Substrate In Fuge ?

[bart84]

Hey all, my friend is having some trouble with trate spikes (0-60) overnight. I will start with a little background. Predator tank 40 gallon breeder ( not drilled), hob filter, double t5 ( bulb age unknown) and 60 lbs LR. The tank has been up and running for four months and this just started. He is getting brownie/red algae starting to form on his rocks. All the rest of his parms are good, just trate is screwy. I mentioned a hob fuge and was wondering do you need substrate in there or not. Just planning on some chaeto/clurpa and maybe a mangrove to keep the wife happy. Looking for opinions please. Thanks.

 

[saltyair]

Have you cleaned the sponge in hob? What do you have in the hob now?

just a few suggestions to look into

what is your flow rate?
how much are you feeding ( most early pred tanks are over fed)
Do you have any cuc?
what is your water change schedule
a hob skimmer might be a good idea.
what is your bio load?

to eliminate the cyano do a 3 day lights out. But I will come back if the above are issues.

We are here to help

 

[bart84]

There's a lot on that list that I forgot to check or looked past either way. Thanks salty

 

[scubasteve]

substrate in the fuge only helps if its over 6" deep and no flow through it kinda hard for an hob to achive as oxygenated water getting through wont allow a dsb to establish.... how bad is the algae? the spike at night is prob because the algae cant consume it when lights are out so would say the nutrients are high overall.

Just use his night param as your water quality and look into what salty mentioned once he rids the cause of nutrients the algae will disappear old bulbs only help algae grow too as it shifts more to the red