Algae Scrubber Basics

[srusso]

In the ReefThreads podcast #88, Craig Bingman briefly discusses algae scrubbers "Another really important and maybe to this day underappreciated thread that was starting with Dr. Adey at the Smithsonian. And he was championing algal turf scrubbers for as a nutrient export mechanism and I think we probably don't pay enough attention to that even today. That is a really exceptionally good way of getting nutrients out of a reef aquarium system. And it tends to be a balanced way of removing nutrients as well"¦" (22:30 minutes into the podcast)

 

[breakdanc3]

Thanks I'll start cleaning it every 3 days. Can't really remember when i installed it. But its been more than a month. Its starting to go green with some patches .. woot

 

[Whip316]

i had another question. i was thinking of adding bioballs into my stock system. then using the srain from the BB to trickle into my ATS. are bioballs benificial or just a waste of time? i am looking to try to get my water healthy as i can not only for the fish, but for the eggs. alot of times we breeders feed massive amounts of food. i know i feed atleast 2 large ice cube tray frozen food i make. plus some pellets 2x a day. so with all the food my water is clear, but in the sump its a yellow tint. when it gets darker i will do a water change. with our systems dirty and i know the ammonia and n and p are prolly thru the roof. when we transfer the eggs to the hatch tank we take tank water to add sometimes and we are bringing in the dirty water. this sometimes kills the babies in the tank cause the ammonia will spike very fast from the fry poop, rotifer waste and the algae paste we add. so i want to make the parent water as clean as possible to try to avoid ammonia spikes and killing the eggs.

 

[srusso]

i had another question. i was thinking of adding bioballs into my stock system. then using the srain from the BB to trickle into my ATS. are bioballs benificial or just a waste of time? i am looking to try to get my water healthy as i can not only for the fish, but for the eggs. alot of times we breeders feed massive amounts of food. i know i feed atleast 2 large ice cube tray frozen food i make. plus some pellets 2x a day. so with all the food my water is clear, but in the sump its a yellow tint. when it gets darker i will do a water change. with our systems dirty and i know the ammonia and n and p are prolly thru the roof. when we transfer the eggs to the hatch tank we take tank water to add sometimes and we are bringing in the dirty water. this sometimes kills the babies in the tank cause the ammonia will spike very fast from the fry poop, rotifer waste and the algae paste we add. so i want to make the parent water as clean as possible to try to avoid ammonia spikes and killing the eggs.

With a properly built/sized scrubber, I would be surprised if you ever saw Ammonia again! Alga love ammonia and it is used the quickest by plants from what I understand. Therefore its common for ANY available amount to be used as soon as its made available. My 2 cents is to skip the bio balls...

 

[Whip316]

so once the ats gets up and running tha algae will remove all the bad 3 from my system if properly done correctly? i really need sit back and figure out how big i need to make this thing as per my massive feedings i do each day. my water always has a yellow tinge to it no matter. plus it would be awesome to not scrub the front glass every few days to get the algae off it. i am gonna get those leds off ebay or buy them myself and make a 3d one. so i dont have a massive thing added to my system. this way it can be a decent size and work awesomely.

another goo idea would to build a removeable ats system to be able to hook onto nano's and then unplug it and move it onto another. i got a solana and a jbj 24g nano that would benifit from a little ats. be cool to make a small removeable kit to place it on the ground and run it for a few weeks.

i am gonna actually make a small one in my second chamber perhaps. lower the water level and remove the media basket i have. i have the jbj led light i can use, or make a new magnetic one.

 

[Whip316]

so once the ats gets up and running tha algae will remove all the bad 3 from my system if properly done correctly? i really need sit back and figure out how big i need to make this thing as per my massive feedings i do each day. my water always has a yellow tinge to it no matter. plus it would be awesome to not scrub the front glass every few days to get the algae off it. i am gonna get those leds off ebay or buy them myself and make a 3d one. so i dont have a massive thing added to my system. this way it can be a decent size and work awesomely.

another goo idea would to build a removeable ats system to be able to hook onto nano's and then unplug it and move it onto another. i got a solana and a jbj 24g nano that would benifit from a little ats. be cool to make a small removeable kit to place it on the ground and run it for a few weeks.

i am gonna actually make a small one in my second chamber perhaps. lower the water level and remove the media basket i have. i have the jbj led light i can use, or make a new magnetic one.

 

[SeanT]

It has been about 6 weeks since I started my ATS and I only have very light brown algae.
There must be something I'm missing.

 

[TheHoove]

2nd cleaning, let it go almost 4 weeks:

Figured Id break even more rules, and not clean it untill i got good covering of algae.

 

[SeanT]

Lucky bastage (Johnny Dangerously).

 

[Dustin1300]

It has been about 6 weeks since I started my ATS and I only have very light brown algae.
There must be something I'm missing.

Share details about your ats as well as your system and feeding.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk 2.

 

[patbob]

another goo idea would to build a removeable ats system to be able to hook onto nano's and then unplug it and move it onto another. i got a solana and a jbj 24g nano that would benifit from a little ats. be cool to make a small removeable kit to place it on the ground and run it for a few weeks.

This might not work. Others have reported that, even when getting a pre-cycled screen from someplace else, it still goes through a cycle. Try it and let us know how it goes, just be prepared if it doesn't work.

 

[Dwerbs]

So I know I read back awhile ago that algae scrubbers can cause cyano to bloom after it has removed the algae from the display. How long have people had this go on for typically. I have had my algae scrubbed set up for 4 months now and I have ZERO algae in my display but my sand keeps getting covered in cyano, with a little bit popping up on the rocks here and there. Anyone have any idea how much longer this will last for? My tank is a 140ish gallon tank 96x18x18, with an inch to two inches of sand on the bottom. I clean my scrubber weekly with a decent handful of green hair algae. I have tried 3 days of no light and it cleared up but game back the following week. Tried feeding less but still thrives. Thanks a lot for the help you guys.

 

[srusso]

So I know I read back awhile ago that algae scrubbers can cause cyano to bloom after it has removed the algae from the display. How long have people had this go on for typically. I have had my algae scrubbed set up for 4 months now and I have ZERO algae in my display but my sand keeps getting covered in cyano, with a little bit popping up on the rocks here and there. Anyone have any idea how much longer this will last for? My tank is a 140ish gallon tank 96x18x18, with an inch to two inches of sand on the bottom. I clean my scrubber weekly with a decent handful of green hair algae. I have tried 3 days of no light and it cleared up but game back the following week. Tried feeding less but still thrives. Thanks a lot for the help you guys.

Its most likely a flow issue. I have never heard of Cyano issues caused by an algae scrubber.

 

[srusso]

The LEDs and drivers have finally arrived for (hopefully) the final build of a waterfall scrubber of this tank. This new build will have a full set of LEDs both ~660nm and ~450nm at a 4:1 ratio. I have a 7-12 led driver to run 10 LEDs total. (at least that's the plan now) all of the equipment was from satisled

Hope to build this weekend.



The extra driver and LEDs are for play

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

So I know I read back awhile ago that algae scrubbers can cause cyano to bloom after it has removed the algae from the display. How long have people had this go on for typically. I have had my algae scrubbed set up for 4 months now and I have ZERO algae in my display but my sand keeps getting covered in cyano, with a little bit popping up on the rocks here and there. Anyone have any idea how much longer this will last for? My tank is a 140ish gallon tank 96x18x18, with an inch to two inches of sand on the bottom. I clean my scrubber weekly with a decent handful of green hair algae. I have tried 3 days of no light and it cleared up but game back the following week. Tried feeding less but still thrives. Thanks a lot for the help you guys.

It's not so much that a scrubber can cause cyano. What can happen is that when you have a long term nutrient problem, then you fix it by running a scrubber, you can set up a situation where the nutrients that are locked in the sand and rocks being to leech out, and the cyano gets to it first before it can reach the scrubber. If your scrubber is strong enough, it will eventually beat it out, but it may take some time. Feeding less for a period of time can help the nutrients get leeched out and absorbed by the scrubber rather than the scrubber taking care of the nutrients from the food, or you can make your scrubber temporarily more powerful (more light)

 

[one clownfish]

I'm going to finally add the scrubber this weekend. I've been putting it off for to long. I'll take DT before shots even though I'm completely embarrassed to show the tank to anyone. Since I've added my Diy LED fixture I've had a crazy algae explosion. My previous lighting was an 8bulb T5 AquaticLife fixture. I never had the problems that I'm having now and I haven't changed a thing. I have a 220 heavily stocked with large Tangs,a few other fish and an eel. I'm going to use the overflow to the feed ATS, light it double sided 10"x 30" or so with (4) 39watt bulbs Driven with an Ice Cap 660 driver with IC reflectors. Hopefully we will be shocked in a good way with the results. Right now I can't turn on my cool white/neutral white LEDs because all the glass will be covered in one day. I'm only using my Blue, Royal blue and violet and my entire tank is still COVERED in algae. Any other tips will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Andy

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

One, how much are you feeding? Screens are based on feeding now, not tank size. 300 sq in is big enough for 25 cubes of food per day. Check the basics in my sig.

 

[one clownfish]

One, how much are you feeding? Screens are based on feeding now, not tank size. 300 sq in is big enough for 25 cubes of food per day. Check the basics in my sig.

Thanks Floyd, I feed about 6-8 cubes/day. Sometimes more when I feed the Emp. Angelfish & Eel large silversides. I feed the eel every 10 days 3-4 large silversides and the Emp. gets one medium-large every other day with some krill mixed in between. I'm thinking I need 100-120 square inches of screen with 120watts of light. I will be lighting it with (6) 18" 18 watt t5 Ho. Three on each side of the screen for a total of 108 watts. I'm going to start there because I have everything already in a box, except the bulbs.

 

[jomain]

Hello,
I'm planning to build an almost purely NPS tank, with heavy continuous feeding, in the spirit of what Uhuru has been showing us: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2054030

However, I'd like to try it without skimmer, in an attempt to conserve a decent planktonic life. So I'm looking at alternative options, and an ATS scrubber seems pretty ideal. But just to be safer, I'd like to supplement it with a mud refugium growing chaeto. Now, I'm not sure if this makes sense, as they have pretty much the same function and probably compete with one another, right? The idea is just that such a refugium could harbor more life and give out more food to the tank than just a scrubber.

Also, on the physics of ATS, there's a point on which I'm not clear: how good is it at nitrification? I understand how it does the denitrification part, with the algae feeding of nitrates, but what about the first part of the cycle? In case of heavy feeding, would it make sense to supplement with something capable of heavy nitrification, like a fluidized sand bed?

How about trace elements? I'm reeding from the Reef Aquarium Vol. 3 that they may get depleted fast with so much algae growing (and yes, a skimmer also export these). Are there common elements that you guys add in your ATS systems? Iron and Manganese?

Thanks for your help!

 

[121]

Has anyone with a mature ATS tried removing a piece of live rock to see if nitrate and PO4 increased or decreased?

It might be possible that a decent ATS could replace the need for a lot of live rock. Less live rock would mean more water flow, less trapped detritus and more open space for corals and fish.

You might have seen my post on this thread a while back, where I stated that I had set up a temp 'ghetto' ATS (a while planning a permanent one) using only a vertical sheet of egg crate (in the sump), air line tubes for water flow (gravity feed from the DT) and a cloth to grow algae on. That set up reduced my PO4 and NO3 to seawater levels. No plumbing necessary. It took minutes to make and there's no weekly cleaning involved. You just toss the cloth and add another. I'm going to cut the cloth in two so I can replace half at a time. Everything is tied to the egg crate with freezer ties