help, air bubbles in refuge algae?

[Brent Thomann]

I have some nuisance algae (red slime, hair algae) that keeps re-appearing mostly in my refuge. It seems to be starving my chateo from nutrients too. The chaeto hasn't been growing nearly as fast but the other crap algae grows overnight.

The only thing different that I notice is lots of air bubbles appearing in all the algae in refuge, not nearly as much in the chaeto?

Thanks for any help on this. I'd really like to get rid of this algae for good.

 

[Nanook]

Try bumping up the flow on the fuge and that should do the trick.

 

[Brent Thomann]

hi dave, thanks for your respond. bump up the flow through it or just in it? Right now I have about 250gph going through it.

I did have two power heads in there up until recently and the algae/bubbles was much greater in the areas of more flow. I since took them both out and it hasn't been as bad. Let me add that the first 2 years I didn't have this issue. Only the past 4 months or so I started to notice the algea bloom and my chateo's slow growth.

here's picture of my setup from several months ago, all tanks are connected. You can see one of the power heads I had in the refuge, also had one on the opposite side.

 

[coralnut99]

I agree that 250gph isn't enough flow through the fuge. You really shouldn't need powerheads in a fuge unless your design caused dead spots. The bubbles you're seeing are most probably the product of gasses being trapped beneath the carpet of cyano. The other possibility is simply microbubbles entering the fuge. Chaeto can trap microbubbles simply as a result of its' density. I have the problem over time also, but trimming it back usually shakes them loose. You could also try stepping up the light over the fuge a bit. Just keep in mind that cyano is a multi-cause issue which may include overfeeding, or some other tip in the system's balance.

 

[Nanook]

I meant bumping up the flow through it. Are the bulbs still good, or could they have shifted spectrum due to age? The other thing to keep in mind is that it is better to have that junk in the fuge versus the display, but more flow through it will allow the chaeto to grow and the nuisance algae will decrease.

 

[tmz]

Brent, you may wan't to take the sand out of the refugium. Over time, I always developed algae problems in tanks with macro over substrate and seem to do better with bare bottom . I think the substrate with little sifting becomes a nutrient sink.
I do shake off the chaeto once a week and siphon the bottom every two weeks or so.
If you wan't a dsb you could set it up separately.
The bubbles are probably oxygen from photosynthesis.

Increased flow sounds like a good idea to move dom and detrius around and to improve gas exchange.

I still get bits and pieces of bryopsis and derbasia in certain tanks and a tinge or two of cyanobacteria. I hate it. Surprisingly, I've got more than expected in the new tank even though it is integrated and the rock was in the system for over a year. I did use new sand though so maybe a mini cycle of sorts.I can probably make it go away with vodka dosing but then my xenia would wane and others such as the squamosa clam might suffer from overly agressive nutrient removal.Wouldn't that be weird dosing carbon(ethanol) to encourage bacterial growth in the water column and then killing them with uv. Maybe not an issue as long as they got to eat first since the skimmer can take out a dead bacterium as well as a live one.

 

[Brent Thomann]

great info guys. thank you.

I will try getting a bigger pump and remove the sand.