cyno in refugium

[Bugsy_Barboza]

Had a small area of cyno on my sand bed. I was feeding twice a day, cut down to once a day and no algae anyway in tank... But my refugium now has some cyno in it? I have Fiji miracle mud, chaeto, and 2 mangroves in there. Run my light 24hrs a day. What could be causing this?

 

[cloak]

Lack of flow perhaps?

 

[MacPhisto]

Too many light hours? I would create a 'night' of 8 hours for refugium during daytime.

 

[Salty Cracker]

I agree on the lights and water flow. I started to have a little build up in mine and cranked up the flow.

 

[steve2003]

I like to run my tank lights during day and when they go out my refugium lights kick on.

 

[CStrickland]

I'm kinda surprised this doesn't happen a lot more. We always hear flow, light, phosphates, for cyano; so a fuge seems like a really great place to grow it with the water slowing down (relative to the dt) so crud can settle out and the grow light running.

I've heard running opposite night / day schedules for the fuge and the dt can help stabilize ph too. For flow I think the water is supposed to be moving around enough to "tumble" your chaeto, so if it's just hanging there it's too slow.

 

[ca1ore]

Cyano doesn't need much in the way of nutrients to grow. I routinely have some small patches in my refugium and just don't worry about it. If you plan to worry, then just up the flow as others have suggested.

 

[Nina51]

i had this problem till i put a small power head in my sump, middle compartment where the chaeto is. problem solved.