Algae Scrubber Basics

[jweist]

Thanks turbo. That makes sense. It could be that I'm over cleaning the screen for sure.
The screen is about a year old. tanks about 4 years old. The screen is lit on one side. It's spilt in half and the whole screen measures 24 in. There is a 24 w CFL powering it about 3 1/2 in. away. I feed 1/4 cube day but usually less. Light is on for 13 hours a day because it's in my room.

 

[jrp1588]

It could be over-cleaning. Think of it as harvesting. Leave a very decent amount of growth on the screen.

When using a scraper, don't scrape with a chiseling action. Instead, "drag" the scraper to loosen growth, and leave 25% behind for the next cycle.

I've never been able to get a knack for this. Depending on the pressure I use, I either remove nothing or everything. It's very rare that I can actually remove some but not all of the algae.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Thanks turbo. That makes sense. It could be that I'm over cleaning the screen for sure.
The screen is about a year old. tanks about 4 years old. The screen is lit on one side. It's spilt in half and the whole screen measures 24 in. There is a 24 w CFL powering it about 3 1/2 in. away. I feed 1/4 cube day but usually less. Light is on for 13 hours a day because it's in my room.

did you mean 24 sq in?

One sided is less efficient, but if it's what you have to use, no getting around that.

13 hrs/day on a CFL doesn't seem excessive. Could be slightly under fed and potentially over lit, but if so, just barely. I would opt to change the cleaning technique first.

Try this - for the next few cleanings, just swipe your hand and rinse it to get the yellow stuff off, or use a toothbrush and just make a light-pressure pass if it doesn't easily come off (it should, without scraping at all). Try to leave anything green about 50% in tact if possible.

Use the edge of a scraper to make an X or criss-cross pattern to thin it out a bit and get light to the base. Then next time, make a # pattern. Alternate that pattern with each harvest. With single-sided you need to make sure you get light to the base so you will want to thin out some of the base each cleaning.

I've never been able to get a knack for this. Depending on the pressure I use, I either remove nothing or everything. It's very rare that I can actually remove some but not all of the algae.

Could be that the lower layers are dying and it all sluffs off. Use the corner of the scraper to make criss-cross and # pattern lines

 

[jweist]

Ya I meant 24 Sq in. One sided is all I can do because it's in the back of a bio cube.

I'll definitely try that method for my next cleaning.

My screen is actually two sperate pieces because I literally cut it into two. Do you want me do the criss cross pattern on the half I do clean each week?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[Scuba_Steve]

http://algaescrubber.zohosites.com/

Thanks a lot! More so, thanks for writing it!

I have a tendency to oversize things, and I know that can be a bad thing here. If I am feeding 1/2-1 cube a day, is it too much to build a ATS that can handle 1.25 cubes? I am skimming as well, so maybe I do need to go down some.

1.25 cube setup
4"x4" double sided
3, 3w leds per side
Flow at 140-150gph measured

or

1 cube setup
4"x3" double sided
2, 3w leds per side
Flow at 140-150gph measured

 

[jrp1588]

Could be that the lower layers are dying and it all sluffs off. Use the corner of the scraper to make criss-cross and # pattern lines

Maybe I'm using the wrong tool. I've always used an old gift card.

 

[karimwassef]

19 bananas.. I'm on it. I started with one sheet of seaweed a week and ramped up to 8 a day. Starting with half a banana yesterday and one banana today. If they eat it all, we'll get to 2 bananas a day. Etc...

It may be slow but I can probably get to 14 bananas a week (bigger than seaweed). I don't have an imbalance but my fish dig it.

 

[karimwassef]

Experimenting with Potassium sources

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EsQVMlAs-DA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

They're going bananas! Sorry I had to

You have my favorite fish, Desjardini Sailfin

 

[karimwassef]

It's a gorgeous herbivore. Rabbitfish are insane consumers of vegetation though... a small school of them would likely strip any algae tank bare. Mine is also very aggressive and will try anything new I add. I got it as a baby and it's now a monster.

Once it goes for the new food, the tangs will give it a nip. If my hippo goes for it, it's got to be the good stuff.

baby pictures ahead:

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/00F09599-F521-43C9-8577-5C2E33396F3B_zps0jycey8p.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/00F09599-F521-43C9-8577-5C2E33396F3B_zps0jycey8p.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 00F09599-F521-43C9-8577-5C2E33396F3B_zps0jycey8p.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/7918BE4B-7D69-44CD-B6B7-0A9B69B7073B_zpsdupvdac6.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/7918BE4B-7D69-44CD-B6B7-0A9B69B7073B_zpsdupvdac6.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 7918BE4B-7D69-44CD-B6B7-0A9B69B7073B_zpsdupvdac6.jpg"/></a>

my original sailfin was the yellow tail that you can see in the video.

See.. my DT was my first algae scrubber

 

[SantaMonica]

Yes those are classic phosphate soaked rocks.

 

[karimwassef]

I know. it's great! that phosphate was excellent to kick start my tank's living ecosystem. I just didn't understand that at the time. The banana video shows what it looks like today. Here's a coral view

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qpUkbAJNyFw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

My point is that I hated phosphate and algae.. I went to extreme measures to remove it. Now, I realize how awesome that algae really is - thanks to the concepts in this thread. I now actively cultivate it, just to feed it back to my DT.

 

[Chris Abbott]

Beyond that I don't think there is much advantage, but I would be hesitant to define a "max"

This bring a question to mind: If I am running a waterfall that is meeting my needs export wise, does increasing the flow have any negative affects?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

This bring a question to mind: If I am running a waterfall that is meeting my needs export wise, does increasing the flow have any negative affects?

going much beyond 50 GPH/in actual flow doesn't seem to help, but bumping the flow up a little at a time, you can see if it helps. Depends on the build, IMO

 

[jrp1588]

Got my potassium test kit and Brightwell Potassion today. Potassium tested at 360, same result running the test twice. 400 is ideal, so I am low, but not as low as I expected. Anyone know at what level you'd expect to start seeing issues?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

The issue with K test kits is that they are specifically not very accurate, but relatively, consistent. What that means is that while you can see the difference from one reading to the next, and this is pretty decent, the actual reading number is rather inaccurate. At least that is what I've been told. Also the test kits are usually very difficult to use, esp the ones where you drip until you can't see the black dot under the vial - very subjective.

The Salifert one is the only one I use, thankfully it's available again. That one has a drastic color change.

 

[jason2459]

The issue with K test kits is that they are specifically not very accurate, but relatively, consistent. What that means is that while you can see the difference from one reading to the next, and this is pretty decent, the actual reading number is rather inaccurate. At least that is what I've been told. Also the test kits are usually very difficult to use, esp the ones where you drip until you can't see the black dot under the vial - very subjective.

The Salifert one is the only one I use, thankfully it's available again. That one has a drastic color change.

Yep, accuracy is not their strong suite. Why Salifert has not come out yet even after all these years with a profi version which would provide higher resolution. They have said here and there that a profi version is in the works but has yet to materialize. A Triton test would provide another fairly reliable way to test for K.

 

[jrp1588]

The issue with K test kits is that they are specifically not very accurate, but relatively, consistent. What that means is that while you can see the difference from one reading to the next, and this is pretty decent, the actual reading number is rather inaccurate. At least that is what I've been told. Also the test kits are usually very difficult to use, esp the ones where you drip until you can't see the black dot under the vial - very subjective.

The Salifert one is the only one I use, thankfully it's available again. That one has a drastic color change.

Well that's encouraging. Hopefully my levels are lower than the test is reading. My kit is Salifert. I found it about as easy to use as anything else in their line of test kits. I added 40g of potassium supplement dissolved in RO overnight in my doser. Should be enough to bring it from the measured 360 to 400 in my 125gal.

If my montis are still looking a bit shabby in a week or so, maybe I'll bring it up enough 50ppm.

 

[jason2459]

Keep in mind K is a major ion so bumping up K will increase salinity. Many things need K like bacteria and probably take up the most of it.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I think you'll find that keeping it at 400 might be a bit tricky, that's what my experience is - it seems to drop fast from 400 and then the drop rate levels out, so you can run a long time w/o dosing and not drop below 300. That's why I recommended the potassium-based water softener salt. You can mix up 5g of supersaturated mix for a few bucks, but you have to drip through dry GFO as mentioned - I don't know if that's for phosphate as much as it is for silicates and other minor impurities