I have a 120 gal FOWLR tank with a 15 gallon refugium that I just set up a month ago. The live rock that I got from my lfs must have been very well cured because I the only thing I could ever detect was a slow rise in Nitrates when I added a deli shrimp to cycle the tank. I had to leave town due to work after only two weeks of having the live rock in, and expected to have a diatom or algae bloom in my tank when I got back(two weeks later). The refugium has a 26W 6500K fluorescent floodlight bulb from Lowe's that is on from 9pm to 11am, and the display has 2 t5 bulbs (actinic and 10000k) that is on from 12pm to 8pm. When I left town the tank had a nitrate level between 5 and 10ppm, with ammonia and nitrites at 0.
Anyway, my question is why does my refugium have a lot of algae growing on the sides and bottom (both green and red in color), along with a fist size ball of chaeto that has grown some in size. While the display looks great and has only a little bit of what I think is brown diatoms on the sand surface and rock and nothing on the glass. I'm obviously not complaining, I just want to know why the algae is growing so well in the refugium and not in the display. Also, the nitrates have dropped to 0 without any water changes, so apparently the refugium is doing its job!
Also, at this time there is no CUC or fish that have been added.
Anyway, my question is why does my refugium have a lot of algae growing on the sides and bottom (both green and red in color), along with a fist size ball of chaeto that has grown some in size. While the display looks great and has only a little bit of what I think is brown diatoms on the sand surface and rock and nothing on the glass. I'm obviously not complaining, I just want to know why the algae is growing so well in the refugium and not in the display. Also, the nitrates have dropped to 0 without any water changes, so apparently the refugium is doing its job!
Also, at this time there is no CUC or fish that have been added.