's and use my settling tank to siphon.

I am not going to debate opinions on the topic, for there are so many ways to go about things in this hobby and what works for somebody doesnt always work for another. I often wonder why I never was able to keep royal gramma yet (knock on wood) my achilles tang has been doing nicely.

Here is a good thread on the topic (you can even see me argue in favor of fuges on some of the latter pages)

Current Discussion: Refugiums - The Reef Tank

basile · Jun 22, 2014

Kworker said:
Already have.

Believe me, I was all for them and debated in there favor for a while. Most people implement them into their system without even understanding what exactly is going on.

To briefly explain a bit more on the short bit of what I said. In order for the macro to grow it must have nutrients you do not want, the best thing to do is remove what you do not want. By implementing a "fuge" you are encouraging macro to grow and take away the nutrients, okay. Now when it grows and no longer can get what it needs and strips what is unwanted from the water it will have die-off thus introducing those nutrients back into your system.

Of course, it also depends on what a person is trying to emulate in their tank. However, I do not seek levels of high nutrients in my aquarium so I opt out of fuges and do WC's and use my settling tank to siphon.

I am not going to debate opinions on the topic, for there are so many ways to go about things in this hobby and what works for somebody doesnt always work for another. I often wonder why I never was able to keep royal gramma yet (knock on wood) my achilles tang has been doing nicely.

Here is a good thread on the topic (you can even see me argue in favor of fuges on some of the latter pages)

Current Discussion: Refugiums - The Reef Tank

I see your point, yes its true, when the extra nutrients have been extrated the macro tends to die off and cause a major problem if your not carefull how ever i've pushed and seen beyond that concept with mine. I've studied them and made sure its survived after that stage and i get benefits far more exceeding the nutrient export. I get amphiopods productions, and a diversity of pods production, an icubater for snails, and a biotope for my seahorses, a PH regulator, and extra cash from macro-algae crop that i sell, and i'm not talking plain chaeto here, but 27 different species. But you have to be commited to do this.

My sand working for me here . Never disturbing it prove to be a wining strtegy as thousands of little critters work in unison to clean it up and make it breathe. You disturbe it everyweek with you cleanup BS, you destroy its fauna and get nitrate spikes.

They are the perfect cleaners for a fuge the don't eat macroalgae but clean up even cyanobacteria.

Another part of the sand factory

Underestimated and so vital i thought they deserved their shot.

They clean up cyano; conch

Thats my system, its has a very high tolerance to nitrates, amonia and phosphate compare to most system. my dosing is minimal because its so balance, the display refugium is 75 gallons starfire tank, feeding my 150 gallons reef with a 60 gallon sump 225 gallon system total used.

To maintain those macro in good healt you need to supplement; iodine, iron , manganese high calcium is also good for them.