Nasty refug!!

I have a 20L tank as my refug/sump/skimmer, the refug is nasty, it has purple dark colored algae growing in it all over . It is on the heater, the pipe bringing the water in, growing up from the sand. I have some rubble in there and a small ball of cheato, and five (two i think are dead) Red mangroves in as well. The light is on for 12 hours from 7pm at night to 7 am, then the DT lights come on. What can I do to get rid of this, or is this ok to have?? Can I put some kind of algea eater in there?? Thanks

 

Its just doing its job, the refugium isnt meant to be pretty. Along with your chaeto those other growths are just consuming unwanted nutrients and helping control the stuff from being in your display.

 

I would juist leave it alone and let it do it's job. I have all sorts of weird stuff growing in mine and whatever it is keeps my DT pristine

 

Hey, arsoncop! Welcome to 3reef! As others have stated, a fuge is built among other reasons to house algae to compete with nuisance algae that would otherwise have full reign of the display tank. Although macro algae is the usual algae of choice for those who deliberately house a fuge with algae--other algae can serve the same purpose.

Considering that the ugly algae in your fuge could be in your DT, unless you have specific reason to not keep such growth alive, I'd let it ride.

Have you considered a phosphate reactor? Where do your nitrates test? Do you have lots of live rock?

 

+1 to what everyone else said. my fuge is nasty too! should be like that. Cyano used to pop up in mine every now and again when ididnt have so much macro algae