ok . have a 36g corner tank set up with a sump/fuge under it .. i am having crazy nitrate problems (not this question) .. i set up the fuge with some red macro and cheato algea about 4 weeks ago and have seen 0 growth , its not dieing , but its not growing either .. i run a current dual 9watt light set with 10k&14k bulb at night and a 420$460 atinic during the day . my tank has a 150watt mh 14k light on during the day and just blue lunar lights at night. i am thinking my problem could either be to mush flow over the fuge area or wrong lights. ... any help?
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could this be my problem ?
- Thread starter rmorin
- Start date
Placing live rock in a sump, especially when it's out of the water is counterproductive. If effect, you are using it the same way as bio balls would be used in a typical wet/dry trickle filter.
What is occuring is that the bio-media, be it live rock or bio balls rappidly converts ammonia to nitrite to nitrate. In fact, it's too efficient. This is at least part of the reason you have high nitrates. It is also part of the reason your macro algae isn't growing. Algae prefers to consume ammonia, if it's available, then nitrate.
The solution is, over a period of weeks, to move your live rock to your main tank, and use only mechanical filtration in it's place.
I would also recommend using a lot more light in the refugium. Usually you'd run he light so that it's off when the main tank lighting is on. However, to put a dent in your nitrate problem, you could start off by running the light 24 hours a day.
You don't show a skimmer on the system. If you don't have one, you should consider one.
What is occuring is that the bio-media, be it live rock or bio balls rappidly converts ammonia to nitrite to nitrate. In fact, it's too efficient. This is at least part of the reason you have high nitrates. It is also part of the reason your macro algae isn't growing. Algae prefers to consume ammonia, if it's available, then nitrate.
The solution is, over a period of weeks, to move your live rock to your main tank, and use only mechanical filtration in it's place.
I would also recommend using a lot more light in the refugium. Usually you'd run he light so that it's off when the main tank lighting is on. However, to put a dent in your nitrate problem, you could start off by running the light 24 hours a day.
You don't show a skimmer on the system. If you don't have one, you should consider one.
what He said
You can use a really cheap clip-on lamp with a compact flourescent flood light bulb. It's really a CF twist in a floodlight shell. Won't sent you back much more tha $10 or so.