Algae scrubber and soft corals

[symon_say]

Hi

I use prodibio in my tank and i'm having some problems with my soft corals, my water is to clean for then, i want to change to something more natural and i think an alga scrubber is a good option, but i don't is the scrubber will be to much for softies to.

What's been your experience with soft corals and alga scrubbers??

 

[glarior]

Hi

I use prodibio in my tank and i'm having some problems with my soft corals, my water is to clean for then, i want to change to something more natural and i think an alga scrubber is a good option, but i don't is the scrubber will be to much for softies to.

What's been your experience with soft corals and alga scrubbers??

I use scrubbers. The algae grown on the scrubber consumes nitrates and phosphates. I am working on a very large LED scrubber for my dual tank wall build. One will have fish only and the other is a full reef. My current reef is doing great with the scrubber and it is mostly softies.

 

[symon_say]

Thanks, do you have your skimmer working or you took it out??

 

[rrasco]

I quit using GFO/GAC and switched to an ATS. It's still establishing itself, been running about a month or two, but I have already noticed a difference in the tank. Better PE and most of the algae in the tank literally disintegrated.

I did not remove my skimmer.

 

[_shorty_]

Maybe I'm not doing it right.. but I run a scrubber for comming up on 3 years now, with no skimmer or anything else - except running carbon from time to time to clear up the water. I keep almost 0 nitrates and phosphates... just over - so in my experience, although it works well, it does not eat up every bit leaving plenty for coral to thrive. I'm still figuring out the fine tuning, and hoping someone will answer my thread on the 'basics' thread.

I was wondering something: do soft Coral actually EAT nitrates of phosphates? Or do they eat the disolved organics/proteins that turn into nitrates?

Because different from a skimmer - the scrubber works POST cycle actually consuming the nitrates and phosphates, where skimmer pushes out protiens pre-nitrification cycle... So the Corals may have plenty of food since they get all they need before the cycle, letting the scrubber remove the results of what's not consumed.

 

[symon_say]

This my blind swinging, but i think the take both, some corals take from one than the other like xenia that consume nitrates, and like goniopora that needs to be feed or being in a high nutrient tank.

 

[_shorty_]

You are probably right... Probably depends on the coral, but I didn't know if even the xenia really consumed nitrates, or if that lack of or reduced nitrate level was the result of consuming pre-cycled crud.

Most softies will accept spot feeding too, so id recommend that, no matter what.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

My softies do awesome. I was originally told that Xenia would not survive but I was fragging out 30 heads a month and they would grow back as fast as I could sell them. I have a colony of green fuzzy mushrooms that took over 1/4 of the rock work. Check pics in one of my recent posts in the basics thread

 

[symon_say]

My softies do awesome. I was originally told that Xenia would not survive but I was fragging out 30 heads a month and they would grow back as fast as I could sell them. I have a colony of green fuzzy mushrooms that took over 1/4 of the rock work. Check pics in one of my recent posts in the basics thread

You use skimmer, or ATS only?? do you dose anything to the tank?? do you use carbon?? do you do WC??

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Scrubber only, I dose Alk in the top off and Cal weekly, but will likely switch over to Kalk once I can make it feasible (it's in a doctor's office). No carbon, just for a few months after a 13 hr power outage (just left it in there) and 1 40g PWC that I did recently and that was the first in a year (144g tank).

No xenia in it now, I managed to get rid of them all. I considered it a pest coral, popping up everywhere. Now if I could only get rid of Anthelia it would be perfect. I'm thinking majano wand or laser.

 

[SantaMonica]

most of the algae in the tank literally disintegrated.

Love it

 

[symon_say]

Scrubber only, I dose Alk in the top off and Cal weekly, but will likely switch over to Kalk once I can make it feasible (it's in a doctor's office). No carbon, just for a few months after a 13 hr power outage (just left it in there) and 1 40g PWC that I did recently and that was the first in a year (144g tank).

No xenia in it now, I managed to get rid of them all. I considered it a pest coral, popping up everywhere. Now if I could only get rid of Anthelia it would be perfect. I'm thinking majano wand or laser.

WOW really nice, what are the dimensions of your screen and how many whats do you have??

 

[sabbath]

With Prodibio to adjust how ULNS you go is how often you dose it. I had to dose bioptim and digest every 10 days after dosing every 7 days to clean the algae. the average is every 14 days. Some can go 15 days...

 

[symon_say]

I use it every 15 days, but is time to let go prodibio and use a more natural/less expensive way, especially with a 160g system.

 

[sabbath]

I use it every 15 days, but is time to let go prodibio and use a more natural/less expensive way, especially with a 160g system.

Yeah I get that as I'm trying the similar thing with a 150g system. I went with Prodibio to clear up my algae and it worked. But I thought I would go all the way in my old opinion and try Zeo. Now the algae is back. So I added a AUS ATS and long time ago for many months and it did not help. Now I'm running a L2 waterfall ATS. It is starting to grow what appears to be the good algae on the screen. I still have an outbreak in the DT though.

I will have to look up the dates but the AUS ran about 5 months and the new L2 is at about 6 weeks.

So until you get the ATS going my recommendation is to back off on dosages. Going 21 days between each dose is where I would try.

 

[ehaleyjr18]

Metal Halide upgrade questions

Metal Halide upgrade questions

I've been running t5's on my 46g bowfront reef aquarium for about 10 months. I'm wanting to upgrade to a metal halide system but have a few questions. Which wattage would be correct for my tank without frying my coral? Also is it more efficient to get a system with two halide bulbs or one high efficientcy
Bulb? How much would the water temperature fluctuate due to the bulb heat also?


Thanks in advance