Help me understand how a refugium outcompetes other algae

[John Biddle]

The water is the same in the Display Tank, the Refugium and the Algae Turf Scrubber. The main reason the Refugium and the Turf Scrubber "outcompete" the algae in the DT is that the lights are more powerful and more aligned to the algae's needs. It will grow faster there than in the DT. Diminishing the whites in the DT might help this happen even faster but isn't necessary. Algae eating fish and cleanup crew also keep the algae down in the DT and increase the difference between the environments so algae grows where you want it and not where you don't.

 

[Katrina71]

 

[dzolot]

Ok, there’s a big piece missing from this discussion: algae eaters. In the display, you have a bunch of critters eating algae. In the refugium these algae eaters are absent. Therefore the algae in the display is being eaten while also competing for nutrients with the refugium, which typically runs in the reverse daylight cycle. It’s the algae eaters that tip the scale.

Exactly what i was thinking!

 

[darrick001]

Out competing may not be the best expression to help people understand this issue.
When you grow coral or algae it grows better when it has the ideal location, flow and nutrients for its needs. In a refugium you are attempting to provide the algae it's ideal growing environment. You provide powerful lighting and give it greater flow so it has better access to nutrients. By giving it this environment it grows much faster. By consuming these nutrients it limits the amount available to algae in the display. So in essence out competing could be called nutrient limiting.

One thing to understand is that a refugium is a tuneable filter. If nutrients are to low you just reduce the number of hours the lights are on. If they are to high increase the hours or the intensity. Also the amount of algae in the system plays a big roll. To keep mine tuneable I keep the amount of algae within a certain range and trim it more often to keep it consistent

For those that mentioned having trouble keeping algae it could be that you have plenty of nutrients and not enough of the right minerals for that type of algae. I had this very problem when I removed my skimmer 7ish years ago. At first the refugium worked great but within a few months the hair algae grew over everything and the algae In My refugium barely grew. An icp test that showed some minerals were completely depleted. When the minerals were corrected it switched. All the hair algae died in the display and the refugium grew like crazy. This happened over about 6 months. Nothing good in reefing happens fast.

One tiny detail that shouldn't be over looked is the benefits that those tiny little pods give your entire system. From cleaning up uneaten food , waste, algae to feeding your coral and fish. They are the biggest advantage in the tiniest package.

 

[rtparty]

A fuge or ATS is simply a tool to help with water quality. Neither one can outcompete and keep algae out of the display. That’s like saying I vacuum my master bedroom to keep my living room clean. Or I grow weeds in my backyard to keep them out of the front yard see how insane that sounds?

Algae is a byproduct from a lack of herbivores. It’s that simple.

Understand the tools of the trade and how to use them to make the whole package come together and work.

 

[Reeferbadness]

i'm a bit torn about refugiums. I have 2 mixed reef tanks (180 g and 200g) each with a fuge and 5 and 3 years old. When i first started the fuges, i let the chaeto go wild and grow to fill the space. I then noticed that my Nitrates bottomed out (Phos was manageable at around .02 - .06). Then i started dosing NeoNitrate to get those up and realized how crazy that was - why dose for something that i can easily remidy by taking out 75% of the chaeto which is depleting it so fast. I still battle turf algae in both tanks and still wonder if either refugium is doing all that much other than basic nutrient export. My nitrates are still pretty low. Oh well.

 

[marinesnow]

An elephant will eat a bale of hay faster than a rabbit...

If you're replacing N and P, your refugium needs trimming back... alternatively just let part of it die off to replace the N and P that's lost.

Also, invest in a good cleanup crew and they'll make up for any difference.

 

[VintageReefer]

That’s like saying I vacuum my master bedroom to keep my living room clean.

If everyone had to walk through the bedroom to get to the living room, then keeping the bedroom constantly vacuumed would contribute to the living room being clean.

Due to floor plans this isn’t common, however if you reverse it, plenty of people consider it perfectly normal to keep their house and living room floor vacuumed and clean, to keep the bedroom clean.

People take their shoes off when they come in the house, stopping most of the dirt from passing a point - socks, rollers, mech filtration.

Then the rest of the house is vacuumed regularly to keep the floors clean - refugium / scrubber

By the time people (water) makes it to the bedroom (display), the majority of the dirt (water nutrients/pollutants) have been removed.

what will get its floor dirty faster - the front door mat, the living room, or the bedroom