Underpowered return pump causing all these problems?

[Stigigemla]

I see no reason at all to have high flow to the sump. For a 75 gallon tank I recommend a skimmer with an airflow of about the tank volume per hour. And the waterflow through the sump about the waterflow through the skimmer. Why blow a lot of water through the sump without processing it? Do You have light on Your sump? Shut it off. It will only cost You a lot of trouble. If You want to grow algae in a refugium You have to shield off the light or You will have algae growing everywhere where there is some of the light.

 

[roberthu526]

I would manually remove some of the waste in the sump before adding carbon. Personally I’d never let the sump get that dirty. Also are you running lights in the sump? It would be strange if you didn’t have lights yet have algae grow like that.

 

[starypotter]

I am running lights in the sump for the refuguim, only whenver I try other macro algaes they just die in the sump, the only algae that will actually grow is all of that. I'm working on finding a way to block the light from hitting things like the skimmer but I haven't come up with any good ideas yet so if you have something helpful to add that would be appreciated.
And I have mechanical filtration in my baffles now so it is helpful to move water through there where before you could barely even see any water movement, I also want to keep water moving through there enough for my heaters which I now plan to both have in the sump.

 

[trio91]

I am running lights in the sump for the refuguim, only whenver I try other macro algaes they just die in the sump, the only algae that will actually grow is all of that. I'm working on finding a way to block the light from hitting things like the skimmer but I haven't come up with any good ideas yet so if you have something helpful to add that would be appreciated.
And I have mechanical filtration in my baffles now so it is helpful to move water through there where before you could barely even see any water movement, I also want to keep water moving through there enough for my heaters which I now plan to both have in the sump.

Get a plastic folder/binder (preferably black) from the dollar store, cut a side off and zip tie it around the collar.

 

[starypotter]

Get a plastic folder/binder (preferably black) from the dollar store, cut a side off and zip tie it around the collar.

a plastic folder that's great it always is those simple solutions isn't it? Here I was trying to come up with some sort of way to put an acrylic wall of some sort.

 

[Dburr1014]

Hey, glad you found the problem with the pump.
With not being able to grow macro... It could just be the hair algae is taking up all your nutrients. If that's not what you want, try to remove all you can of the hair and add your macro.
What light do you have? I have a daylight led from home depot. The kind you use outside and it works great.
How long are you running the light? The algae needs to take up nutrients but if the light is on to long they take up too much nutrients and may die back a little. So adjust your light time depending on what your tank is doing in nutrients. You could have it on from a few hours to 24 hours, all depends on your tank.

 

[starypotter]

Hey, glad you found the problem with the pump.
With not being able to grow macro... It could just be the hair algae is taking up all your nutrients. If that's not what you want, try to remove all you can of the hair and add your macro.
What light do you have? I have a daylight led from home depot. The kind you use outside and it works great.
How long are you running the light? The algae needs to take up nutrients but if the light is on to long they take up too much nutrients and may die back a little. So adjust your light time depending on what your tank is doing in nutrients. You could have it on from a few hours to 24 hours, all depends on your tank.

Thanks, I have a grow light that I believe is marketed towards those other reefers, mostly red and some blue LEDs, and a LED bulb I don't remember the specifics. I'd tried opposite schedule, I tried leaving it on all the time. Sump has been dark since I figured this out and most of the algae that was in there is now gone so hopefully I'll get to start fresh now.
I finally got a Red Sea kit and my readings were about 3 ppm Nitrate and about .03 phosphate so that doesn't seem too bad for me, and the ulva in my display has really stopped growing as much and cyano has taken hold so maybe it's just an all around thing of finally starting to get nutrients in check with various new tank uglies.