Algae Refugiums

[dvmsn]

The editorial article in December's issue brought back some memories from college ecology. A professor of mine studied oyster density and nutrient levels. Loosely paraphrasing his findings, he found that oysters leech nutrients into the water to promote algae growth and that tidal creeks with the oysters removed actually had lower nutrient concentrations than those with oysters. A similar phenomenon has also been found to exist on eelgrass beds in the tropics, where eelgrass actually contributes to nutrient levels. For this reason, I have never employed an algae refugium myself. Many people rely on algae refugiums and algae "scrubbers" to remove nutrients from the water. While algae scrubbers have certainly proved valuable in industrial settings, is is possble that they are counter-productive at the relatively low (as opposed to a sewage treatment plant) nutrient levels we find in our aquarium. We need an industrious and intelligent reefer to do some scientifically sound research to investigate this matter.

 

[cvye]

Man, you guys have gotta get over to reefcentral - nobody there runs a reef tank without a refugium/algae filter! and the gist is that they feed heavily and their hair algae goes away! lol, albeit with LOA flourescents, not MH's over the filter. For the life of me, I can't understand it, but they claim it works.

If someone like Terry can have Bryopsis at this stage in the game, I think I'll go back to a goldfish bowl!