So 4 weeks ago my algea turf scrubber (ATS) started leaking and had to be modified. Instead I took the opportunity to redo the plumbing a bit so I could up the flow. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get to it till the next weekend, so my tank ran scrubberless for a week and my trates climbed a bit. With the increased flow, nitrates, and a healthy does of Iron, this was last week haul…
This week wasn’t as good bc my nitrates are back to normal, but still impressive growth
All my corals are doing great too! As a byproduct, algae produces amino acids and carbohydrates that corals can metabolize. It’s the same stuff you can buy in a bottle, but the algae makes it for free and removes nutirents from my tank at the same time.
I didn’t know algae produces aminos and stuff. I’m gonna have to check that out, I like macros in my display, do they (caulerpa and other decorative macros) do the same thing?
I’d probably wad it all up and find someone to throw it at - lol
What kind of scrubber do you use? Is it diy plastic grid with trickle? What kind of light? I think this would be more efficent than the small fuge for nitrate removal on my tank. Just want to see what ya got.
that’s a pretty productive algae scrubber. do you have to dose extra iodine or anything, that it might deplete in the process of growing, besides the phosphates and trates, of course? have you figured out its CO2 consumption schedule? if the light is on 24/7 it will eat the CO2 and help keep your PH from falling much. I believe. plus increase the ORP.
I had the aquaricare scrubbers that were made by MMFI in the late 80’s & 90’s…I modified them some & had excellent results -especially on fish only setups…
They are no longer made…but this guy named samta monica from reef central reinvented the wheel -so to speak…and is now marketing his own…
this is his forum :Redirecting...
That’s impressive and got me thinking about doing a ats. do have some questions, like is your ats your only form of filtration for your tank? would it work well in conjunction with a skimmer? and what kinda lighting do you use for the scrubber?
Maybe Jason or Tim can jump on here as well. They had their ATS running for a while and I believe they both took theirs off due to it was keeping their tank water too clean. Can that happen?
Yes A is correct I had a 40sq" scrubber. It was a DIY,I used the plastic mesh from any craft store and had water trickle acrossed it 24-7 and left lights on the same. I was just using 4-cfl bulbs and that’s it.I did take mine off line because I had 0nitrates and 0 phos. And my sps started to look bad and I thought it was because my water was too clean.i found out that it wasn’t the scrubber causing my problem but my alk was bouncing up and down. I have since gotten my self a calcium reactor and took care of that problem. That was the beginning of the summer. Since that time both the nitrate and phos have come back up to about 10ppm,no3 is about .15ish as of about a month ago. I also had a skimmer running at the same time. If you plan on making one most of the reading I did it was 10sq" per 100g which is about 10"x10" but if you have extra space it wouldn’t hurt to have more than needed.
[quote=“beadlocked450r, post:9, topic:6949”]
… was 10sq" per 100g which is about 10"x10" but if you have extra space it wouldn’t hurt to have more than needed.[/quote]
Sorry Math Geek in the house - 10"x10" would be 100 sq inches - if it’s 10 sq inch per 100g a 10x10 would be for a 1,000g tank.
[quote=“beadlocked450r, post:9, topic:6949”]
… was 10sq" per 100g which is about 10"x10" but if you have extra space it wouldn’t hurt to have more than needed.[/quote]
Sorry Match Geek in the house - 10"x10" would be 100 sq inches - if it’s 10 sq inch per 100g a 10x10 would be for a 1,000g tank.[/quote]
[quote=“beadlocked450r, post:9, topic:6949”]
… was 10sq" per 100g which is about 10"x10" but if you have extra space it wouldn’t hurt to have more than needed.[/quote]
Sorry Match Geek in the house - 10"x10" would be 100 sq inches - if it’s 10 sq inch per 100g a 10x10 would be for a 1,000g tank.[/quote]
