Cleaning Refugium

[ken6217]

I have a HOB refugium with Cheato only. I turn it and prune it weekly. I have this set up for a few weeks and I see quite a bit of hair algae and bubbles trapped in the algae in the two outside compartments of the refugium. Should this be removed? Why would I have this in here but not the display tank? Not much water movement and no critters to pick on it?

Thanks,
Ken

 

[daveh285]

Hey Ken,
That's the purpose of the refugium.It grows the algae in there so that algae uses up the nutrients before the algae can establish in the tank. I usually slide my finger over the algae and pull some of it out also leaving some to regrow.

 

[ken6217]

Hi Dave,
I thought that as i was typing it but wanted to make sure. By the way, is it true that Cheato can release nutrients back into the tank? I noticed that I had a lot of cheato to prune and I see that the same areas that I had cyno in the tank seemed to return again.

Thanks,
Ken

 

[daveh285]

I don't believe Cheato will release anything as long as it is still growing but I could be wrong. You might want to try adjusting your flow in the tank more toward the cyno.

 

[Hawkeye]

Cyano in and of itself is not necessarily bad - it's bad in the display as it's ugly - but in the fug - you could argue it's doing it's job in absorbing nutrients.

i shouldn't say this since I have one of those CPR's to sell - but what the heck.

I think the pump is undersized for the fugs and as it ages the flow thru the box slows down - this allows cyano to establish. Frankly I've always felt that these hob things are nice marketing gimmicks but really don't provide much in the way of good nutrient export.

I guess I'd caveat that if the fuge were getting water post skimmer. But since hob fuges are designed to get water direct from the display - I always found issues like food getting stucked into the fug and slowly decaying.

So is it a net export or net neutral? Or worse - a net contributer to nitrates? I dunno. I will say it was a great sanctuary for pods and stars and such.

I have seen suggestions of adding a SECOND small pump in the HOB to improve flow which will possibly prevent the cyano/hair from forming.

 

[ds4x4]

This is why i am going to have a Fuge in my sump and a HOB large CPR on the 55. The HOB is only for copepod/mysis whatever to flourish away from the goby and scooter.