Algae Scrubber Basics

[Daddyrawg]

Bud, your scrubber rocks!

how long is that growth for? what are your light settings on the ATS?

 

[LQT]

how long is that growth for? what are your light settings on the ATS?

It's about 18 days of growth. The potentiometer knob to adjust the lights on my scrubber moves in a counterclockwise direction from lower to higher intensity. So my lights are currently in the 7 o'clock position on the dial. My scrubber is one of the first runs of Bud's L2 rev4 scrubbers. I believe his more recent runs of his scrubbers have the potentiometer dial going in a clockwise direction now. Bud, please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Yup, you've got that all correct. I started referencing the knob position in more ambiguous terms due to the direction change.

25% intensity is the halfway point (arrow pointing straight down)
50% intensity is 1/4 of a turn toward the max intensity
100% is then most obviously the max intensity

Note that while most would consider the knob at 3/4 of max meaning 75%, this is indeed not the case (it's not perfectly linear). It's very important to note that you double the intensity from the halfway position to the 3/4 position, then double it again to the max level. It's easy to hit the screen with way too much light if crank the intensity up without it being mature enough to handle that intensity.

Also note that the maximum intensity of similar size off-the-shelf fixtures matches up with the 25% level of these fixtures. In short, these lights are at least double if not 4x as intense as most

 

[SantaMonica]

This is a good example of how FW growth is different and needs different attachment surfaces. Although this type of thin non-GHA growth can occur in SW, it's much more common in FW, and does not hold on well to screens.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

This threads gone quiet.

I'll make the first post for 2020

 

[HarrisonMG]

Adorable!
I hope the silence is a sign that there is so much info on scrubbers, people are making use of it, and not that people aren't making/using them as much! I sure love mine. (At least I don't think its the reason my corals are going through a rough patch. That might be alkalinity)

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I think it's that everyone has started so many other threads rather than looking for the one mega-thread of conversation where all us scrubber nerds hang out.

There are many more people now with experience giving advice compared to just a few years ago....

 

[Scrubber_steve]

There is quite a few manufacturers now supplying stores like BRS with ATS.

Wasn't that long ago BRS didn't offer an ATS.

Although none of the suppliers are what your'd categorise as "one of the big boy manufacturers", like reef octopus or tunze.

I wonder if one of the big boys will attempt a industry take over in the ATS sector some time in the near future?

If I had their resources I would.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

You've seen CoralVue's attempt at doing this, right? The IceCap scrubber?

 

[Scrubber_steve]

You've seen CoralVue's attempt at doing this, right? The IceCap scrubber?

Not all that familiar with them or their scrubber, but at a quick look, it is cheap & poorly designed.

Seems like they had no one who new what they were doing design it for them.

If coralVue need the services of someone with experience to help them, I'm available.

I could even sell them my innovative design.

:reading::beer::thumbsup:

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Bingo. I knew I wouldn't have to follow that with anything...anyone who has done a little research and built a few units can quickly spot what's going on with their design...which is one reason why the largest online reef equipment retailer isn't carrying it.

 

[SantaMonica]

Ok here's the second growth pic of 2020

 

[SantaMonica]

And the second

 

[ComicCaper]

Starting to do my research, thoughts on these two lights:

45W Grow Light

ANKE Grow Light

Tank is 120 gallons, Reef, feeding will be one cube per day.

Once I get farther into the design side, I'll post some drawings to get some thoughts

Thanks all.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

ACKE over that other one, stronger LEDs. That 45W one is junk IMO

 

[HarrisonMG]

Just scraped this itsy bit of gunk off the screen. This is 3mo worth, although right after I noticed there were some clumps in the sump.

I think it's low nutrients cuz my nitrate test kit was reading 10ppm for months and I got a new one which told me flat out 0 every time. Phosphate 0.25ish.
Been feeding heavily last couple weeks and got the nitrate up to 5, and saw some slight improvement in terms of growth until this!

Any recommendations? Might I need to get a fertilizer or something? ICP test results are sent out to see about trace elements, awaiting those.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Are you saying that you waited 3 months to harvest/clean the screen?

 

[HarrisonMG]

Well a couple months ago it was growing really well and had been since last summer and then I noticed this time, only in certain spots. It was patchy. Then it mostly died so I scraped everything off. Then not much of anything really grew back on until a bit over the last couple weeks but the other day it must've died again.

I've been having problems with my softies and think I might even figured out it was the nitrate test kit. It read 10 when the whole time (since maybe Jan) it had been 0. Phosphates are at .25. So I would assume it was low nutrients; although I've been feeding quitr heavy and the numbers are going up.

Doing something wrong?

Thanks!

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

pics of scrubber? It does sound like you're stripping out the nutrients

 

[HarrisonMG]

Sure. the pic of the empty screen is today. The full screen is January. The one with only a bit of algae growing is 2 weeks ago. Thanks!

*I should note that I used to clean the screen every 10-12 days.