Refugium

[DaveC]

I have had my refugium running for about 6-8 months now..I have a 40 gallon long tank with about 16 inches dedicated to the ref. the rest is the sump area, the ref overflows into the sump and then back to the tank..I have only had calupera in the ref. and it was growing like crazy until about 1 month ago...nothing has changed in my tank, I have added a fresh batch of calupera and still does not grow like it use to, I could see new growth every day, now I might see growth every week or more...my water is ammo zero, nitrites zero, nitrates 2ppm or less, phos .002, Calc is 420, Kh is 9or10...like I say nothing has changed at all, lots of pods and other stuff growing inthe ref. bristle worms, pods, those spagetti worms etc..sand in ref is about 5 inches, a few small pieces of LR...does anyone need to feed the ref...I know that algea feeds off nitrates, could it be there is not enough for the algea to feed upon...I have changed the light over the refugium to see if that would help but no...it is a 75W gro light from a hardware store approx 8 inches above the water..probably the only thing that has changed in the refugium since its start is the sides are all completely covered with coralline algea now, besides that nothing else has changed..it used to grow so fast that I could feed my tangs small hands full every day and still have plenty...and that was all from a $5.00 hand full that I had started with..I would love to get it to grow again..

Thanks
Dave C

[tendar]

From the way it sounds your tank has just stablized.
The calurpa like anything else needs food to grow. When there is exess food it grows faster and when the food supplie dies down it grows slower.
This is normal for the calurpa to slow down after a while because it has taken out most of the exess nutients that where in the tank at the start and now it is has stablized with the exess nutrients that are produced by the tank.
My calurpa did the same thing and after 4-5 months slowed down growth a lot but still grew and if there are spurts of exess nut. the calurpa will grow faster to take it up.
Hopefully that made sence.

[BLUESMAN]

You can try and get your calcium up a little,dose with some kalk.I would also be sure you have adequent water flow.Mine seems to like the Lights Of America 65w PC and a small powerhead directed at it.Blue