refugium micro & turf algae

[serpentman]

I have a lot of hair algae as well as red turf algae growing in my 55g refugium. So far, the main display which is 4 mo old is crystal clear. I am not as concerned about the hair algae as I am the turf algae. I have read that in similar circumstances, others have done what I am currently doing...nothing and them BAM, they have massive amts of turf algae in their main tank. Any suggestions on what I should do?

Also, what kind of flow is recommended in (no through) the refugium? I am concerned that I may need a PH in the refugium as I have very little, if not any, turbidity.

 

[bertoni]

You could try to crowd out the turf and hair algae by growing a macroalga like Chaetomorpha and do some hand-harvesting of the pests. The powerhead might be useful. I have one in my refugium.

 

[Dag]

that's what happened to me. Notwithstanding my refugium, the turf suddenly took over the display after 3 years of no algae in the display.

 

[Dag]

Here are pictures of my problem:

 

[Dag]

I thought it might encourage some of you to see an update 4 mos later. I was ready to give up the tank. See this now:

I don't really know what caused the recovery. I manually removed the bryopsis week after week, and then suddenly the growth slowed.

I had a refugium before this outbreak of bryopsis. But for some reason the macroalgae (caulerpa) stopped growing in it.

I added another refugium. For this one, I filtered the water through a Magnum 350 with charcoal. That refugium is filled with macroalgae now. So maybe it was an alleopathy thing.

Or perhaps, it just went though its cycle. At various times I have had halimeda flourishing, then it was xenia (green), then it was xenia (pink), then it was cyano, etc.

 

[UrbanSage]

The beauty of reefing eh