Algea/Refugium Question

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joshinjosh

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Joined
Jan 25, 2005
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Bellevue
its it a good idea to grow hair algea in a refugium? becuase i got this huge clump of hair algea (kinda looks like maiden's hair) that grew from one of my live rocks. will it spread if i was to use it in a refugium on another tank?

josh
 
Not sure man...Never really heard of people keeping hair algae in a fuge, but I don't seem to hear much these days:p I would think to an extent, it should be a great nutrient exporter as it is usually one of the first algaes to grow in a tank, but still not sure...Best of luck man finding out:)
 
Hi there

It could spread, it's hard to say...IME most microalgae problems in the main tank have a lot to do with proximity...UV sterilization would however be a good way to keep this to a minimum. As for nutrient uptake, hair algae is going to be just like a macroalgae in that respect. It will uptake nutrients and you can export them from your system by harvesting it.

MikeS
 
I would make every effort to prevent it from growing in there. If you try to make it a harvestable nutrient sink, harvesting it will cause it to leach back toxins. Also, it WILL contaminate the main display, UV sterilizers are very puny against algae cells, and it would also cause fauna in the water returning from the fuge to be killed, which would be really lame.

Remember, algaes do things to the water to make the water suited for there own type of algae to thrive ONLY. This is very bad news if you arent trying to have a hair algae display tank.

There are simply better options for an algae nutrient export that work. I would kill off that hair algae patch pronto by anymeans nessicary.
 

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