How to maintain a HOB refugium?

[Butchy21]

So I recently added a modded out aquacler 70 as a HOB refugium.  It has been going well for about 6 weeks- Ive had a ton of growth on the Cheato that I added, thinning the ball 2-3x so far.  I have just rock rubble and the macro algae In the large compartment and a bag of chemi pure elite in the smaller compartment that is separated by a baffle.  I have a grow LED light attached to the back of the filter so it is a completely closed system with no light bleed into the display.

 

My question is- how do you keep the Chaeto healthy?  I’ve been having some of the algae turn slimey.  Does this mean the algae is getting too much light, or it just needs to be trimmed sooner?  The ball of algae doesn’t rotate by itself so I flip it around every few days.  Secondly, I’m getting a ton of hair algae growing on the inside of the fuge and the rubble (which impedes the light source). I went in and scraped it all off today to make sure the Chaeto keeps getting sufficient light but this seems like a lot of work that will have to be done all too often.  I just added two snails in there today to help with curbing the algae growth.

 

What is your fuge maintenance schedule like?

 

 

[Subsea]

Is your refugium to recycle nutrients and feed tank live food or is it for nutrient export?  

 

Harvest more frequent for nutrient export.  Pruning  helps to maintain “healthy algae”.  

 

With your beautiful tank, I would not worry about nutrient export.  I would want to maximize live food for hungry filter feeders.    

I would focus on using this compartment as a zooplankton generator for production of amphipods & copepods.  Leave light as is, remove chaeto and add more rubble.  Light will grow biofilm to feed pods.

[Butchy21]

2 hours ago, Subsea said:

Is your refugium to recycle nutrients and feed tank live food or is it for nutrient export?  

 

Harvest more frequent for nutrient export.  Pruning  helps to maintain “healthy algae”.  

 

With your beautiful tank, I would not worry about nutrient export.  I would want to maximize live food for hungry filter feeders.    

I would focus on using this compartment as a zooplankton generator for production of amphipods & copepods.  Leave light as is, remove chaeto and add more rubble.  Light will grow biofilm to feed pods.

I was initially planning to use it for a little of both-nutrient export and pods but that may make it mediocre at both. 

 

I’ve been having some of my substrate start growing algae and it’s driving me nuts since I’ve been very much ahead on my water changes. I was hoping the fuge could help get and keep the sand bed under control.  My vacuum broke awhile back and i didn’t replace it for far too long- I think once I started vacuuming again it released a lot of nutrients into the water column and it’s been a slow burn getting it back to free and clear. 

 

As for getting a pod population going-when I unplug the filter, the majority of the water empties out into the tank. I’m not sure how to prevent this since I wouldn’t want to completely disturb the population during cleaning. 

[Subsea]

You might loose some pods to tank when filter is turned off.  The majority of pods will attach to surfaces and stay in box.  

 

IMO, you will get mediocre results trying both.  For substrate algae maintenance,  vacume substrate, that is where the problem is.  The problem is not in the water column.  Your algae refugium will remove nutrients from the water column, but not the substrate.

[Butchy21]

4 minutes ago, Subsea said:

You might loose some pods to tank when filter is turned off.  The majority of pods will attach to surfaces and stay in box.  

 

IMO, you will get mediocre results trying both.  For substrate algae maintenance,  vacume substrate, that is where the problem is.  The problem is not in the water column.  Your algae refugium will remove nutrients from the water column, but not the substrate.

Ya I’ve been vacuuming pretty hardcore the last few weeks and I can tell the sand bed is cleaning up nicely. There are a few places that I just can’t get to but it is what it is. 

 

Ah good to hear about the pods sticking to surfaces- I’ve never had any really.  I was thinking the majority would flow out.  So basically you just buy one bottle of live pods to get the colony going?

[Subsea]

Yes.  AlgaeBarn cultivates three differrent species.  Best to turn HOB off for a few minutes to allow pods to attach before restarting filter.  Also, I suggest  you do this with DT lights off to allow any escaped juvenile pods  to hide in display tank before predatation during daytime.

 

https://www.algaebarn.com/a-closer-look-at-the-cyclopoid-copepod-apocyclops-panamensis/

I recommend this species over Tibsee and Tiger californicious

 

 

 

 

[Butchy21]

12 hours ago, Subsea said:

Yes.  AlgaeBarn cultivates three differrent species.  Best to turn HOB off for a few minutes to allow pods to attach before restarting filter.  Also, I suggest  you do this with DT lights off to allow any escaped juvenile pods  to hide in display tank before predatation during daytime.

 

https://www.algaebarn.com/a-closer-look-at-the-cyclopoid-copepod-apocyclops-panamensis/

I recommend this species over Tibsee and Tiger californicious

 

 

 

 

Awesome, thanks for the info!  I will put it on the checklist of things to do ha.