Algae Scrubber Basics

Algae Scrubber Basics

I have a 400 tank running an ats

Screen size is bout 9x9...

Running 2 of these lights same side

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CXTQRWQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Q4.mxb84AGH3R

I get growth but not a lot like what I see some of u folks grow. I have a lot of bio load (20+ fish n big ones too) n feed heavy and have lately stopped due to crazy nutrients..

Usually feed 3-4 sheets of nori n break off chunks of frozen food

Should I have a bigger screen or keep same screen n get a better light?

If bigger screen..how big?
If better light... Which one??

Thanks



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Yes new tanks get them. Then rocks cover with periphyton over the next year.

Screen size is bout 9x9
Click to expand...

= 81 square inches. Needs at least 40 total LED watts (20 each side). Since yours is 1-sided, it's only half as strong. Updated guidelines:


Scrubbers are sized according to feeding. Nutrients "in" (feeding) must equal nutrients "out" (scrubber growth), no matter how many gallons or liters you have. So...

An example VERTICAL upflow or waterfall screen size is 3 X 4 inches = 12 square inches of screen (7.5 X 10 cm = 75 sq cm) with a total of 12 real florescent watts (not equivalent watts) of light, or half that for LEDs, for 18 hours a day. If all 12 watts (6 watts LED) are on one side, it is a 1-sided screen. If the watts are divided on each side of the screen, it is a 2-sided screen. This should be able to handle the following amounts of daily feeding:

1 frozen cube per day (2-sided screen), or
1/2 frozen cube per day (1-sided screen), or
10 pinches of flake food per day (2-sided screen), or
5 pinches of flake food per day (1-sided screen), or
10 square inches (60 sq cm) of nori per day (2-sided screen), or
5 square inches (30 sq cm) of nori per day (1-sided screen), or
0.1 dry ounce (2.8 grams) of pellet food per day (2-sided screen), or
0.05 dry ounce (1.4 grams) of pellet food per day (1-sided screen)

Problem rocks: Each 50 pounds (2.2 kg) of nuisance algae covered rocks you have adds 1 cube a day.

Flow or air bubbles is always 24 hours; water flow is at least 35 gph per inch of width of screen [60 lph per cm], EVEN IF one sided or horizontal.

FLOATING SURFACE SCRUBBERS WITH STRINGS: Screen size is the size of the box (Length X Width), and is 2-sided because the strings grow in 3D.

Clean algae:

Every 7 to 14 days, or
When it's black, or
When it fills up, or
When algae lets go, or
When nutrients start to rise
 
Hey guys, I'll try and make this short.
-My ATS has been running 6 or 7 full days now, can't remember exactly.
-It's a one-sided, 4.5" wide by 3" tall cactus-like screen.
-I feed around 7 or 8 small pinches of flake food that is green, and once a day of a small amount of brine shrimp.
-3 CREE XP-E Photo Red (660nm) and 1 Ultramarine Royal Blue LED (440-445nm) and the Mean Well LPC-35-700.
-ATS lights are on 18 hours a day.

My nitrates before the ATS were 20ppm, now 6 days later they're around 40ppm. I attribute this to the amount of feeding and 2 clownfish in the tank. However, I'm feeding this much because I'm 1: trying to get the ATS to grow algae as quick as possible and 2: I want to be feeding my clownfish this much every day to help them start spawning.

The picture below is a little misleading. This is the only mechanical filter in the tank and I think all the stuff on the screen is mostly food. It's basically the same color as the flakes. But wouldn't flakes eventually just dissolve in the water? Or would it encrust onto the screen like that? Am I doing something wrong? My rocks are starting to grow brown and green algae and it doesn't look like what's on my screen. I don't think I'm going thru the brown algae phase a lot of new ATS's go thru. Any thoughts?

<a href="http://s1137.photobucket.com/user/br88dy/media/Algae%20Scrubber/6%20days.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n513/br88dy/Algae%20Scrubber/6%20days.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 6 days.jpg"/></a>
 
Scrubbers are not mechanical filters; they are bio filters. The stuff on the screen is just initial brown growth. Never feed more to try to get a scrubber to grow.

Your rocks are just developing their natural covering of periphyton.
 
SantaMonica said:
Scrubbers are not mechanical filters; they are bio filters. The stuff on the screen is just initial brown growth. Never feed more to try to get a scrubber to grow.

Your rocks are just developing their natural covering of periphyton.
Click to expand...



Ya I know it isn't a mechanical scrubber, I was just noting that it appeared my fish food was getting stuck on the screen. Thanks for the help as always!
 
cec41610645c4f381293efe763b2561d.jpg


This is after 8 days up and running. Does everything look normal to you guys?



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Every system is different. Look like you seeded the screen with some algae?

Remind me, this is a 10x10 screen on your 75+25 system, correct?
 
The algae on the screen is brown but I just read a few pages back where that can be normal....just lightly wipe off with my hand if I remember right. Green should be coming soon I hope.
 
The red light offsets the color, so it's hard to say where it's at. If you can take a white/flash pic that is better to evaluate.

But based on your comment above, sounds like a brown coloration of the mesh with some green chunks here and there. I would leave it. Until you start to see some meat to the growth, even the brown coating, just let it be.

You don't need to seed the screen, that really doesn't do much in the long run. I was just curious, because the pattern of chunkier growth reminds me of what a screen looks like when someone takes a handful of GHA and grinds it into the screen
 
I'll leave it for another week and see what happens. Thanks. If it matters my tank is currently cycling. I may have started the ats too soon but I thought it might help keep down any phosphates or other unwanted nutrients and reduce any algae blooms.


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Hello everyone
Been running my diy ATS for about 2 months now and all I've been getting is a layer of the brown stuff. Haven't been getting any of the green stringy algae at all. All I see after 2 months are very small green specks in several places on the screen. Possibly my light is not strong enough?

I use a 100 watt (42 watts actual ) cfl bulb. 2700k
Screen size is 11.5" x 17"
Pump is approx 260 to 300 gph.

Running ATS on my frag tanks...
40 gal per tank x 2 = 80 gal
40 gal sump
Both frag tanks use the same sump. Total gallons 120.

Problems I am having are, I continue to have GHA on my frags with these damn air bubbles forming when lights turn on. I lightly brush the GHA and bubbles off as best as I can, just about every other day. It's really starting to get old, especially after 2 months of doing so.

I barely feed the tanks to see if I am over feeding but still comes right back. Nothing is dead or decaying in the system.

What am I not doing correctly? So frustrated.
Please help!

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How much do you feed?

Screens are based on feeding, not volume. This was a change in 2012 (see my sig)

12 sq in per cube of food fed per day

So your screen (190 sq in) is sized roughly for 15 cubes/day...guessing, you don't feed that much.

With a screen that large, you are spreading out the growth over too much of an area, this is an extreme case so that might explain it.

Take the same light (one on each side?) and same flow and make the screen 1/4 that size. 6x6 ish. That should do better...but get back on the ?'s above
 
Floyd R Turbo said:
How much do you feed?

Screens are based on feeding, not volume. This was a change in 2012 (see my sig)

12 sq in per cube of food fed per day

So your screen (190 sq in) is sized roughly for 15 cubes/day...guessing, you don't feed that much.

With a screen that large, you are spreading out the growth over too much of an area, this is an extreme case so that might explain it.

Take the same light (one on each side?) and same flow and make the screen 1/4 that size. 6x6 ish. That should do better...but get back on the ?'s above
Click to expand...
As of right now, basically nothing (maybe half a pinch of pellets for my tang, if that), as I'm trying to keep as much nutrients out. But that doesn't seem to help. I don't know what a half a pinch equates to in relation to a cube but it's not a lot at all.

So, why would the algae and those damn bubbles grow on my frags instead of on the screen? Can't seem to wrap my head around it.

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk
 
Floyd R Turbo said:
How much do you feed?

Screens are based on feeding, not volume. This was a change in 2012 (see my sig)

12 sq in per cube of food fed per day

So your screen (190 sq in) is sized roughly for 15 cubes/day...guessing, you don't feed that much.

With a screen that large, you are spreading out the growth over too much of an area, this is an extreme case so that might explain it.

Take the same light (one on each side?) and same flow and make the screen 1/4 that size. 6x6 ish. That should do better...but get back on the ?'s above
Click to expand...
I want to feed more, as much as I possibly can to have a healthy and fat frag tank but if I do I feel my frags will just wither away and die.

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