algae scrubber flow

[Gandolfe]

I was wondering if not having enough flow over your algae scrubber can actually make algae grow in your tank? I have major algae problems, primarily hair algae and a purplish slime lime red slime but dark purple. My po4 level is .25 and my nitrates are 30. I know they are both a little high but not enough to cause as much algea as i have. I tried getting snails but they keep dying. The only other thing i can think of is i have 3 12000k daylight bulbs, 1 6700k sunlight bulb, a purple, a 754 blue and 2 actinics. I clean my AGTS every week but only have moderate growth. I feed a pinch of flake or some frozen food in the morning and then a little flakes in the afteroon. My skimmer has a half full dark green capacity evry couple of days. Any ideas or help would be most appreciated

 

[kenith]

You didn't mention whether your screen has algae growth.

 

[Gandolfe]

I clean my ATS every week but only have moderate growth

 

[Gandolfe]

I just started getting purplish growth on my ATS

 

[Gandolfe]

here's some pics of the algae

here's some pics of the algae

slime and air bubbles in my tank..the gorgorian is still extending polyps after 2 months so water isn't that bad...just can't figure out what's causing algae

 

[BluScrnOdeth]

too little flow will starge the algae and allow it to grow in your tank. Too much flow and the algae cant get ahold of the screen and/or may not be able to filter the screen well enough.

Lighting, you followed the directions properly? 1w per aq inch or something and use 2700k bulbs?

 

[Gandolfe]

I have 2 cfls ,1 on each side..I really think it's a flow problem because my phospahtes and nitrates aren't that high..it's driving me nuts and keeping purple corraline from growing on the rocks and keeping my spaghetti worms from stretching out... I don't have any money to but a bigger return pump..I'm running a mag 7 right now. I have a mag 5 I use to ix saltwater with in a 45 gallon tank but then I'd have to just go over the back of the tank and my canopy wasn't built to allow that! I'm supposed to get some stuff in tomorrow for my phosphate reactor and a nitrate sponge, along with a multipurpose metal/impurities sponge. they are all from the same company and come with the filter bags to just place in your sump and water flow

 

[spamreefnew]

I don't think you can have too much flow or watts on your screen. even with a proper scrubber it will take months to rid your display of all nasty stuff,but once it is gone it will not return!

 

[Gandolfe]

it just started to grow about a month ago after beiong switched from my 90 into the 125 back in middle of august

 

[bfoleyiii]

Just remember your nitrates and phosphate readings are going to be skewed since you have algae consuming them. How long has your scrubber been running? You could try running lights out in the DT for a few days and let your scrubber algae take hold some.

 

[Gandolfe]

scrubber has been running since day 1..it has algae growth on it...I am gonna do a water change and add a canister filter filled with Magnavore PURA NitrateLock,PURA Complete(like carbon only better) and fill my phosban 150 reactor with PURA Phoslock and see what that does

 

[herring_fish]

I'm definitely not an expert but I agree with BluScrnOdeth Please make sure that you have enough lighting as well as flow. Optimally, you want the warmer color range. Your bulbs may be on their 5th half life and may not be putting out much light. Your purple, blue and actinics may not be helping much.

A good working ATS should do the job for you but you need to play around with things until you find out what the problem is. Can you shine a regular house lamp or tow on the scrubber to see if it helps. Perhaps you could use it when you are not using the room. Careful, don't burn anything"¦like I did.

 

[Gandolfe]

the bulbs on the tank are less than 4 months old and i have 2 CFL 25 watt bulbs on my ATS,one on each side!It definitely has enough lighting on the ATS..I am cutting the daylight bulbs down to 5 and a half hours on instead of the 10 i had them on and seeing if that makes a difference

 

[herring_fish]

Maybe I’m wrong on that. How big is your screen? Are those two CFL 25 Watt bulbs 1200K? What is with the purple and blue lights? I think that the lighting should be between 3500k and 6500K, very warm bulbs.

Back to the flow. Is the algae caking or parts of it turning yellow?

 

[wildman926]

You need to correct the issues that are causing this first, i.e. - "My po4 level is .25 and my nitrates are 30." If you are measuring when you have an ATS, that is pretty bad. Massive water change is in order

What is your water source? Tap water or RO/DI?

You are also running your lights for way too long, i.e. 10 hours. Cut that back to around 6 as you stated you were going to do, as that is all the corals need.

Treat the red slime with UltraLife Red Slime Remover.

Your tank is going through a cycle again, from moving from the 90 to the 125.

 

[herring_fish]

I re-read your first post. Those other bulbs are for your corals, not the ATS right? I get it now. Sorry

Can you be more specific about how much you are able to harvest from the screen? A cup, a bowl what ever? Just out of curiosity, what size is your screen? (Sometimes, when people like me ask too many questions, it's because we are stalling and don't know the answer.)

True, treating the slime with a product my help that particular problem, I would also lean toward the water change instead of attacking individual water parameters with other products. Thinks might get out of whack and your ATS algae growth might get suppressed.

After the change, test your parameters right away and then see if they go back up quicker than they should from feeding. A few groups of tests might give you a much better picture of what is going on in the tank.

 

[Gandolfe]

the screen is 12" by 10" the biggest piece i could find the cfl are 6500 i think and i tried red slime remover,didn't work and it always has in the past on red slime, this stuff is a purplish black! I used a hose and syphoned off alot of it and then did a 40 gallon water cahnge and i use RO/DI water only and it has 0 TDS. I'm hoping the Pura products i am now using will help..was ****ed because one of my Pajama Cardinals died yesterday after i did water change but all other fish are fine( I've had it for almost 4 years so it might have just been its time). I checked parameters and nitrates were 20 and Phosphate was barely reading .25(API test kit) I'm gonna check again today and see if the pura stuff helped overnight! I've cut my daylights from 10 to 6 also. I really need to add more CUC but every snail except the wild caught Queen conchs i have keep dying

 

[BluScrnOdeth]

ok, so you have 120sq" of screen, double sided, you would need 120w of CFL on each side. 350gph of flow of the 10" is the width of the screen otherwise if the 12" is the width you need 420gph. What you could do, is if you can make your screen taller, you can decrease the width and need less flow (match the width of the screen to the flow of your current pump).

THOUGH you should know, with the new screen sizing recommendations, you can (if i'm understanding the new guidelines correctly) use a 3x4" screen (12sq") per frozen cube of food you feed, double sided (lit on both sides). This could reduce the screen size you currently have and the wattage of the bulbs ou have may be ok.


So if you feed 3 cubes per day, thats 36sq" of screen, .5w/sq" of screen = 18w (EACH SIDE for a total of 36w CFL). Wattage is measured in Flourescent wattage, not it's equivelant. But i still like to keep things closer to 1w per sq". I may be wrong on this, so i would def ask for a second opinion. I use 100w eq CFL 2700k bulbs, and just shy of 35gph flow per inch of screen for 18hr on 6hr off. My algae grows great.

I leave my LED display lights on for 11hrs a day.

ONLY use 2700k (it works, 6500k's dont work that well, algae grows better the redder the light) or lower kelvin <2700k.

Hope this helps.

 

[alanbates12]

Not sure how long you’ve had this running but sounds like you should get back to basics. All this stuff your spending money on is not going to fix your problem long term. Proper husbandry is where you should start. Assuming your bio filtration is live rock and if this is a reef. Your Po4 and nitrates are high. Remember you’ve got algae growing so your numbers will be low because the algae is using up some Po4 and nitrates. Proper flow may help slime algae. First how is your system set up (sponges, bio balls, sock filters, canister filters are nitrate factories, imo). My tank was set up in the beginning with sponges in the overflows to lower noise, sock filter and bio balls with a nitrate sponge in the fuge and I had the same problem your having but a smaller scale. After lots of time and money I took out everything, got a proper CUC, got my Mg, Ca, and Alk to the proper levels and now everything is growing and doing great, knock on wood. Not sure what’s in your tank so this may not be the best idea but I’d start by getting rid of all your sponges, bioballs, sock filters, canister filter, of course not all at once. Feed once a day. I’d do a blackout in my tank to starve out some of the algae do some big water changes and clean my tank. I’d do a 20% weekly for 3 weeks maybe 4. Order a proper CUC, http://www.reefcleaners.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=54&Itemid=81, is a good place to get them. The scrubber is a good idea and once your system is running correctly I think you’ll see good growth. Remember it did not get like this overnight so it will take some TLC and time to get your reef looking good. Best of luck

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[pskelton]

the screen is 12" by 10" the biggest piece i could find the cfl are 6500 i think and i tried red slime remover,didn't work and it always has in the past on red slime, this stuff is a purplish black! I used a hose and syphoned off alot of it and then did a 40 gallon water cahnge and i use RO/DI water only and it has 0 TDS. I'm hoping the Pura products i am now using will help..was ****ed because one of my Pajama Cardinals died yesterday after i did water change but all other fish are fine( I've had it for almost 4 years so it might have just been its time). I checked parameters and nitrates were 20 and Phosphate was barely reading .25(API test kit) I'm gonna check again today and see if the pura stuff helped overnight! I've cut my daylights from 10 to 6 also. I really need to add more CUC but every snail except the wild caught Queen conchs i have keep dying

You do not have enough light for a screen that size and your lights are of the wrong color temp. With nitrate at 20-30 you should be getting very dark growth if your screen and lighting are sized correctly. You need to get lower K CFLs 2700K to 3000K range. For lighting you should follow the 1 watt per square inch rule. That is for every Square inch of screen you should have 1 watt of CFL lighting (1/2 watt each side) Your screen 12 x 10 is 120 square inches. Ideally you should have 120 watts of CFL lighting. That's 60 watts on each side. You should look at the screen sizing guidelines on the scrubber basic thread. I seriously doubt you need 120 square inches of screen for your tank. If you cut your screen down and size your slot pipe accordingly you will not need as much light and your scrubber performance will be more what your have been looking for.