24/7 refugium help

[judgedread]

hi guys im from Australia and have got a 24/7 fuge going on and the macro is booming and have noticed now i have turbo snails in amongst my macro and would like to know if any crittters i have like my turbo's and stuff will they be ok?

should i move em to my DT?
can i leave em in there with 24/7 lighting?

thanx in advance.

[billdogg]

they will be fine where they are, IMO

[reefscape15]

They will be ok in your fuge, but may disturb the sandbed somewhat. I keep 2 of the smaller Nassarius snails in my fuge and they've been fine. Im sure that they MAY get a few pods here and there, but theres enough to go around

[judgedread]

oh by the way did i mention they were little baby turbo's?

i just want to be sure the 24/7 photoperiod wont have any adverse effects on my turbo's.

thanx

[wab]

Its all good stuff.I have things in both my qt and my sump/refug.I got the stuff (snails star fish shrimps lol)in my qt by just putting cheato from my sump in their.

[judgedread]

Originally Posted by wab

Its all good stuff.I have things in both my qt and my sump/refug.I got the stuff (snails star fish shrimps lol)in my qt by just putting cheato from my sump in their.

hi

yeah but do you have your lights on 24/7?

as per the last post i made im not sure how your answer seems to fit my question.

[wab]

Yea, my light above my sump/refug are on 24/7 and also my qt.

[Aquarist007]

Originally Posted by judgedread

hi guys im from Australia and have got a 24/7 fuge going on and the macro is booming and have noticed now i have turbo snails in amongst my macro and would like to know if any crittters i have like my turbo's and stuff will they be ok?

should i move em to my DT?
can i leave em in there with 24/7 lighting?

thanx in advance.

lighting will not affect any critters in a refugium. I would wait till they are a bit larger and then transfer them to the DT
I have a gravity feed refugium back to the sump and have had problems before with snails crawling in the return line and backing up/overflowing the refugium.

sooner or later you will probably find that you have to reduce the lighting to about 16 hours in reverse to the lighting on the display tank.
after a couple of months the cheato might start looking a little washed out
Photosythetic plants do best with a dark time

Also you should be harvesting the macro once a week as this fully removes the nitrates and phosphates from your system and promotes further growth of it

[judgedread]

Originally Posted by capn_hylinur

lighting will not affect any critters in a refugium. I would wait till they are a bit larger and then transfer them to the DT
I have a gravity feed refugium back to the sump and have had problems before with snails crawling in the return line and backing up/overflowing the refugium.

sooner or later you will probably find that you have to reduce the lighting to about 16 hours in reverse to the lighting on the display tank.
after a couple of months the cheato might start looking a little washed out
Photosythetic plants do best with a dark time

Also you should be harvesting the macro once a week as this fully removes the nitrates and phosphates from your system and promotes further growth of it

thanx bro for your time

ok i got the type of macro that has long runners and blade type leaves and another with rounder close together leaves and am wondering how harvesting it increases the removal of nitrates and phosphates?
the area in growing it in is about 3/4 full so shouldnt i wait tilll it gets to the top?

i thought the more you have growing the more export of nutrients???

the reason i have 24/7 lighting is because of the type of macro and i dont want it to go sexual on me and foul my system.

if i cut back to 16-18 hours with the less light even though normally it wouldnt go sexual on those hours in the first place,im worried because ive had it 24/7 it may have the same effect as dropping lighting from 16 hours to say 12hours and have it go sexual lol.

what should i do ???

thanx in advance.

[reefscape15]

Keeping the algae trimmed will keep it growing. It's when algae is growing that it removes nutrients like it's supposed to. If you don't trim it, it will grow as big as the container that it's in and then substantially slow down the rate of growth, therefor exporting less nutrients. Hope that make sense to you!

[Aquarist007]

Originally Posted by judgedread

thanx bro for your time

ok i got the type of macro that has long runners and blade type leaves and another with rounder close together leaves and am wondering how harvesting it increases the removal of nitrates and phosphates?
the area in growing it in is about 3/4 full so shouldnt i wait tilll it gets to the top?

i thought the more you have growing the more export of nutrients???

the reason i have 24/7 lighting is because of the type of macro and i dont want it to go sexual on me and foul my system.

if i cut back to 16-18 hours with the less light even though normally it wouldnt go sexual on those hours in the first place,im worried because ive had it 24/7 it may have the same effect as dropping lighting from 16 hours to say 12hours and have it go sexual lol.

what should i do ???

thanx in advance.

It sounds like you have caulerpa algae that can go sexual if you stop your existing lighting at this point.
I would remove the bulk of that algae and replace it with cheato. Chaeto very rarely has the problem of going sexual do to changes in lighting.

It's not the more macro you have rather the rate of growth that makes a difference on uptake of nitrates and phosphates. This is why you harvest it regularily and when you harvest it --ripp the ends apart. An injured plant will increase its growth rate to heal the damage. Dosing iron will also help in the growth rate of macro algae.

But you are correct---do not do anything until you change out the caulerpa algae.

[judgedread]

ok thanx gotcha mate

thanx for your advise champion.