Refugium Help

[Gkrockman]

Set up an Aquamax HOB refugium about 6 months ago with a layer of mud and a tennis ball size of chaeto. Was fighting green algae and cyano in main tank. After 3 months set up I saw improvement in MT but chaeto was dying off and was getting hair algae and cyano in refugium. Chaeto continued to decline while red and green algae continued to grow in refugium.
Broke down refugium cleaned up and started over with mud and another tennis ball size of chaeto 6 weeks ago. Also placed a small pump in refugium to increase water flow. After 4 weeks refugium is experiencing same problems. Chaeto is not growing and red and green algae are growing in refugium. Light cycle is opposite of MT light cycle. Running light about 8 hours daily. Tank parameters are all within limits. Getting some green algae on front panel of MT (30 gallon) which I remove about every 3 days which I consider normal. Finally I do run a HOB skimmer for about 6 hours per day. What do I need to do to create chaeto growth and eliminate algae in my refugium while maintaining algae control in MT? Please help. Thx

 

[SMSREEF]

What are your parameters?
What do you use to test nitrate and phosphate?
What light are you using?
How often are your water changes?
Do you dose anything?

 

[Keen4]

Im having the same issues- light is 6-8 hrs a night now from acclimating from 2-4 hours a day on my chaeto. been 2 months. Lots of microfauna eating the algae. Got snails and crabs in the refugium but the algae keeps growing. Po4 is a lil high at .5- I think this is whats feeding the nuisance algae. Got a live rock in there with some fuge mud. Just did a water change in the refugium and cleaned up as much of the dinos as possible. Im sure this is normal for a new tank cycle , yes?
mg: 1440ppm
Ca : 500ppm
No3: 10ppm
Po4: .5ppm
DKH: 12.5
salinity 1.027

new tank set up. on week 7. 3 fish in DT and 3 snails in DT. Running skimmer rsk300. Just added some brightwell No3 cubes.

 

[Timmtom49]

Having same issues ever come to any conclusions .. on how to fix

 

[Crashnt24]

Increase your refugium light period to 12 hours. Decrease your PO4 to around 0.02-0.06. Make sure nitrates are detectable at around 5ppm.

Good luck!

 

[Keen4]

My po4 dropped to .02-.01 - a lot of the chaeto died off so I cleaned it up and trimmed the white stuff off. Took out the mud completely because it was messy. Added more macro algae (sea lettuce and Pom Pom) most of that died. Sea lettuce is messy. Hated it. Still got a lot of diatoms growing in the refugium. Dosing chaetogrow, microbacter7, and Aminos. Maybe not enough chaeto? It’s a small baseball size right now. Turned off thee reactor. Running skimmer a little dry for one more week then turning it off again for another 2 weeks. Still trying to harvest good bacteria is why I’m doing off and on skimming. Otherwise tank is doing very well. Got the 18w pentair connected and it’s helping a lot! All coral and anemones and fully puffed up and zoas that haven’t opened in months are open.

 

[stanleo]

Here is what I do that is different from yours. My Fuge light is on for 12 hours a day during the day and I don't have any mud in my fuge. My fuge is a 20 gallon section in my sump but the principles should still get the same. I also run my skimmer 24/7.

I also did not do a fuge at all on my tank till it was through the ugly stages, about 8 months. Now, I don't know if that makes a difference or not. My NO3 is 2ppm and my PO4 is .03. I have chaeto growth like crazy. OH and the only animals in there are a gorilla crab, collinista snails and its loaded with microfuana and mysis shrimp.

I would get rid of the mud (I have read that it mostly turns into a detritus sink and makes things worse) and up your photoperiod to 12 hours. The reason people say to do it opposite to when the DT lights is to lesson pH swings so it's your choice whether or not to run them at night or during the day.

 

[spasmolytic13]

Set up an Aquamax HOB refugium about 6 months ago with a layer of mud and a tennis ball size of chaeto. Was fighting green algae and cyano in main tank. After 3 months set up I saw improvement in MT but chaeto was dying off and was getting hair algae and cyano in refugium. Chaeto continued to decline while red and green algae continued to grow in refugium.
Broke down refugium cleaned up and started over with mud and another tennis ball size of chaeto 6 weeks ago. Also placed a small pump in refugium to increase water flow. After 4 weeks refugium is experiencing same problems. Chaeto is not growing and red and green algae are growing in refugium. Light cycle is opposite of MT light cycle. Running light about 8 hours daily. Tank parameters are all within limits. Getting some green algae on front panel of MT (30 gallon) which I remove about every 3 days which I consider normal. Finally I do run a HOB skimmer for about 6 hours per day. What do I need to do to create chaeto growth and eliminate algae in my refugium while maintaining algae control in MT? Please help. Thx

For me after trying to figure this here is what worked for me to get cheato to grow. My nitrates were always at 80 ppm no cheato growth. Then I got some bio pellets and put those to run for about a month my nitrates went to 0 to 5 ppm and all of the sudden I can grow cheato.

 

[Timmtom49]

how do you messure ur nitrates what test kit

 

[spasmolytic13]

how do you messure ur nitrates what test kit

I was using an api test kit. when the nitrate started to go down when bio pellets where put online. I weekly monitored it with test. when i hit 0 to 5 ppm i introduced my macro and that is when it started to grow.