Algae all over refugium

[Sordfish]

Couple of moths ago I had briopsis, turf algae and hair algae in my display tank - yey me. They were in epic proportions - many rocks completely covered and all the manual removal did nothing - it’d come right back. I increased my clean up crew. I also started a refugium in my sump with some cheato, gsp and Kenya tree - those two corals were also growing like crazy in the tank. Things went gangbusters in the refugium. Cheato grew some. Gsp and Kenya tree took off like crazy. Then micro algae appeared. Briopsis, turf and hair algae are covering everything. Interestingly, in the month that this has all happened, my display tank completely cleared up. The algae is still there but weak/slow enough that the cleanup crew is mowing it all down to the point that it is barely visible on just a few holes in the rock that are inaccessible.

Here is my question. Should I be worried that part of my sump has all kinds of nasty algae? I am thinking I should throw in some cleanup crew in there and not worry about it, but it is making me very uneasy. It is like I am playing with fire. I understand working with macro algae and soft corals. But a refugium full of briopsis and turf algea?

Should I keep it as is and periodically manually clean up the micro algea (scraping the glass and the floor, etc.?) Or should I try chemical removal of briopsis in particular? Or something else?

I welcome your thoughts!

 

[ReefStable]

It makes sense that the algae is moving toward the refugium. That just means it's a more ideal location to grow.

I would manually remove and if you can get extra cleanup crew, that may be good too. The only downside is they may eat the cheato...

Basically now that it's almost isolating itself, it's time to nuke it!

Best of luck!

 

[Lavey29]

Sounds like your system is working. Manually remove and add some cleaners. Goal now is for the chaeto to out compete the bad stuff.