OP
OP
I'm giving up on chaeto. Can I just let the hair and slime algae grow crazy in the sump and use that for nutrient export?
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PeterC99
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Sorry for a probable repeat question - but how long are you running your refugium lights?
They schedule should be the opposite of your tank lights.
They schedule should be the opposite of your tank lights.
OP
OP
I’m messing with mine a bit right now to dial in nutrient control. Currently lights on for 20h.
The main reason people run reverse lighting is to stabilize pH. Mine swings from 8.1 - 8.3 day and night. I’ve tried the reverse lighting schedule before but it had very little impact on the pH swings.
My reason for not running 24h light right now is purely based on an unsubstantiated belief in my head that emulating nature is always better, so for the sake of my copepods and tons of other critters that seem to be waaaaay more active at night I like my sump to have at least some dark each day.
OP
OP
Update. I added 3 more pieces of Marco dry rock to completely cover the bottom of my refrugium. The algae and copepods definitely prefer it to the glass bottom.
Things overall are going well. My phosphates yesterday were 0.1, which is my goal level. This is despite increasing my food input by about double/day with the addition of a couple chucks of reef frenzy/day.
My feeding is as follows:
AM: 3 cubes Hikari mysis and a 5-8g cube of Reef Frenzy plus a half sheet of nori.
1:00: 3 cubes of mysis
PM: 3 cubes of mysis and 5-8gs of Reef Frenzy plus a half sheet of nori.
I found that the rocks can't wait 2 weeks between cleaning. The strings of snot up to the top of the water just cause too much surface cover at that point. I think I will be taking each rock out q7-10 days for a quick scrub down.
I also started some nutrient recycling. I have 3 turbo snails in the sump. I'll be rotating them with the DT as they seem to be starving in the DT but grow like crazy in the refugium. I placed one of the rocks into the main aquairium for a bit. The tangs and rabbit fish went crazy over it. Also, the wrasse loved hunting for all the copepods on the rock. Was very cool to watch.
Overall I am super happy with how its going.
Will continue with the updates.
Things overall are going well. My phosphates yesterday were 0.1, which is my goal level. This is despite increasing my food input by about double/day with the addition of a couple chucks of reef frenzy/day.
My feeding is as follows:
AM: 3 cubes Hikari mysis and a 5-8g cube of Reef Frenzy plus a half sheet of nori.
1:00: 3 cubes of mysis
PM: 3 cubes of mysis and 5-8gs of Reef Frenzy plus a half sheet of nori.
I found that the rocks can't wait 2 weeks between cleaning. The strings of snot up to the top of the water just cause too much surface cover at that point. I think I will be taking each rock out q7-10 days for a quick scrub down.
I also started some nutrient recycling. I have 3 turbo snails in the sump. I'll be rotating them with the DT as they seem to be starving in the DT but grow like crazy in the refugium. I placed one of the rocks into the main aquairium for a bit. The tangs and rabbit fish went crazy over it. Also, the wrasse loved hunting for all the copepods on the rock. Was very cool to watch.
Overall I am super happy with how its going.
Will continue with the updates.
OP
OP
So everything was going well with this method of export until recently. Bristle worms have proliferated like crazy and now eat all the algae that grows on the Marco rocks. On the plus side I no longer have to take the rocks out and scrape them clean. On the negative side my phosphates and nitrates have increased quite a bit. My SPS growth has slowed and there is some cyano in the DT as a result. What I've decided to do it grow some caulerpa. Put it in the sump today. Phosphates .35.
AlgaeBarn
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Are you able to cut back on feeding and increase flow? If you have bristle worms growing like crazy that typically means you have too much left over food from feeding. 
mfinn
likes zoanthids
I've never heard of bristle worms eating algae. Always thought they ate uneaten meaty food.
Sounds like the tank is balancing out.( if the algae is going away)
Sounds like the tank is balancing out.( if the algae is going away)
Last edited:
OP
OP
Yea, I was quite surprised by this too. The algae still grows on the glass in the refugium just not on the rocks that are covered in worms.
Nemo&Friends
Well-Known Member
I have seen bristle eating macro algae. They ate quite a bit of the new macro algae I had purchased. I had to kill quite a few and now the algae is starting to grow.
My grape caulerpa grows like weeds. Have to harvest quite often. Try that. I just use a Tuna Blue light.
OP
OP
It’s the grape variety that I put in. Have a couple AI prime fuge lights over the sump. I’ve already noticed a couple of worms have crawled into the tangles of it. Hopefully it will grow faster than they can eat!
flyingscampi
Active Member
I have Botryocladia sp (red grape) in the display tank which grows fairly quickly. The hermits and shrimp never eat the red grape, but do eat any GHA that grows on it.
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