Chaeto, Sump, Refugium Questions

[Mr Neon]

What if anything can someone tell me about a successful refuigum with cheato? I have had many versions with my tank but I never been able to keep it going let alone keep algae out of my main tank. It seems the sump/refugium portion would always get loaded with slim, algae, and stuff that I thought was meant for to keep it out of the main tank but in the end it causes more problems all around. The cheato dies and the main tank gets algae build up and I have to start over.

I do regular water changes, skim, no dosing, and have good parameters. Is there something I may be missing?

Should a refugium be cleaned periodically to reduce the algae build-up?
I do not use mud, sand or any other type of substrate except basic live rock for my refugium with the chaeto. I was under the assumption that you leave a refiguim go no matter how dirty it may get as this was the reason behind the concept of having one...Maybe I am terribly wrong?

As of right now, I ditch the chaeto and just have live rock only. So far things have gotten better...

Thoughts???

 

[steveboo]

I am no expert but it sounds to me like you may not have enough flow going through the refugium area. I had a fuge on my 220 gallon reef and Ill I had to do was throw out the Excess cheato when it grew out to much.The point being the cheato uses your nitrates as food,lowering your nitrates when you pull some of it out.I never even had to do water changes between good skimming and the fuge and a lot of live rock in the tank. Hope this helps.
Steve

 

[Mr Neon]

Actually, I had excellent flow. I had flow from the main tank plus the return pump feeding the top and bottom of the fuge. So much that I had to ball valves to control it enough that it was turning the chaeto as oppsed to pushing out.

I still think it may have been excess waste build up from forms of algae growing in the fuge. It got pretty nasty in a matter of 6 months. The main tank was clear up until then and that is when things turned around and started going down hill.

I tried the mud/sand base only to have the same results. I am of the opinion that the fuge needs some form of cleaning periodically to keep it healthy.

Now, I am just doing live rock and a skimmer...see what happens.

 

[mc-cro]

I am of the same belief that there is no reason to refrain from cleaning it periodically. Yes, the cheato will suck up some nutrients, but you should still be exporting the sewage pile on occassion.

I prefer to keep the tank clean, my sump is only live rock rubble in baskets, and a skimmer.

In this pic, I did have a light over it temporarily as a holding place for some corals.