I am not really sure what to do with all of this in my sump. I have a couple snails down there. What do you guys think I should do.
What do you want to take care of? it looks like a normal properly functioning fuge to me.
I think he might be talking about the cyano which to me its better off in the sump then the display. It basically a concentration of nutrients in that area. You can increase flow in the sump but the fact that the nutrients are being dumped there to me is a good thing (better there then the DT)I would leave it alone where it is and add phosphate reactor with phosguard to reduce phosphates a major factor in cyano and nuisance algae. (The other being light for cyano) Remove one and cyano can’t grow. Since the macro needs nitrates, phosphates and light; removing phosphates will cause the cyano to go first. Run the phosguard for a while till the cyano seems to regress and then kill it by leaving the light on the sump off for 2 days. This will finish the cyano but the macro will be fine.
The cyano would provide an awesome nutrient removal system, but I would get it out ASAP so it wouldn’t travel into the DT.
How should I go about doing that.
If you are very diligent and want to use it to remove nutrients I would siphon it out every day or every other. If you want to remove it, siphon it out then use the red slime remover chemical (It is really called red slime remover, DPA has some). The common suggestion is to follow their directions to the T. I did and a few of my corals looked a little upset for a few days, but all was well.
Since it is isolated in the sump I would not go chemical yet. I would try phosguard first
+1 on letting it go without slime remover. That stuff is kind of a last resort (I think). It is not even close to bad. Phosguard/Phosban will help
Siphon out what you can. Increase flow (add a PH if need be). Run phosguard.
If 3 weeks from now it’s not at least receding then we can consider chemicals.
As long as it doesn’t get to your display and become a problem, I wouldn’t worry about it. The purpose of a fuge is to use up nutrients, which is exactly what the Cyano is doing. You can siphon it out to export nutrients, but I wouldn’t use the chemicals unless it got to the display.
I’ll retract my advice of going the chemical route first, those guys are right. I personally tried the sans-chemical route first in getting it out of my display and simply couldn’t. I’d siphon it out all the way and it would slowly come back. It does do a good job of removing nutrients, but it can get on your weaker corals and block their light. Of course you don’t have corals in your sump for that to be a problem.
I personally wouldn’t want to use it for nutrient export in the sump for fear of it traveling to the display tank, from experience in dealing with it, I’m happier w/o it.
Wow I changed Ian’s mind. I feel so powerful
Heh heh, those moments are few and far between!
mmmmmm hmmmmm
Have to agree with flow, phosphate remover, and avoiding the use of chemicals as much as possible, but I would sort of disagree with:
[quote=“icy1155, post:10, topic:1402”]
As long as it doesn’t get to your display and become a problem,[/quote]
Sumps which have dead spots in them can become Nitrate factories or with a Deep Sand Bed(DSB) can become nutrient sinks which could be released at any time. Looking at this I think it is a time bomb and should be addressed. I agree often times fuges are not made to be pretty, but I think this reflects something not right about the set up or maintenance of the system or perhaps a young system that needs a little extra TLC compared to what it will be when it is a little more mature.
Just my opinion.