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?

[JayinToronto]

I have 2 AI prime fuge lights over my sump. My phosphates have crept up to 0.24. I'm not trying to run an ultra low nutrient tank (as I've had dino problems in the past due to this). My goal is 0.1 for PO4.
My previous chaeto bed just got overrun by slime and hair algae. Tried another batch which met the same fate. For the last week I've just let the slime and hair grow in the sump. Today harvested a bunch of it. Is there any problem with just using this method as nutrient export? I have a strong team of tangs that keep the DT spotless. Basically I'm thinking it as a very rudimentary algae scrubber.

 

[najer]

Yes you can, measure before you harvest to make sure you nitrates and phos are ok, try the tangs with the gha, great fish food.

 

[AlgaeBarn]

I have 2 AI prime fuge lights over my sump. My phosphates have crept up to 0.24. I'm not trying to run an ultra low nutrient tank (as I've had dino problems in the past due to this). My goal is 0.1 for PO4.
My previous chaeto bed just got overrun by slime and hair algae. Tried another batch which met the same fate. For the last week I've just let the slime and hair grow in the sump. Today harvested a bunch of it. Is there any problem with just using this method as nutrient export? I have a strong team of tangs that keep the DT spotless. Basically I'm thinking it as a very rudimentary algae scrubber.

What is the flow like in the sump and can you post pictures? ~Shaun K.

 

[JayinToronto]

It's the middle section of my sump. 14x24" x13" deep.
Flow is just the main system flowing through it. About 500g/h. it's pretty calm in the sump.

 

[JayinToronto]

Pics

 

[SMSREEF]

What is your nitrate level?
Chaeto needs elements too. What is your water change routine? Do you dose anything like Chaetogro?

 

[mfinn]

Cheato likes flow.
I use a small tunze powerhead in my sump to create that flow.
I use the round design of the tunze because it doesn't have a small section area to clog fast.
It will eventually clog but that's just part of my weekly maintenance.

 

[Casket_Case]

That’s what I did the chaeto just grows algae on it lol

 

[JayinToronto]

What is your nitrate level?
Chaeto needs elements too. What is your water change routine? Do you dose anything like Chaetogro?

Nitrates are usually around 5-10. I found in my system that they follow phosphate up and down. Since they are difficult to test for accurately I just use phosphate as an overall measure of how much nutrients are in the tank. I'm pretty sure it's not an issue of not enough nutrients as the chaeto always grows like crazy when I first put it in, the problem is that it just gets overwhelmed by the other algae and gets covered and dies.

 

[Auquanut]

Cheato likes flow.
I use a small tunze powerhead in my sump to create that flow.
I use the round design of the tunze because it doesn't have a small section area to clog fast.
It will eventually clog but that's just part of my weekly maintenance.

That's exactly what I did. Before adding the power head, I had the same issue with pest algae choking out the macro.

 

[Subsea]

Yes, a refugium could be used as an algae scrubber. Cyno or GHA it’s nutrient export. If your tangs eat GHA then it’s nutrient recycling.

With respect to nuisance algae out competing chaeto, consider trace mineral limitation. As a rule, nuisance algae thrives better with reduced nutrients due to lack of competition. Leave lights off, seed refugium with pods and wait three months. Depending on your system and water change schedule, I suspect your trace minerals are schewed. I also suspect your DOC ishigh. For that I recommend you use GAC. However, the use of GAC depletes certain trace minerals, so use it sparingly.

 

[JayinToronto]

Yes, a refugium could be used as an algae scrubber. Cyno or GHA it’s nutrient export. If your tangs eat GHA then it’s nutrient recycling.

With respect to nuisance algae out competing chaeto, consider trace mineral limitation. As a rule, nuisance algae thrives better with reduced nutrients due to lack of competition. Leave lights off, seed refugium with pods and wait three months. Depending on your system and water change schedule, I suspect your trace minerals are schewed. I also suspect your DOC ishigh. For that I recommend you use GAC. However, the use of GAC depletes certain trace minerals, so use it sparingly.

I tend to run GAC 2 weeks on 2 weeks off.
I change roughly 100L / week (1/15 volume). I’m staying away from large water changes since my dino outbreak. Based on everything everyone said I’m going to try to just let all nuisance algae grow wild in the sump. If it pulls the phosphates down then I’ll continue. If it doesn’t work I’ll try again with the Chaeto with a bunch of flow.

 

[JayinToronto]

So far so good. Phosphate down to 0.16 from 0.25 3 days ago. I’m going to reduce the photoperiod from from 24 to 18h.

I tend to run GAC 2 weeks on 2 weeks off.
I change roughly 100L / week (1/15 volume). I’m staying away from large water changes since my dino outbreak. Based on everything everyone said I’m going to try to just let all nuisance algae grow wild in the sump. If it pulls the phosphates down then I’ll continue. If it doesn’t work I’ll try again with the Chaeto with a bunch of flow.

 

[JayinToronto]

Wow, this is turning in to the super sump.
Phosphates down to 0.07 today. Algae growing like crazy.. I’m going to drop the photoperiod even further. I don’t want to plummet my nutrients.

 

[JayinToronto]

I dropped the photoperiod on the sump to 6 h last night.
Phosphates 0.14 today.
Another number to chase around ;Wacky.
I need an apex module for this!

 

[BigRed78]

It’ll work just like chato. I’m not sure about Growth rate but the only difference is that removing chatoe is easier than scraping off hair algae

 

[1guydude]

Lol. Id do a large wc. Run carbon... than after id try some other algaes...and or a larger skimmer? Hths
D

 

[Tired]

If you can remove the algae in order to export the nutrients, sure, it'll work great. You just need something that concentrates the nutrients into itself, that you can then remove.

 

[JayinToronto]

So far it's been working well. My nutrients are staying steady around .1 (bw 0.09 and .13 over the last month). I'm running my fuge lights 24/7. Still have a bit of red slime algae around the aquarium which is annoying but it's not too bad. Just along some of the sand and on some low rocks that don't get the best flow. I'm strongly thinking about upping my protein skimmer game. I'm running one from D&D which I can't honestly say is doing a great job. Looking at the bubble kings.

 

[JayinToronto]

Update:
Still trying to figure out the best way to manage this. Export is not the easiest. With Chaeto I'd just take out the scissors once a week and chop chop 1 minute later my nutrient export was done. This is a little more difficult. First off I have to skim the surface daily as there is a significant amount of snot that just floats up to the surface every day. Second, the glass surface was not the best for growing stable hair algae, so I added 4 pieces of Marco dry rock to the system. It provides a nice surface area for growing the algae. Now 4 weeks in I've decided to take one piece out a week and scrub it down to export the nutrients. See the pic from below.
Overall I'm not sure this approach is a good enough nutrient exporter. My phosphates are fluctuating between 1 and 2. I feel like it's just hanging on. I'm going to give it another month then report back.

On the positive note the slime fuge it providing a great home to a thriving copepod population. Tons of life in there.