Algae Scrubber Basics
- Thread starter srusso
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srusso
Active member
Perfect flow, looks good!! You'll have hair algae growing in no time at all. Feed that monster as much N and P you can... :lolspin:
I plan too. This harvest was already more green then the last as you can see from the after pictures it is keeping its color now unlike before when I cleaned off all the dark algae it would result in a whiteish screen.
I am going to add a screen to go over it later this weekend and it will also act as a baffle for the bubbles to get trapped. I am also going to lower the scrubber a little further into the water it is only submerged about 1/2" now I want it to be a little further down.
srusso
Active member
IMHO, you should let it go for now. Are the bubbles creating a problem? Spray? Making too many changes at once will make it harder to troubleshoot if problems arise.
Ya I am getting micro bubbles sucked up by the return pump.
pico-reefer
New member
so if i read this thread correct, for a 5 gal tank, with a ATS lit by one side, i would need a 5x2" screen, with a 175 gph pump... tell me if this is right or wrong
pump size for A.scrubber
pump size for A.scrubber
I want to build an ATS but it is gonna be in the room opposite my ds tank, slowly becoming a fish room. Im guessing 10ft head plumbling and was thinking a pan world 50px would work good for 350 to 400gph rate any sugguestions? Thanks
Oh and dont like the idea of submerged pumps
pump size for A.scrubber
I want to build an ATS but it is gonna be in the room opposite my ds tank, slowly becoming a fish room. Im guessing 10ft head plumbling and was thinking a pan world 50px would work good for 350 to 400gph rate any sugguestions? Thanks
Oh and dont like the idea of submerged pumps
Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
Timer's been on its regular schedule as have my cleanings (every 7 days). Scrubber is about 10 weeks old. Almost time to change bulbs, but not quite... although I could try that first. It's about 11" wide and 12" long, fed by my return pump (Eheim 1262) and lit by a pair of CFLs on both sides. Here's a photo from about a month ago:
Growth was green back then (lighter than the photo). Now it appears more brown and stringy; hence my concern about dinos continuing on the screen. I'll try to grab a photo before I clean it up.
If you're ever in the neighborhood, definitely happy to have you over to check things out in person!
Just got back from a conference in Chicago. I just had a dino outbreak as srusso noted. I accidentally left the scrubber light on 24/7 for 5-12 days (not really sure how long it was). It was nasty too.
Scrubbers throw a different thing into the equation. Conventional advice on battling dinos says raise pH, cut the light cycle, quit feeding, etc etc.
What I was advised, and what worked, fantastically by the way, was to #1 fix the 24/7 light on the scrubber error (duh) then increase the photoperiod on the DT, stop all feeding, and physically remove dinos. They were gone the next day. I also changed the lamps and cleaned the screen on day 4 of growth. I also added maximum doses of BRS alk to raise alk and pH, but I have been gone for 30 hours and corals look awesome. I added 5g of fresh SW which didn't boost dino growth apparently either.
I can't say it will work for you but the logic behind increasing the photperiod (or at least leaving it the same) is that if you cut it, the scrubber has to pick up all the slack when the corals are not absorbing the nutrients in the system. If you cut the lights, the dinos die off but then dump all the nutrients into the system. Essentially you let the scrubber and the corals burn the dinos out of food. You already have low N and P so it can't be that bad. I had 4" strings of dinos with bubbles on the tips covering most of the rockwork on the tank, and the entire surface was a slimy coating, all gone in a few days.
This is not just my experience, the advice I got was from someone who had repeated dino outbreaks (some intentional) and this works.
srusso
Active member
Nice! Thanks for sharing!!
WB Floyd! I turned the lights back on for the scrubber but have had the DT lights off for about a day. From what I can tell the dinos have mostly receded in the DT and the LPS haved picked up a bit. I'm going to start with T5s on for 6 hours later today, but you say increase the photo period? I was running with T5s at 12 hours and MH split between 5 hrs on the left and 3.5 hrs on the right (I have SPS on the left side and LPS on the right). How much more should I increase it? I don't run a chiller and my temp swings 2-3 degrees during the day.
Here's what the scrubber looks like this morning... brown. Srusso - not really seeing hot spots fortunately.
Oh, regarding pH... I can't keep it up any higher than 8.2 (been dosing manually). Guess it's time to install those dosers!
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srusso
Active member
7:45am
Well bad morning for me... Looked at the tank and with the lights still off I could tell the water was cloudy... Then saw a chunk of flesh drifting slowly on the sand, mostly light brown and white (what later will be known as the "foot")... My first thought maybe a snail got jacked up last night... Nature happens I guess, but after looking around for like 20 minutes my actinic turned on and could now see some rather colorful small things all around on the rocks. A very bright orange-red into a nice green. It hit me like a ton of bricks! My softball sized RBTA was completely "missing"....!!! or I could say it is every where... small bits... Not much of it could be found. Eaten by the night crew or it could shrink much smaller then I believed... My best guess at the moment is that it was chewed up by my maxijet 1200 with the MJMod kit. Why it detached will be a mystery that I will maul over for a very long time... In my opinion the RBTA was never the same the day I added the second rock flower anemone... The RBTA was also in horrible condition when I purchased it... I knew nothing about anemones then and was told at the LFS it was a really rare flame, later to find out it was just a seriously starved of light... Check out my photo albums I proudly uploaded pics back then of my new $125 flame anemone...
The reason I am telling you all this is... I may not react, all common logic and traditional techniques say to do massive water changes, etc etc... I noticed no change with SPS, LPS, softies other anemones and fish... Nothing all seems to even care... All happily open...
10:13am
Returned from breakfast at the local pancake house... Tank is noticeable clearer. Still cloudy but... clearer...
The test here is can an algae scrubber only system "consume" a large death in the tank.
What do you guys think crazy or trusting?
Well bad morning for me... Looked at the tank and with the lights still off I could tell the water was cloudy... Then saw a chunk of flesh drifting slowly on the sand, mostly light brown and white (what later will be known as the "foot")... My first thought maybe a snail got jacked up last night... Nature happens I guess, but after looking around for like 20 minutes my actinic turned on and could now see some rather colorful small things all around on the rocks. A very bright orange-red into a nice green. It hit me like a ton of bricks! My softball sized RBTA was completely "missing"....!!! or I could say it is every where... small bits... Not much of it could be found. Eaten by the night crew or it could shrink much smaller then I believed... My best guess at the moment is that it was chewed up by my maxijet 1200 with the MJMod kit. Why it detached will be a mystery that I will maul over for a very long time... In my opinion the RBTA was never the same the day I added the second rock flower anemone... The RBTA was also in horrible condition when I purchased it... I knew nothing about anemones then and was told at the LFS it was a really rare flame, later to find out it was just a seriously starved of light... Check out my photo albums I proudly uploaded pics back then of my new $125 flame anemone...
The reason I am telling you all this is... I may not react, all common logic and traditional techniques say to do massive water changes, etc etc... I noticed no change with SPS, LPS, softies other anemones and fish... Nothing all seems to even care... All happily open...
10:13am
Returned from breakfast at the local pancake house... Tank is noticeable clearer. Still cloudy but... clearer...
The test here is can an algae scrubber only system "consume" a large death in the tank.
What do you guys think crazy or trusting?
Last edited:
Forgive me if I have missed it somewhere in here. I like the idea of the ATS but what happens if you don't clean the screen every 7 days? What if I go 2 weeks, or a month? Also, if the answer to that question leads to bad things, can you build an oversized one that requires less maintnence?
srusso
Active member
redneckgearhead
Active member
I have gone as long as 2 weeks between cleanings but I wouldn't recommend it.
If you don't clean often enough the pods can eat away at the algae attached to the screen and big pieces could fall off putting the nutrients that the algae absorbed right back into the water, or worse, depending on the design if a large enough piece of algae broke free on my ATS it could clog the drain causing a flood. Or if the pods do not get to it, the lack of light can make the algae that is attached to the screen break free causing the same problems mentioned above.
I think there would be a point of diminishing returns on going bigger. I can't see how going bigger would prolong the cleaning of the ATS. I guess if the available nutrients in the water where spread out over a larger screen the algae wouldn't get as thick as fast. Hmm, give it a try and keep us posted on the build and how it is working out for you. We got where we are by trial and error!
srusso
Active member
Ok, brown in this case should indicate high nutriants then. Clean brown growth every three days or until green growth starts. Use you fingers and gentrly rub the algae off.
For the ph you should look into kalk, many benefits cheap stuff better then dosing.
srusso
Active member
Tests show nothing, tank is clear again. Found a large chunk of it and tossed it...
Nothing was affected.
redneckgearhead
Active member
Good to hear!
srusso
Active member
Thanks... Little bitter sweet though
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