HA in refugium

[ReeferRyan]

I read through the first two pages of this forum and didn't find an answer to my question, so if this has been answered previously I apologize...

I have recently noticed hair algae growing in my refugium. Is this a major problem? I have no HA in my display, but it is all over the walls of my fuge. Could this be why my chaeto is not growing also?

 

[graveyardworm]

It happens, not a huge issue as long as it doesnt get out of control or compete to heavily with more preferable macros. Which may be whats happening in your case. If I remember correctly the large turbo snails eat it. I keep a cleanup crew ( no hermits ) in my fuge to help control nuisance algae.

 

[ReeferRyan]

I hadn't really thought about snails in the refugium. I have a cleaner clam in there, but it obviously won't do me much good on the walls. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[pham411]

i have the same problem with my sump also ryan. the ha took over everything. my dense ball of chaeto was engulfed with ha so i finally removed alot of it by hand try and eliminate as much of it as i could.
my phos and nitrates are undetectable. i dont understand y there is ha growing.

 

[graveyardworm]

The reason tho PO4 and NO3 are undetectable is because the HA and cheato are binding it as soon as they come in contact, and it sounds as though the cheato is being out competed by the faster growing HA. A faster growing macro may help. Keep the HA down with regular pruning/siphoning, and add some herbivors. I believe the big turbos eat it and the lawnmower blenny may eat it. Dosing iron may help the cheato out compete the HA also. See dosing iron , and here

 

[ReeferRyan]

I completely cleaned out my refugium and my chaeto literally took off. It has grown more in the past four days than in the past two months combined. Since removing the HA (along with a lot of diatoms) from the fuge, my PO4 have actually gone down even though I really expected them to spike.