Why would you harvest macroalgae and discard it?

[trainfever]

I have a refugium in my sump with plenty of macroalgae growing in it, along with pods and other goodies. Every month or so,I would harvest half of the macro and sell it to my lfs. Unfortunately there was a fire 3 stores down from them and the water from putting the fire out, flooded the fish store causing the floor to collapse sending everything crashing into the basement. The basement is where all the holding tanks were. The basement got flooded up to the the bottom of the very top step. Anyway I was talking to someone at another fish store and they said they would be interested in the macro. The guy told me that even if I wasnt selling the macro, that I should be harvesting it anyway and throwing it away. He never got a chance to tell me why because he had to tend to customers. So my question is, Why would you have to discard the macro? I thought that the more macro there was, the more nitrate that would be removed form your water? Anyone have any explanation?

 

[dogstar]

As long as theres room for it to continue to grow or its not shadeing light for some of it or dieing from not enough nutriants in the water to keep all of it alive then you dont need to harvest it. If any of it dies from these or other reasons it will rot like any thing else and just release all the nutriants back into your water that it was taking out in the first place. Just make sure theres room and its not overcrowed and that its all getting light. Other wise pull some out.

 

[birdy]

If using the macro for nutrient export, then you need to actually remove it to export the nutrients, if you keep it in the fuge then it will just keep dieing and feeding new algae. IMO you should regularly harvest it, as long as it is growing well, In most of the tanks I maintain with macro they need monthly pruning, this makes room for new algae to grow and remove more of the nutrients.
If you are keeping the macro in the tank and not removing it then it is not a nutrient export just a nutrient storage.

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by Birdy
If using the macro for nutrient export, then you need to actually remove it to export the nutrients, if you keep it in the fuge then it will just keep dieing and feeding new algae. IMO you should regularly harvest it, as long as it is growing well, In most of the tanks I maintain with macro they need monthly pruning, this makes room for new algae to grow and remove more of the nutrients.
If you are keeping the macro in the tank and not removing it then it is not a nutrient export just a nutrient storage.
That's exactly right! :happyfish

 

[unleashed]

I dont discard my macro I use it as food for my hebavores

 

[1journeyman]

Originally Posted by unleashed
I dont discard my macro I use it as food for my hebavores
Which is fine, but at that point the macro algae is no longer "exporting" nutrients.