Fuge issues help needed.

[MizTanks]

I'm not sure what's going on but hopefully someone can give me some ideas on what to do. I have a 3.3g HOB fuge that up until the last week was doing wonderful. Now however I'm starting to have some issues.

I have a Reef Octopus NS80 Nano Skimmer that I'm still sort of struggling with. It continues to run really wet. This wetness is mostly yellow. No matter what I do about the flow I get more liquid then foam. It also throws micro bubbles throughout the fuge. This sits closest to the input area. Thinking maybe hindering the flow.
At the intake area I have some funky looking stuff growing crazy. White, thick web like stuff. It's only in that one area. At the return opening I'm having a major red slime algae issue. I have a 24w cf light, running opposite the DT lights. I have chaeto/LR and a 2" pink aragonite sb. Pods are doing well in there though.

I'm using a pre-skimmer box over the intake pump to keep the protein off the water surface in the DT. I'm not happy with this but I gotta use it. I just feel my tank isn't getting filtered well enough. No algae issues in the DT though. But when I use a turkey baster to blow off the LR I get a lot of debris that I know is just settling back down on the rock. So it's like only a matter of time before some sort of issue arises.

Any suggestions for the running of my fuge? Changes? Do I need a skimmer? Or any known HOB external skimmers?

Thanks :)

[jimsflies]

Settling detritus is always going to be an issue. I don't think any filtration alone is going to solve that problem. Maximizing flow so that it doesn't settle, making sure the cleanup crew is doing its job, and routine water changes with vacuuming are your best bets for dealing with it.

As for the white webby stuff, not sure what it could be. But if it bothers that much, I'd manually remove it.

If the display looks good and hasn't changed, then I wouldn't worry to much.

[MizTanks]

Thanks Jim :) you always make me feel better when in panic mode-lol

[Tom@HaslettMI]

The red slime is probably due to either a spectrum shift of the fuge bulb and/or nitrates. Both of these have caused cyanoalgae blooms for me in the past, and it seems the fuge is the first place is shows up. How old is the PC bulb on the fuge and what are your nitrates at?

Tom

[MizTanks]

Just tested for no3 which is .0 I'm betting your right on the light. When off one side of the lamp is darker then the other. Guess 7 months is the max life on these lamps :) thanks Tom.

[Pat-O]

I was looking into getting an hob fuge as well. I read its not proven how much the help your tank but I still like the option of having extra copepods encase i would like a manderine one day and also i think they are cool and would be fun to get going.

Hope you can get everything good again.

[MizTanks]

Pat I love this little fuge! Bought a new lamp yesterday and was def the issue-simple fix :) as for how much help it is, I'll just let my tank do the talking. They are made for smaller tanks such as mine. And for those who want to run a fuge but have limited space such as me lol.

[Pat-O]

Ive seen hob ones that were rated for larger tanks too when I have some extra cash to spend I think Im gonna get one. I bought a toms pico tank a while ago because it was in a clearance bin at an lfs for five bucks I figure that light would be pretty good for it.