How often remove algae from Refugium?

[MrBubble47]

Hello everyone!

how often do I need to remove some of the macro algae from the Refugium?
how much does removing algae from the refugium impacts the absorbtion of pollutants from the water?
In case I should remove some, how much in % shall I remove?

Pics of the Refugium: July, October and now.

 

[Supa]

Chaeto you can just pull a small handful as it starts to over take the real estate

 

[Rmckoy]

I have been debating this as the small handful added about 6 months ago .
lowered nitrates and phosphates as it was meant for .
but worried removing too much will cause nutrients to bounce back higher .
If I were to remove 25% of the macro will that essentially raise nutrients ?

 

[Supa]

I have been debating this as the small handful added about 6 months ago .
lowered nitrates and phosphates as it was meant for .
but worried removing too much will cause nutrients to bounce back higher .
If I were to remove 25% of the macro will that essentially raise nutrients ?

That sounds safe to me. If your macro algae is growing good then it’s nutrient uptake will still be close to the same… to be safe pull out 10% today and 10% in a few more days

 

[shakacuz]

i usually take everything out and leave a baseball sized chunk in there. within a week-two weeks, it has already gotten to half of the size it was before i took everything out.

if you want to stay on the safe side, take @Supa's advise.

 

[Logical_Plan]

By starting with removing small chunks each week you can verify it is still keeping nutrient where you want them.

The only way you will get nutrients back in you tank is if it starts dying due to over crowding.

Experiment a bit, you will find out how much you can export and still have an effective filter.

Case 1: Remove a lot of chaeto and nutrient rise slightly for a week or two until chaeto is right sized for your levels again.

Case 2: Remove a small amount and nutrients stay in check, but you have to remove a small amount frequently to avoid over crowding.

Case 3: Remove too little and chaeto starts to brown and die off. Nutrients might go up a bit as they are released back to water.

Kinda hard to do it wrong.

 

[MrBubble47]

Hey everybody!

thank you all for answering my questions.
Today I removed a large amount of algae from the Refugium.
The algae that was sitting on the bottom was getting white, hence it didn’t have enough light to thrive.

i didn’t remove the red one because I really like it, but next time, I will.