Live rock, low flow, nitrate factory?

I have about 10lbs of LR in my fuge and my fuge has slow flow through it. My macro does well but the live rock is covered w/ nasty algae/diatom growth but none in my DT. Is this just a nitrate factory or is it actually beneficial in any way even with the slow flow and no water movement besides the overflow and return?

 

Bump!

 

Most people put Chaeto in the fuge to handle the nitrate. The slow flow allows the nitrate to be absorbed by the Chaeto.

 

IMO, the flow doesnt really matter b/c I have a fast flow through my refug. and I have 0 No3 and I also have red slime. I also dont like keeping LR in the refug. I just keep Cheato and Mangroves in there. Just my 2 cents.



Luna

 

Yea, i got plenty of chaeto, does fine, jus hooked up some 3reef members w some baseball size trimmings. I took the live rock out the fuge and just stuck it in the display, my DT is FULL of rock. I placed the pieces near the hob skimmer and gave em a turkey baster dusting. Hopefully mu CUC will get to it and it will be fine in no time and not cause any problems w/ the DT. I found a couple aiptasia while rearranging rock too and was able to kill them. All I have in my fuge now are the chaeto, gracilaria red and couple very small pieces of LR and one hitchiker nuisance snail that lives in there alone.

 

+1 to what Luna is saying. 0 No3 here as well with Cheato and mangroves in fuge. I also have red slime in the fuge and not in the display.

 

My nitrates were also on the high side so I think they may have been the reason.

 

Thanks for this thread... I am moving the LR in my refuge into the DT now.

M

 

I dont know if this is related to me moving the rocks to the tank but I placed them near the hob skimmer and where my clown pair hangs out. They are a 3yr old, decent sized pair. I noticed two things today, after rearranging some rocks and stuff, the clowns seem to have decided to host a colony of mushroom coral which is quite cool but the other thing is that they have been breathing fairly rapidly and one had some stringy white poop. I was sugar dosing but did not today and did a 10% water change as well. They seem to be acting just fine, one of them, the smaller of the pair is swimming in the koralia current at the moment but they would not eat anything when I fed this morning. I also found an explosion of pods in the DT on the front glass when the lights came on in the morning, but im sure that from the rocks being brought in to the DT. I guess I dont know what im asking exactly, just concerned ofcourse and hoping they get better soon.