removing a refugium?

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jamie C

jamie C

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So after a year my refugium went from growing like wildfire to turning to mush. I have zero nitrates and 0 phosphates. I assume my system has just matured in a way that doesn't allow for chaeto growth anymore. I hate the mess in my sump a refugium causes. I have decided to grab a Nyos reactor and keep carbon and gfo on hand if these things decide to spike. Any thoughts on whether this is a good or bad idea? as of right now there is no way my refugium is working as it should or has been for the last 3 months. give me your thoughts.
 
I don’t know much about them but a guy I know took his out and got a rank alga bloom in his tank and has been battling it for months now after he took his out
 
jamie C said:
So after a year my refugium went from growing like wildfire to turning to mush. I have zero nitrates and 0 phosphates. I assume my system has just matured in a way that doesn't allow for chaeto growth anymore. I hate the mess in my sump a refugium causes. I have decided to grab a Nyos reactor and keep carbon and gfo on hand if these things decide to spike. Any thoughts on whether this is a good or bad idea? as of right now there is no way my refugium is working as it should or has been for the last 3 months. give me your thoughts.
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If you have zeroed out you certainly don't "need" a refugium, I think most reefers try to maintain dirtier water. If your test results indicate too high levels of nitrate and phosphate once your refugium is removed, then I would intervene - Purigen, gfo, more rock, etc.
 
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jamie C said:
So after a year my refugium went from growing like wildfire to turning to mush. I have zero nitrates and 0 phosphates. I assume my system has just matured in a way that doesn't allow for chaeto growth anymore. I hate the mess in my sump a refugium causes. I have decided to grab a Nyos reactor and keep carbon and gfo on hand if these things decide to spike. Any thoughts on whether this is a good or bad idea? as of right now there is no way my refugium is working as it should or has been for the last 3 months. give me your thoughts.
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If you hate the mess, why not just buy a cheap chaeto reactor... nice and clean and set the photoperiod on it to whatever you want to dial in your tank needs...
 
If your fuge is a mess, consider adding some clean up crew.

I'm surprised to hear that you're having issues growing chaeto. What kind of light are you using for your fuge? Have you changed anything else in the tank?
 
dtruitt said:
If your fuge is a mess, consider adding some clean up crew.

I'm surprised to hear that you're having issues growing chaeto. What kind of light are you using for your fuge? Have you changed anything else in the tank?
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nothing has changed. 6 months ago I could throw away a 5 gallon bucket every two weeks. the only thing different is I have zeroed out across the board. everything in my system is fat healthy and growing like crazy. zero issues.
 
Deltec
I'm super happy with everything

74584F32-5CF1-47B1-BB9E-DE706384FC39.jpeg 71BDD2C7-4225-4D01-8FA6-A16B195A9B8D.jpeg
 
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dtruitt said:
Your glass looks fine, but I think I'm seeing some red slime cyano on the sandbed. If that's the case, maybe that could be why your nutrients are suddenly zeroed out?
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its not cyano. its a weird dusting of some other type that happens for a couple days once a month. I have tried to lock down the strain for awhile now and have sent off a sample to a lab for identification. I have dealt with all forms of algae over the years. This one is weird.
 
dtruitt said:
Your tank looks great, by the way. I'm never super excited to see softies in the store but I might need to think about one of those finger leathers, seeing it in your tank.
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we grew him from a frag. he was about 2" and in a year hes massive. I will have to frag him down soon for sure. they grow fast, there used to be a giant green tree leather in that spot that I just had to get ride of because he was taking up a 1/3rd of my tank with his size.
 
Deltec
With nutrients bottomed out to zero your are playing with fire. Dinos and Cyanobacteria can take over in no time. I would suggest to either dose N03 and P04 to bring them detectable and feed more frozen foods. This is also why you refugium is not growing. No nutrients in return no growth for algae. Like said above sounds like cyano is absorbing most or all nutrients!
 
I took a fuge off line for red planaria issues. I had a big spike in hair algae and nutrients in my main tank. It can be an issue. Yours may not be doing much or could be doing a lot. Hard to tell until you do it.
 
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jamie C said:
So after a year my refugium went from growing like wildfire to turning to mush. I have zero nitrates and 0 phosphates. I assume my system has just matured in a way that doesn't allow for chaeto growth anymore. I hate the mess in my sump a refugium causes. I have decided to grab a Nyos reactor and keep carbon and gfo on hand if these things decide to spike. Any thoughts on whether this is a good or bad idea? as of right now there is no way my refugium is working as it should or has been for the last 3 months. give me your thoughts.
Click to expand...

I had a similar situation in my fish only system. I have macro algae and GHA in the display tank before the refugium removal.

I had a Sterilite container that held twenty gallons of water. I illuminated its roughly 3 square foot surface area with four 5500K LED spotlights positioned roughly eight inches above the water. My 75 gallon aquarium had three fish with a total weight of over one pound. I chucked in a lot of raw food daily but managed to keep nitrate and phosphate levels undetectable. Recently, two of the larger fish found new homes, and total fish weight is down to 2-4 ounces. Over time, the Caulerpa growth in the refugium weakened and became covered with GHA and slime. Nitrate and phosphate level continued to be undetectable. One day I said a) “boy the refugium looks crappy, and b) “I bet that it is not benefitting the system at all with the dying algae”. I removed the refugium one afternoon.

I must have enough algae and denitrifying capability in the main system to keep nitrate and phosphate at undetectable levels. The rate of cleaning the sides remains the same. There was some light growth on the substrate which cleared up on its own. The algae in the tank looks healthy, though it too is breaking up, so maybe there will be some die of in the main system as it adjusts to lower nutrient conditions.

So, like in my system, it is possible that your system no longer has enough nutrients to keep macro algae alive.
 
jamie C said:
nothing has changed. 6 months ago I could throw away a 5 gallon bucket every two weeks. the only thing different is I have zeroed out across the board. everything in my system is fat healthy and growing like crazy. zero issues.
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Have you removed most of the chaeto and left a small portion in to see if it grows or at least maintains it's size?

I'm in a similar situation nitrates and phosphates have been bottoming out, but still have chaeto growth, but plan on harvesting a bunch.
 
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