Fuge/Algae Reactor -- reverse photoperiod, or 24/7?

[kinetic]

I'm currently on a reverse photo period with my algae reactor, and my chaeto is finally growing (the key seemed to be maturity of the tank + dosing Brightwell Chaetogro). I want the reactor to ultimately outcompete display tank algae (just some fuzzy stuff on the sand and snail shells) on the regular, so getting my chaeto growing more with possibly a longer photo period might work? So curious to see what you have seen in terms of photo periods and competing with display tank algae.

My questions:
1. What schedule do you run your refugium or algae reactor lights? And why?
2. Will longer photo periods actually grow chaeto faster, or does it need some dark time?
3. I'm under the assumption that the more chaeto you have, the more it will compete for nutrients, thus if you can make it grow faster, it'll compound as the amount grows inside a reactor or fuge and outcompete other algae.

 

[rygh]

From old ATS discussions on photoperiod:
24/7 will kill algae (I have never tried)
Running 8-on / 4-off / 8-on / 4-off over a 24 hour cycle is supposedly ideal. (I tried that, and did not notice a difference)
I simply run mine: Turns ON at 8:00PM. Turns OFF at 9:00AM

What I found:

Tuning cleaning matters:
Too little cleaning means algae underneath gets blocked from light and dies.
Too much cleaning means there is not enough algae growing at one time.

Quality of light matters:
Lots of red, with a bit of blue. High intensity.

Flow matters:
Maximum water flow you can handle.
Partly for nutrient/CO2 flow. But also to keep other crud from attaching.

 

[iani]

Anyone here that doesn't run one? I am debating if I will need to. My nutrients are pretty low, even with heavy feeding.

 

[Da_Neefer]

I have a a FW AI Prime over my fuge and run it max reds, greens, 70ish percent whites, and low blues 10pm to 9am. Bottom 3rd of the fuge is full of chaeto. Maybe 3 gallon ziploc bags worth if i packed it tightly. Opposite photoperiod works well considering the CO2 produced by livestock at night is consumed by the algae thus keeping ph higher. A staggered photo period like is described by @rygh will work but I don't really see the need or a benefit for it.

I was reading something a week or 2 ago that it's beneficial to discharge the effluent from your CO2 reactor directly into the fuge to promote algae growth as it's saturated with a good amount of CO2 that could be consumed by the chaeto. At least to some degree prior to entering the DT. I'm contemplating trying that to see what happens.

One of the things that surprised me with the fuge and it's decidedly freshwater light is the amount of coralline growth in the fuge.Much more than i thought.

 

[Jonathan Chia]

Anyone here that doesn't run one? I am debating if I will need to. My nutrients are pretty low, even with heavy feeding.

I used to run one but took it off line because it started dying. I use NoPox and GFO now for nutrient control

 

[Chromis]

Anyone here that doesn't run one? I am debating if I will need to. My nutrients are pretty low, even with heavy feeding.

If your nutrients are low, the macro algae refugium will just be an added nuisance, maintenance sink and pest incubator. I also think the argument that refugiums help the pod count is silly given that there is far more surface area for pods to hide in a display than a sump.

 

[rygh]

Anyone here that doesn't run one? I am debating if I will need to. My nutrients are pretty low, even with heavy feeding.

Do not fix what is not broken!

Opinion:
What really matters is your fish/coral ratio.
Corals eat a surprising amount, and do not pollute as much as fish.
So heavy feeding in a coral centric tank can be just fine.

If you have a lot of corals and just a few fish:
Just put some extra live rock to your sump. No lights.
If you still have a minor nuisance algae, get another herbivore and more snails.

If you have a lot of big fish:
Algae scrubbing (ATS or chaeto fuge) can be very helpful.

 

[iani]

I have a Kessil h380 grow light over my sump that has yet to be turned on. I won't do it until I have nutrient issues.

 

[kinetic]

I have a Kessil h380 grow light over my sump that has yet to be turned on. I won't do it until I have nutrient issues.

Yeah, like what @rygh says, don't add it unless you think there's a big need. I built out a huge algae reactor early on and it did nothing but kill chaeto. My current try is to outcompete the algae that's been plaguing my sandbed. The snails/hermits take care of any algae on the rock, and it's easy to scrape the glass.

The past week+ that I've been running the algae reactor I haven't seen nearly as much algae on the glass nor the sandbed. So I think it's working? The chaeto is starting to grow. I'm crossing my fingers this will be helpful.

 

[svreef]

I've been battling GHA and I think I'm finally starting to win.

For a year, I've been reading relatively high nitrate (15-25) and very low phosphate (0.01 - 0.02) but my Chaeto has been growing and my GHA has been growing as well. Recently, I "decided" that my low phosphate readings were not real - that all the phosphate is being consumed by the Chaeto and the GHA as fast as it is being produced. So, I manually removed as much GHA as I could and added some PhosGuard to the sump at the same time. In a week, my GHA problems were gone. PhosGuard removes phosphates very quickly. Now, I'm removing the PhosGuard and replacing it with GFO, to keep phosphate down. The Chaeto has been suffering a little, but it is still growing. I consider this a good sign. It implies that there is just enough Phosphate for the Chaeto to survive, but not enough for the GHA to thrive.

So far, corals seems unaffected but it is too early to tell what this will do to them.

 

[Vhuang168]

I have a Kessil h380 grow light over my sump that has yet to be turned on. I won't do it until I have nutrient issues.

By the time you have nutrient 'issues', it's too late. That usually means you already have algae in the DT and you've finally noticed it.

 

[iani]

By the time you have nutrient 'issues', it's too late. That usually means you already have algae in the DT and you've finally noticed it.

True, I do have some diatoms and some cyano right now. But its the typical new tank cycle. When I measured Nitrates it was very low between 5 and 0 closer to zero. Phosphates below 0.03. Recently seeded the tank with a bunch of coraline algae, hopefully that will take hold quickly.

 

[iani]

Yeah, like what @rygh says, don't add it unless you think there's a big need. I built out a huge algae reactor early on and it did nothing but kill chaeto. My current try is to outcompete the algae that's been plaguing my sandbed. The snails/hermits take care of any algae on the rock, and it's easy to scrape the glass.

The past week+ that I've been running the algae reactor I haven't seen nearly as much algae on the glass nor the sandbed. So I think it's working? The chaeto is starting to grow. I'm crossing my fingers this will be helpful.

Let me know how it goes.