Algae scrubber not reducing Nitrates/Phosphates

[jbird0420]

Hi all,

Question about my ATS. I have a 125g mixed reef with a medium/heavy bio load/ 40g sump/ 250lbs LR in display and 50lbs LR in sump. I feed twice a day with Spirulina Brine Shrimp and Dr G's mix. I feed with a full 5ml syringe twice a day along with a sheet of nori. The past 2 years I have had pretty good success with keeping my nitrates at 0ppm with the Sulfur Denitrator reactors hooked up to my system. I am really not happy with the denitrators as they keep the PH of my tank low and deplete my alkalinity pretty quickly. I also use GFO for phosphates in a reactor as well. Usually my phosphates hover around .08 with the ATS and GFO. The ATS is a DIY canvas mesh from Michael's waterfall type with PVC setup since February 2019. Both sides are lit up with 54w par 38 LEDs and I am scraping algae off the sheet every 2 weeks on both sides with constant stream of flow on both sides with 24x7 light, no dark period.
I wanted to experiment and I pulled the denitrators and GFO reactor off my system 2 days ago since then my nitrates spiked to 40ppm and my phosphates are at .30. I noticed the PH has increased without dosing.
I still have my denitrators up and running in a bucket in my garage in case I would have to put them back onto my system and not have to reseed the sulfur. I am going to give it until tomorrow morning and if I still see a spike in both my nitrates and phosphates the reactors are going back on the system.
Based on this what am I doing wrong and why are my nitrates and phosphates still high with a broken in ATS that produces that nasty, slimy green algae every 2 weeks. I would imagine it is working but apparently not.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[mcgyvr]

Yep...they arent that effective..
Welcome to reality

 

[mattgumaer]

Wow. If your nitrates went from 0 to 40 in two days, it sounds like you have a ton of organics in your tank. Your feeding seems quite heavy but, I wonder if there isn't also a lot of detritus in the tank. You might consider increasing flow/circulation and how your mechanical filtration is working (assuming you have some). It sounds like you're asking your ATS to do an awful lot of work.

Matt

 

[wildman926]

Reduce your feeding. Do you have algae issues in your tank?

I had to up the size in my ATS recently. I use Turbo Floyd's ATS's, L2 Rev 3 on both my 90g and 150g. However, after adding a several fish, and increasing my feeding, the L2 was too small. I saw an algae bloom in the display tank, rocks, etc.

I purchased a used L4, and have immediately seeing the results. All the algae has disappeared on the rocks, and the sand bed algae mat is decreasing in size daily.

ATSs work, if sized properly.

 

[bshow24]

I agree with both comments above. There's something causing nitrates to spike that quickly, especially with 300 lbs of live rock in the tank. You may not have the correct size ATS, or not enough water running through it to lower anything.

Although I've never had success running an ATS, even when properly sized, there are cases of them working very well (coincidentally, it seems to happen quite often with Turbo Aquatics ATS).

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

...with a broken in ATS that produces that nasty, slimy green algae every 2 weeks.

[MENTION=192900]jbird0420[/MENTION], post some pics of your scrubber setup and your growth. That might help pinpoint an issue. The type of algae you describe doesn't sound like the kind you want growing, let's start with that

 

[jbird0420]

Thanks for all the help guys. I agree my ATS is probably undersized for my tank. Again it is a DIY ATS about a foot long PVC waterfall. It does get a good amount of flow on both sides. I don't think flow is an issue here. As I plan on adding another onto my system. I also agree the algae that is growing is not the algae I want to grow as I have seen some ATS online that produce this nice green color algae vs the green hair algae I have growing is the best way to describe it on my ATS.
I always have problems posting pictures on RC. I always get the file size is to big and even lowering my pic resolution quality it's still to large of a file. I don't use Tapatalk or any of that.

 

[reefteaser]

Just adding my own experience with ATS, 115 gal well stocked mixed reef, Trigger 39 sump with 2 marine pure blocks in it (probably overkill), a waterfall ATS I started last summer from Expressions LTD (oddly NOT an aquatics company, but a great product), and until recently, a Bubble Magus Curve 7. The pump gave out on the skimmer after 5 years, and I didn't replace it to see what happened.
Over 2 weeks no skimmer and no chemistry changes. Nitrates have been and remain at or near zero and no detectable phosphates.
ATS might not work for everyone, but I've become a big fan. Over time I've tried other methods (bio pellets, H2O2, resins, slime removers, other snake oils), but my fish and coral shave never looked better. I've had to cull some growth to keep from overcrowding.
To say scrubbers aren't effective is too broad a statement. Different methods may not produce identical results in everyone's setup, there's just too many variables. This is absolutely working for me.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Thanks for all the help guys. I agree my ATS is probably undersized for my tank. Again it is a DIY ATS about a foot long PVC waterfall. It does get a good amount of flow on both sides. I don't think flow is an issue here. As I plan on adding another onto my system. I also agree the algae that is growing is not the algae I want to grow as I have seen some ATS online that produce this nice green color algae vs the green hair algae I have growing is the best way to describe it on my ATS.
I always have problems posting pictures on RC. I always get the file size is to big and even lowering my pic resolution quality it's still to large of a file. I don't use Tapatalk or any of that.

This is why I wanted to see pics. If you're running a 125 and a 40B sump, then if your scrubber is 12" long (and how tall?) you could be off on teh necessary dims and lighting, like severely off - which might explain the funky growth