Choose micro algae in your refugium carefully

[deepseadan]

Hopefully others will learn from my refugium mistakes. Specifically, choose your micro algae cautiously. I've had my fuge for a couple years, and I've been battling a type of red (furry) looking algae the whole time. It blocks the water flow, light and eventually trys to make its way into the tank. It basically chokes out everything in the fuge. I also had a type of caulerpa algae which rooted everywhere and also tried to make its way into the tank. Yesterday, I finally had enough, so I completely cleaned and hosed down my sump. It took hours and was a pain. This time I'm only going to have chaetomorpha. My big mistake was I went to my local fish store and they grabbed a big handful from there sump and sold it to me. Don't make the same mistake, I guarantee you'll regret it down the road.

 

[Ericwm]

I was thinking of adding a HOB fuge and since it would be visible I was hoping to get some good looking algae, I like the shaving bush and was wondering if that would be a bad selection. Do you know anything about them?

 

[deepseadan]

I don't have experience with shaving brush, and from reading the testimonials it sounds good. My only concern is that Halimeda Plant (Halimeda sp.) also has good testimonials. That particular plant caused a lot of problems in my fuge. Much of it died and droped leaves on the mud (probably due to increased nitrates), and caused me a lot of difficult clean up and dead plants decaying in my system. Also, I placed some in the tank and it started appearing in random pieces of live rock. But shaving brush does look cool. Let us know in a few months how it does.

 

[Ericwm]

I will let you know a few months after I get it up and running. I'm gonna make my fuge to maximize it's size and because I like a good project but I'm not expecting to start on it for a whole, I need to get some plans and finances worked out first.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

I've kept them. For me they were to slow growing to be used as much more than decoration. They aren't the easiest plant to keep either. If you're looking for a plant to be a good place for copepods to live and breed they should be just fine. If you're looking for a plant to help with excess nutrient absorption another type would be better.

 

[Ericwm]

Well I do want it mostly to look good and harbor pods but removing excess nutrients would be nice. Any suggestions?

 

[danbstrong]

Well I do want it mostly to look good and harbor pods but removing excess nutrients would be nice. Any suggestions?

Shaving brush wont grow fast enough to remove nutrients most decorative macro is just that you need something like chaeto