karimwassef
Active member
If you have no fish, you could add LaCl to precipitate out the P... just go slow and change the water before adding fish.
Algae Scrubber Basics
- Thread starter srusso
- Start date
OllieNZ
New member
The main issue with miracle grow is the form the N is delivered in, as we all know ammonia and urea are incredibly toxic in an aquatic environment. I'm sure it would massively boost the growth of an ats but it's much safer to use kno3 if not quite as effective. I'd recommend taking a peek at the chemistry section of a site dedicated to planted aquaria, something like the Barr report or ukaps could be quite helpful.
karimwassef
Active member
Ok. If it urea and ammonia that's a concern, then feeding it to my phyto and then feeding my phyto to my tank should be safe?
OllieNZ
New member
It depends on the levels involved. The phyto will be fine but the water the phyto is in could be a concern, you'd have to calculate the levels and I suspect you'll find they're low enough to be safe. Fish, decaying food etc all produce ammonia as waste and your tank deals with it via the nitrogen cycle. If it's not causing any spikes then it's not an issue.
You could add miracle grow or even pure ammonia to your tank as a source of N (I'm not recommending either btw) as long as you get your calcuations correct and don't exceed the threshold for toxicity. The downside of it is that it has to go through the nitrogen cycle unless it's directly taken up by a large plant mass and the increase in bacteria to deal with it can have an effect on O2 levels.
sensei
New member
Floyd,
can you explain further why you said that "tank algae is a typical phase"??
I am now cycling a 470 DT but I used dry rock with no dead stuff in it, I am curios to know how much algae should be normal to experience.
Thanks
karimwassef
Active member
My system is ~700gal. If I add 70ml of thick green phyto soup, it should be ok.
OllieNZ
New member
That's something I can't answer, it would depend on the levels in the soup but I suspect that the phyto uses up a fair amount of the available N. It could be calculated based on the amount you add to the soup and then the amount of soup added to the tank minus the uptake of the phyto.
karimwassef
Active member
Sure, but N isn't the problem. It's the N still in the form of urea or ammonia in the water.
If I get it right you are wondering whether urea and/or ammonia are going to be used by macro algae. Urea is not used by any plant. Plants (and macro algae) use either ammonia or nitrate.
karimwassef
Active member
I've been using MG on my phyto. Feeding it to my reef. And harvesting my ATS. It's been ok. My original question was if my ATS could handle more. For now, I'm ok with the feedback that it's unclear but not advisable.
Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
Just a plastic kitchen pot scraper. I've found that dragging it across the screen works just fine (versus scraping like you would an icy windshield)
Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
Here are some pics of the canvas screen taken with my phone and with this cheapie kids' toy digital microscope
Plain screen
100x (brightness/contrast adjusted because the toy sucks)
Roughed up (with a wire brush drill bit and then a quick pass with a saw blade)
100x
Mortar applied (fresh)
100x after 2-3 day curing, patted dry
200x
You can see how the shredded canvas material is poking out all over the place, which gives you an indication of how thin the mortar later actually is. It's sacrificial anyways so you don't really need it to be thick, really you don't want/need it to be. Thanks again Paul B for nailing this one on the head. The microscopically rough texture is the perfect medium for fast initial algae growth. The roughed-up plastic canvas screen takes over in the long term after the mortar releases. I've found that the mortar releases during cleaning, about 1/2 of it comes off the first time you clean (usually the part that you contact with the scraper) and then about another 1/4 with the next cleaning (for about 3/4 total loss) and after that, just a little at a time. I think I'm coming up on the 4th cleaning on mine and I'm going to take lots of pics and use that handy cheapo 'scope again and see exactly how much is left and in what density.
And for fun, a #4-40 threadcutting machine screw
And my fingerprint
Plain screen
100x (brightness/contrast adjusted because the toy sucks)
Roughed up (with a wire brush drill bit and then a quick pass with a saw blade)
100x
Mortar applied (fresh)
100x after 2-3 day curing, patted dry
200x
You can see how the shredded canvas material is poking out all over the place, which gives you an indication of how thin the mortar later actually is. It's sacrificial anyways so you don't really need it to be thick, really you don't want/need it to be. Thanks again Paul B for nailing this one on the head. The microscopically rough texture is the perfect medium for fast initial algae growth. The roughed-up plastic canvas screen takes over in the long term after the mortar releases. I've found that the mortar releases during cleaning, about 1/2 of it comes off the first time you clean (usually the part that you contact with the scraper) and then about another 1/4 with the next cleaning (for about 3/4 total loss) and after that, just a little at a time. I think I'm coming up on the 4th cleaning on mine and I'm going to take lots of pics and use that handy cheapo 'scope again and see exactly how much is left and in what density.
And for fun, a #4-40 threadcutting machine screw
And my fingerprint
jerseypete
New member
Well this is 17 days growth. From new. Just threw this thing together. I bought 2 light off amazon
One was a 10w grow. The second was a 20w grow. I purchased the 20w cause the 10 looked like it wasn't enough. You can see the difference in growth
this is the 10w
this is the 20w.
One was a 10w grow. The second was a 20w grow. I purchased the 20w cause the 10 looked like it wasn't enough. You can see the difference in growth
jerseypete
New member
The only thing I think of why this might of took off so good. Is I let the screen sit in my fuge for a couple of weeks while I was trying to figure out how to get this to work in my sump. A lot of people say that won't really do anything. And I don't know if that's what did it.
outy
New member
Your water is cleaner.
Growth depends on many things here.
Its why I know I have too large a screen.
At 20 ish days mine is lightly covered to. But my tank was almost completely clean before I even installed mine. And at one cube a day it may take me 2 months to have my screen covered as large as it is.
I'm going to eventually narrow mine down so more water passes over the screen, it does love water flow
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