feather dusters in refugium

[brandonvd]

I added a refugium sump to my aquarium about 7 months ago and added some macro algae too it. The refugium is still doing fine and is treating my water great, but I have a couple of questions.
1. My algae was growing like crazy at first, but now it doesn't seem to be growing at all, but yet it still remains very green and healthy loolking. Does any one know why this is?
2. There are hundreds of small feather dusters in the refugium, is there a point where there can be too many?
3. What would be a good light cycle time?
I appreciate any help that you can give.
Brandon

 

[fishieness]

hey there, let me see if i could be of any help!

1. your macro probably isnt growing because it has reached the limit where there arent enough nutrients for it to grow! it is a good thing if you dont ahve any avialible phosphates, nitrates, ect! so that is pretty sweet
2.the feather dusters dont do any harm so you really cant have too many. they jsut feed on phytoplankton which is commonly created in a refigum and can feed any corals that can injest it in your main tank. but it isnt necessary so your feather dusters arent doing any harm
3. the best lighting cycle is the oposite time of your main tank. this will help create more of a pH balance because photosynthesis will occur throughout the night which will help keep the CO2 and O2 levels stable which will also keep pH stable