BC29: Chaeto failing; time for a skimmer?

[acronce]

tl;dr:

 

After adding fish to a mature tank the chaeto appears to be failing and I'm getting wispy weblike algae in the display area. The sponges and filters fill with crap quickly. Water parameters seem normal.

 

I'm thinking about replacing the refugium with a skimmer.

 

Details:

 

I took a break from fish for a while in our BC29 (original Oceanic with the hood) after we had a series of unfortunate events (including a die off during vacation). For a long while all we had was some corrals, peppermint shrimp, and an emerald crab. Note that the tank is coming up on 4 years old now.

 

A few months ago we took the plunge again, adding 4 fish at once. Things are going well, but the increased bio load and feeding have definitely affected the tank.

 

The oddest thing is that I'm seeing much slower growth from the chaeto refugium (which I have in chamber 2, lit with JBJ Nano-Glo LED fugue light). I used to have robust chaeto growth, requiring removal of a handful a week of strong, deep green chaeto.

 

The current chaeto looks kind of sickly and yellowy whitish. There's also some light brown crap building up on it. There were times in the past where I would see lighter spots where the LED had kind of burned round areas in the chaeto, which I avoided by moving flipping the chaeto around. But what's happening now is most of the chaeto is lighter than expected and unhealthy looking.

 

Note that I've checked that the LED is providing tons of light for the chaeto. I could probably clean the glass and media basket in the refugium, but I don't think that the build up there is preventing light from getting in.

 

In conjunction with this seeming failure of the chaeto to thrive, I'm seeing a web like algae in the display tank. It's wispy (not like hair algae), and it's more brown than green. To try to deal with it, I got a turbo snail (to augment the remaining cleanup crew), and I periodically blast the rocks with a turkey baster. I've got an MP10, so sometimes I set it to 70% nutrient export to help remove the crap that I blast off the rocks. But it always comes back.

 

I usually scrape the glass once every two weeks, when we do a 20% water change. But if I wait that long to scrape nowadays, there's a fair amount of build up on the glass.

 

In addition to this, I've finding that my filter floss gunks up really fast now. Before adding the fish and the additional feeding, I'd only have to change out the filter pads a couple of times a week. Now I barely get a day before there's standing water on the pads. Note that I typically use two filter pads in a media basket (from inTank) with a flow diverter dumping on the pads.

 

Lastly, the sponge that I have in the Hydor Seltz L30 return pump quickly clogs up, sometimes affecting flow. I've had to pull the power head out and clean it and the sponge twice a week (when we do the water change). Before adding the fish and feeding, I could go for months without this maintenance. I would think about permanently removing the sponge, except I've had the pump seize up when a snail got in there and jammed it.

 

I guess I'm not surprised that the additional bio load and feeding has resulted in the filter pads clogging. But I'm concerned about why the chaeto isn't thriving more in what is now a higher nutrient environment, and I really hate the web algae in the display tank.

 

I'm starting to think that I should consider bailing on the chaeto an moving to a skimmer (probably a Tunze DOC 9001). I'd prefer this to more frequent water changes.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Best,

--

Allen Cronce

[limpert]

I prefer low tech. Was running a skimmer previously on my nano although i found it was more maintenance than i cared to perform. I would ensure your alkalinity isn't too low. Also, what are you using for flow? More flow typically helps from buildup on the rocks and it keeps detritus suspended so it can get back there where the filter floss and chaeto is. The other option is to consider a different algae like grape caulerpa lit 24/7

 

• Skimmer cup needs to be cleaned
• Water level has to be consistent
• Skimmer body has to be cleaned and will perform differently depending on how clean or dirty it is
• Some argue they remove essential elements from the water

 

Here's some food for thought:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iSW_GPP9ac

[acronce]

I prefer low tech. Was running a skimmer previously on my nano although i found it was more maintenance than i cared to perform. I would ensure your alkalinity isn't too low. Also, what are you using for flow? More flow typically helps from buildup on the rocks and it keeps detritus suspended so it can get back there where the filter floss and chaeto is. The other option is to consider a different algae like grape caulerpa lit 24/7

 

• Skimmer cup needs to be cleaned
• Water level has to be consistent
• Skimmer body has to be cleaned and will perform differently depending on how clean or dirty it is
• Some argue they remove essential elements from the water

 

Here's some food for thought:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iSW_GPP9ac

 

Thanks for the feedback. I'm going to give the refugium another shot.

 

Today I found that the glass wall in the refugium chamber was pretty badly occluded with coralline. So I scraped that off and also cleaned the media basket.

 

Now when I turn on the LED fuge light, it's much brighter and less diffuse. Since the LED is bright anyway,I didn't realize how badly occluded it was before cleaning the chamber.

 

Here's hoping that actually maintaining the refugium chamber properly (which I should have been doing all along) helps with chaeto growth...

[limpert]

Hopefully now that the algae is getting better light it starts growing again. Good luck

[numb-n-stingy]

I have a biocube 29 with a aquaticlife 115 protein skimmer. I have been considering setting up a refugium with the same jbj light. I am very interested in what kind of results you will get. Please keep us posted.

[acronce]

The cyano bacteria problem is gone! Also, some nuisance algae that I was also struggling with is gone or on the way out.

 

It took a while, but after cleaning the refugium chamber the increased light has completely restored the chaeto to its former glory. It's growing like crazy and looks much healthier than before. My assumption is that the chaeto's increased growth has made it a real competitor for nutrient consumption, forcing out the other nuisance consumers.

 

Note that I really didn't make any other changes to the tank (other than hitting the live rock with a turkey baster once in a while), so I'm pretty sure that restoring the refugium's health made the difference.

 

I'm glad I stuck with the refugium instead of going with a skimmer. The moral of the story is to maintain the refugium chamber and make sure that the chaeto gets plenty of light.