Green Algae

[cameron]

I have been going over this for the last few weeks. One of my overflows is loaded with stuff (why one overflow and not the other, no idea). I have no signs of it in my tank and unless I pull some out of the overflow you would never know it is there. Now to the question. Should I remove it? It isn't unsightly as it can't be seen. It is a pod factory as an inch of the stuff has pods jumping out in all directions. It hasn't grown past the overflow. Lastly, it is sucking up nitrates and phosphates while returning oxygen. It's reproduction "pods" are probably even feeding a host of beneficial organisms in my tank.

I do have a few worries. One, it will eventually clog up my overflows (I have two and one is clear right now). Two, is that I am sitting on a time bomb and if I overfeed a bit too much one day it will explode all over my tank. Three if I remove it from the overflow and block the light into the overflow it will probably just move somewhere else such as the main tank.

Plan A is to leave it alone.
Plan B remove small amounts from the overflow but leave it intact
Plan C add a fuge with more friendly algae, and clean out the overflows

I already run GFO and carbon changed bi-weekly and RO/DI is the only water my tank has ever seen. An enormous UV is going on the tank soon. I am not a huge UV believer, but after the ick outbreaks I have seen people going through lately I am running one as a precaution which should help with the reproduction of algae as well. Lastly, sooner or later I am going to finally hook up a skimmer that is way big for my system.

I do nuke the tank with food once a week with my reef chili blend, but my corals are growing like mad and I believe this is the reason.

I think one of the reasons my params stay so low is this stuff is keeping it in check. I think it is managed in the overflow as I have TONS of snails in the main. I grow nassarius snails at an alarming rate and have at least one hatching since I got into the new tank (and that is a messy cloudy thing... I got baby snails... lots of them).

Thoughts, comments suggestions?

 

[showtime305]

<span style="color: black;">I would go with C. If you remove it before adding another source of nutrient reduction, it will be back in the same place or another location that it unsightly. Adding the refugium with macro will be great and that alone should help reduce the algae in the overflow without you having to remove it. This would actually be a great experiment if you are willing to give it a try. I'm curious to know how effective macro algae are against absorbing nutrients over micro algae.</span>

 

[xyzpdq0121]

I Say A or C... I would be interested in IDing the algae you got in there (I did not take a look at it) and see how much of a problem it could be. You know I am all for you getting a fuge but right now, you Mandrin is still alive and is going to need pods and this place is a pod farm so.....

 

[george]

Free refugium. I'd say unless you want to set up a fuge (and they are very cool to watch), leave it be unless it becomes a problem.

 

[jessezm]

In one tank where I have that phenomenon, I just yank it out every other week and drop it in the main tank, where the tangs, angel, rabbitfish devour it.

 

[cameron]

I'll see if my tang will eat it... good idea.

 

[glxtrix]

whew, make sure you have that lil experiment controlled cameron, you dont want to go throwing that in there and your tang not eat it up, now you have that algea in your display. Maybe thats me being super cautious, but if you have that growing like mad in one place, it will def do it in another if it gets seeded properly. My suggestion would to add a fuge or do some trimming on that section to keep it in control.