Cleaning refugium

So my fuge is getting pretty nasty. Lots of hair algae growing from the sand and on all the walls. Should I clean it up? Or just leave it be. MY chaeto still grows real well. I cut it back every couple weeks. Now I notice some algae floating on the top of the water. Should I use a little more flow? It is very low flow right now

 

I know from reading in the past that fudges are to have a low water flow, but sounds like if algae is growing all over I would increase the flow a little more to get some more movement. maybe strain out the algae on top of the water but as for whats on the walls and stuff don't worry about that so much. but this is my guess I am not that sure myself

 

everybody says slow yea but i dont think it makes a difference in nutrient export, as the plants will export the same amount in fast flowing water and slow flowing water.
the only difference it would make is the pods may not be able to breed there as much
i would turn up the flow if your getting hair algae

 

I would leave it alone. If hair algae is growing in your fuge and not in your tank, it's doing its job. If it ain't broken, don't fix it.

 

+1 on above..

 

hmm...im kind of having the same problem...little algae in the fuge, but nothing in the DT...i use the clip on light, with a 6500k bulb...

i have a moderate flow in the top of the refugium...but its pretty slow middle to bottom...

 

Look a fuge is supposed to be fuguly! Ours looks like a green swamp I would hesitate to put my hands in there. I fought bryopsis Penneta for over a yr was wiping out totally killed off some large and expensive SPS colonies I /we tried no lights and every algae killer treatment on the net and every sort of animal nothing ate it.

As a last ditch effort and never having lost any aquarium battle /problem I decided to add a new Ushio 10K 175 lamp to the fuge and run it 24/7 and stripped a few fulls of the algae from the infested main 180 and seed the fuge . slowed the flows and added a heater to keep the fuge at 80F main system was at 78f. Added a fine mesh 1 micron bag to the fuges outlet and it totally wiped out Bryopsis from the main tank.

Now its nasty in there but other algea are making a come back pods/worms are showing up I have snails breeding like crazy and there where 4 lettuce nudibranchs and they are breeding like crazy in there. I had to take in a long spine black Urchin he is in there now he needed a home fast ..

Thats is what a fuge is for to grow stuff you would not want in you main tank. I have gone back to a 12 hr reverse photo period and all is well its a 20H and its covered from top to bottom sand with every algae there is But as I said the main tank is totally algae free and its a 90 now not a 180