Considering removing Fuge

wyattray · Apr 10, 2017

I have been battling with a fuge for the past 5 months on my Cad Lights 70G. Right now it is just littered with disgusting looking algae that has spread to my pump chamber and my heater chamber.

Now ive tried a few things,

At first I started with just Chaeto in there, it grew but barley, It never rolled so one side would get burnt and I would constantly hand roll it. And every time I did this it would break up a bit and peices would be scattered along my sump.

A couple months after that I decided to add some sand, so I removed the chaeto and added about 4 inches of sand to the bottom. This did basically nothing, so I decided to plant some macro algea in the sand. This again did nothing and they eventually died off.

My last attempt was to put some egg crate down, and keep the cheato near the sand and place some live rock on top. The egg crate acted as an anchor for more slime algae and started to cause the sump to smell a little funny.

I also changed the lights three times, I did the led that came with the Aquarium(Sucked), I used my old HOB Led light (no change), than I used a PAR light from amazon. (Could be to intense to wide of light spread)

So now im thinking of removing it all together and keeping the area dark and moving my heaters over into that section with a couple pieces of live rock in there.

I have no pod dependent fish, I do have a Combtooth Blenny but I think hes munching on pods in the Display tank.

Also none of this slime algae is in the display tank its only in the fuge/sump.

What are yalls opinions on this, I need to get a more stable tank and right now I think the constant die off and algae production in there is over weighing the pod production.

wkscott · Apr 10, 2017

I had the same problem for years. I finally dumped the chaeto and went the chemical route. Added GFO, GAC, and biopellet reactors. Also put in my heaters. I couldn't be happier for the last several years. Nice clean sump, no nasty die off and smells, no nuisance alga or cyanobacteria. I'm done with a refugium forever.

midtnmike41 · Apr 10, 2017

I replaced my fuge with a pile of rocks. Couldn't be happier. No more algae mess, pods seem to do fine down there. I still don't run gfo, just skim and gac when needed. I have a hard time keeping nutrients in my system.

Roberto CRC · Apr 10, 2017

I also eliminated the chaeto, it was annoying to have to be cleaning the detritus and chaeto remains in the refuge, now I only use Vinegar and GFO. Everything has stayed well but I'm not sure if the pods are needed in the tank as food for some fish.

ChevelleJason · Apr 10, 2017

wkscott said:
I had the same problem for years. I finally dumped the chaeto and went the chemical route. Added GFO, GAC, and biopellet reactors. Also put in my heaters. I couldn't be happier for the last several years. Nice clean sump, no nasty die off and smells, no nuisance alga or cyanobacteria. I'm done with a refugium forever.

Interesting. I am running GFO, GAC, and Biopellets in my current system but looking to go the fuge route on my new build for a more natural approach. I would probably still use GAC and GFO when needed, but I feel like the Biopellets work too well and is actually stripping the water too clean. I sometimes take my GFO offline and dose Nitrates (stump remover) to to dirty the water up a bit.

Now I hesitate...

wkscott · Apr 10, 2017

ChevelleJason said:
Interesting. I am running GFO, GAC, and Biopellets in my current system but looking to go the fuge route on my new build for a more natural approach. I would probably still use GAC and GFO when needed, but I feel like the Biopellets work too well and is actually stripping the water too clean. I sometimes take my GFO offline and dose Nitrates (stump remover) to to dirty the water up a bit.

Now I hesitate...

My tank is loaded with fish and they all eat like little piggies. There's no chance I'll ever have a low nutrient tank! Instead of taking your reactors offline, try to just reduce the amount of biopellets and GFO. I have found my sweet spot and everything runs pretty smoothly now.

najer · Apr 10, 2017

Devil's advocate!
My sump runs 2 heaters and 2 return pumps, no skimmer or reactors.
You need to light shield the other 2 sections, no light no slime algae.
I have all sorts of crude in my refugium, as you said, clear display.
When you siphon the slime out potential nutrients also go.
I would siphon all nuisance algae out and then add cheato or caulerpa, the nuisance algae could be out competing it for food!
Hope you get it sorted.

wkscott · Apr 10, 2017

najer said:
Devil's advocate!
My sump runs 2 heaters and 2 return pumps, no skimmer or reactors.
You need to light shield the other 2 sections, no light no slime algae.
I have all sorts of crude in my refugium, as you said, clear display.
When you siphon the slime out potential nutrients also go.
I would siphon all nuisance algae out and then add cheato or caulerpa, the nuisance algae could be out competing it for food!
Hope you get it sorted.

When I ran caulerpa, I had no problems. Only had issues with chaeto. Unfortunately some chaeto got loose in the Pacific waters around Los Angeles and it was a mess and very costly to remove it. California now bans its use.

http://law.justia.com/codes/california/2005/fgc/2300.html

wyattray · Apr 10, 2017

wkscott said:
I had the same problem for years. I finally dumped the chaeto and went the chemical route. Added GFO, GAC, and biopellet reactors. Also put in my heaters. I couldn't be happier for the last several years. Nice clean sump, no nasty die off and smells, no nuisance alga or cyanobacteria. I'm done with a refugium forever.

I have the same setup, Im going to remove it next water change, Im over dealing with it.

chuck3 · Apr 10, 2017

Were you dosing iron to your system?... If not, that could explain the trouble with the chaeto. Nuisance algae does fine without it... macros need it, and can deplete a system pretty quickly.

wkscott · Apr 10, 2017

chuck3 said:
Were you dosing iron to your system?... If not, that could explain the trouble with the chaeto. Nuisance algae does fine without it... macros need it, and can deplete a system pretty quickly.

I dosed just a little iron and I got the nuisance algae actually in the DT. Dosed less than half recommended amount.:mad: