Algae Scrubber Basics

So, no one has thoughts about the skimmer suddenly increasing performance of my scrubber? Here I was thinking this would bloom into a big controversial discussion but no one's even commented. :lol:
 
I didn't even see your post... Teach me to only visit the thread via email alerts!

Two possibilities. AS need nitrates AND phosphates. If either is missing nothing happens. Perhaps you haven't had any phosphates? It's often seen that someone's algae starts growing just fine and robustly but suddenly stops. Nitrate measurements show high nitrates but phosphorus measurements show zilch. Dosing phosphorus instantly starts the scubber again.

You've frequently mentioned "slime" it may well be that your slime is either making it too hard for any respectable HA to even adhere to your screen or it could be binding up the phosphate somehow. As with my list of variables there's going to be really off the wall ones like how HA might not be able to take-up nutrients in the presence of slime.

A skimmer is a master at slime removal.
 
kcress said:
I didn't even see your post... Teach me to only visit the thread via email alerts!

Two possibilities. AS need nitrates AND phosphates. If either is missing nothing happens. Perhaps you haven't had any phosphates? It's often seen that someone's algae starts growing just fine and robustly but suddenly stops. Nitrate measurements show high nitrates but phosphorus measurements show zilch. Dosing phosphorus instantly starts the scubber again.

You've frequently mentioned "slime" it may well be that your slime is either making it too hard for any respectable HA to even adhere to your screen or it could be binding up the phosphate somehow. As with my list of variables there's going to be really off the wall ones like how HA might not be able to take-up nutrients in the presence of slime.

A skimmer is a master at slime removal.
Click to expand...

I agree and is more or less what I was going to say, but I don't think any of us will ever really know.

Very odd... Willie your tank has never completely left the back of my head, and have mulled it over from time to time. It's good to hear its finally started up! Now I will start thinking about the addition of the skimmer making it start!

Do you maybe change something that you are overlooking? Feeding more, the addition of new livestock, however small it maybe...

Maybe a nutrient was actually inhibiting any hair algae and once the weekly harvest of slime had removed enough of it, the algae began growing... Or the addition of a skimmer helped remove the inhibiting nutrient or chemical.

Whatever it is, it's one for the record books...
 
Literally nothing changed. Nutrient levels had been constant for months. I haven't even done a water change in months. The skimmer was the only difference and the change in performance was at exactly the same point in time. What I am really interested in now is seeing if the scrubber eventually "shuts down" the skimmer like other people have observed.
 
just wanted to see if someone here could look at my new build plan and give me an idea of how the best way to incorporate a scrubber would be? I've been reading a lot about them lately and would like to use one on my new build to hopefully save me some money from not having to buy gfo. here is a link to my build plan

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2196531

only thing that has changed is that my sump is going to be 60"L x 26H x 18D and the display is going to be 150g.

thanks for any help!

Jake.
 
HPballer76 said:
just wanted to see if someone here could look at my new build plan and give me an idea of how the best way to incorporate a scrubber would be? I've been reading a lot about them lately and would like to use one on my new build to hopefully save me some money from not having to buy gfo. here is a link to my build plan

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2196531

Jake.
Click to expand...

How fun, I wish I had a basement directly under my tank instead of trying to squish everything into a stand. Imagine the space to do all kinds of things. And how many wives venture into the basement if you keep it rough enough?

Two things I can tell you from experience.
1. Plan for an overflow feed to the ATS. With all that gravity forcing water down, yeah baby! Plumb it so you can easily pull the ATS off line for maintenance or upgrades and still flow through the sump. You'll want minimum head pressure - if that's what you call restrictions in a drain line. Flow, flow, and more flow. You can always throttle it back if needed - I never have.
2. Not having to use any GFO is not a given with an ATS. From what I see, a few systems require phosphate additions to balance the N to P ratio, most probably require at least some GFO to keep the P within bounds. I personally have to use a little GFO, but not nearly as much as without an ATS - been there.

Good luck and have fun with your build.
 
der_wille_zur_macht said:
Literally nothing changed. Nutrient levels had been constant for months. I haven't even done a water change in months. The skimmer was the only difference and the change in performance was at exactly the same point in time. What I am really interested in now is seeing if the scrubber eventually "shuts down" the skimmer like other people have observed.
Click to expand...

This is interesting! & I'm not sure why adding a skimmer would help a ATS unless it about CO2 exchange or something?
I do think that it is a good way to go with running both a ATS and a Skimmer, as they can remove different things.
I'm currently looking to use a half dose of the Zeovit basic 3 with a good water fall style ATS setup to finish off the rest of the nutrient control.
From what I see is Zeovit does a great job with SPS Corals. It is hard to beat Zeo for SPS colors but is not for controlling algae unless you add Coral snow and or Zeozym etc. to your schedule. For algae control it is appearing to me that a scrubber can strongly compete with anything for algae control and very cost affective at it.
I think that there is a benefit in having multiple methods controlling or handling the tanks environment.
 
Got busy and haven't looked at this thread for a few days...

Willie, VERY interesting result. It's reasons like this that I am becoming more of the position that the Algae Scrubber is a great tool in the toolbox, rather than an advocate for sole filtration. IMO, it is a very powerful tool, and in combination with other forms of filtration, can make for a very well balanced and robust filtration system. I have suggested the use of an undersized skimmer or a timer on a larger skimmer for those who don't want to give up that component. I don't know what the connection is on your system, but like srusso said, I have been curious about how your system is doing.

As for the dump bucket/horizontal...others have more experience in this regard. kcress I just came across your thread again the other day actually, interesting to go back to a thread started 3 years ago and see the progression and conclusions.

PMc - lots of good questions..I may have more time to respond and/or add to other responses. But for today...I golf.
 
Floyd R Turbo said:
I am becoming more of the position that the Algae Scrubber is a great tool in the toolbox, rather than an advocate for sole filtration. IMO, it is a very powerful tool, and in combination with other forms of filtration, can make for a very well balanced and robust filtration system.
Click to expand...

I agree with this, and to an extent it makes sense from a basic chemistry perspective. Skimmers and scrubbers are good at removing very different things from an aquarium. Clearly you can have a nice tank with JUST one or the other - but then a result like mine comes along and points out how little we probably know about what's happening in our tanks. We all understand the big picture from a theoretical perspective, but as kcress has pointed out, there are just SO many variables in the mix.

I'll pop in and post updates if anything changes or if I try to tweak things at all but for now I'm probably just going to let things go for a while given that performance seems to have improved.
 
I've been using the needle wheel from skimmer to feed my ATS and it produces a ton of foam in my sump. I've been trying to come up with a way to collect it but so far I just have extra mesh around the edge that the sludge collects on.
From this I think it would be possible to build some type of hybrid skimmer ATS but I really don't have the resources to build anything
 
Taken with my phone so sorry for the bad pictures

picture.php


picture.php
 
Floyd R Turbo said:
Very interesting article. Thanks for posting! That system sounds extremely promising. I wonder how expensive it is though. Looks like it's for very large systems right now, and getting scaled down. I see that as something these guys over in the "large tank" forum section would be jumping all over first.

Interesting that they do mention a few things about skimmers removing food from the water and make mention of the possibility that the DyMiCo system could mean that skimmers (and from their article, any other form of filtration) would be a thing of the past, and their system would the the "ultimate" in natural filtration.

There are countless people that report an explosion of pods, sponges, and filter feeders in tanks that run scrubbers, and this is especially true when you only run a scrubber, no mechanical filtration or anything else. Now if I can only get my hands on one of those high-flow, low-cavitation pumps, maybe I would have more plankton surviving too!!!
Click to expand...

Yes, DyMiCo is interesting, but the article reads like an infomercial. I definitely like to see what's new. It sounds like a combination denitrifier/calcium reactor. They talk about P control. How can a combination denitrifier/calcium reactor impact P? All in all, an algae filter looks better than DiMiCo to me. That's even before considering complexity - or lack of.
 
It's been a while, but a long time ago I posted ORP data from my apex. Someone pointed out that my pH probe looked like it needed to be calibrated. You where right... Thank you. Sorry for the lack of time to go back and find who it was that suggested it.

Here are new charts from my apex now that my pH probe is reading proper.

View attachment photo (1).jpg

photo (2).jpg

This is a normal days reading.

300 - 315 ORP

As I under stand it, this is very stable. If you didn't already know, this is an algae scrubber only system. Has always been an algae scrubber only system and running over two years now.
 
Last edited:
Third try... uploaded these to my RC photos...

It's been a while, but a long time ago I posted ORP data from my apex. Someone pointed out that my pH probe looked like it needed to be calibrated. You where right... Thank you. Sorry for the lack of time to go back and find who it was that suggested it.

Here are new charts from my apex now that my pH probe is reading proper.

picture.php


picture.php


This is a normal days reading.

300 - 315 ORP

As I under stand it, this is very stable. If you didn't already know, this is an algae scrubber only system. Has always been an algae scrubber only system and running over two years now.[/QUOTE]
 
SPotter said:
I started dosing k about 12 days ago. I first tested with a salifert kit and then a kz kit I had bought a yr ago. both results were very close but realize that the elos kit is the better of the kits. my initial level was 290-300 and was able to raise it up 390-400 over a 4 day period and I have been dosing 45ml every other day which has maintained that level for me. with in a few days of starting k doses I did notice much improvement in the appearance of my sps especially the blues. I did my cleaning last night after 8 days since the previous cleaning. the growth I had was amazing and by far the best that I've had. I didnt get a picture of the screen but heres one of what came off the screen....

tu3y5u6a.jpg




Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...

UPDATE ON K DOSING

I just cleaned my screen this morning after 7 days since my last cleaning. I didn't get to test daily like I had hoped this past week but will definitely try this week. instead of dosing 40ml every othet day I went to 20ml per day. I will do tests tonight to check the level. Im amazed at how much more growth I've had this week with no changes to flow, photo period, feeding amount....etc. significant increase.

5ajahu9e.jpg


Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2
 
Been reading about algae scrubber for 12 year or more. It's time.

Been reading about algae scrubber for 12 year or more. It's time.

Hi guys. I have had my 125 FOWLR tank up for 18 years. I have read about algae scrubbers for a long time. Dealing with high nitrates and phosphates. It's about time to try my hand at one myself. I have a 20 gal, so I went to Michaels and Home Depot this morning and spent $58.00, and this is what I have started. I will make some reflectors from the 12x12 mirror paper and wood then mount them around the lights. I also ordered an overflow. Should be here this week. Take a look and see what I am doing wrong, and let me know please. Thanks. saitoking
 

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RC staff has setup a feed back survey!
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Question #9. Should we consider adding any forums/sub-forums?

PLEASE ASK FOR AN ALGAE SCRUBBER SUB FORUM!!!

I love this thread and all... but its unmanageable... Please please please say you want an algae scrubber sub forum.

If enough of us ask, we can get what we need!! Please help and vote for an algae scrubber sub forum!
 
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