Algae scrubber or go back to chaeto?

[DanielJay]

I have pretty high nitrates right now in my tank as well as phosphate. Over 2 years ago I tried to create an algae scrubber to assist with my chaeto algae. The chaeto hasn't grown as much since that but the algae scrubber only produces dark slimy algae due to the high nutrients.

Would you recommend I switch back to using only chaeto or should I continue to try the algae scrubber?

*This past week I have been changing about 15 gallons of water every 3 days as I have been vacuuming the sand and the bare bottom of my fuge to help lower nutrients.

Current setup:

*This setup uses this light: Gled® 2014 Latest 60w Red+blue E27 LED Hydroponic Plant Flowers Vegatables Greens LED Grow Lights Ac 85-265v however the salt spray as recently killed off the top half of the light.

Previous setup:

My nitrate test from last night:

 

[ganjero]

Why not do both? Throw chaeto back in there, it will grow in your current setup. This might not solve your issues, and you need to find the source of your high nitrates an po4, too much feeding?
Also, I would use scrubbers/chaeto to maintain levels not to reduce. Do several big water changes that should help bring those numbers down, and maybe your scrubber and chaeto will help maintain at lower levels.

 

[swiftvision]

a reactor with bio pellets and a reactor with bio balls fix all my nitrate problems.

I read at ZERO and change 10% the water once a month only.

I have Cheato and GFO reactor for Phos. and a bag of Phosgone (or whatever) in the incoming section of the sump.

 

[DanielJay]

Why not do both?

My home made ATS is having issues with salt creep as well as the lighting is having issues because of the salt creep. For now I have purchased a larger waterproof LED fixture to grow the chaeto. If I decide to go back to ATS I am planning on making a contained acrylic box with better lights.

 

[ReefCowboy]

My home made ATS is having issues with salt creep as well as the lighting is having issues because of the salt creep. For now I have purchased a larger waterproof LED fixture to grow the chaeto. If I decide to go back to ATS I am planning on making a contained acrylic box with better lights.

ATS and chaeto wont work well at same time, as the ATS will starve the chaeto. This is true as long as your ATS has the proper light and set up.
Ive done lots of research to design my own ATS and Ive read over and over that the algae grown in the ATS is a more simple and agressive type than chaeto and will beat the last one in a run for nutrients.

If you run both, growth will stall in the chaeto and it will start breaking off and becoming a mess.

I built my ATS with waterproof leds and it works great.

 

[homer1475]

ATS and chaeto wont work well at same time, as the ATS will starve the chaeto. This is true as long as your ATS has the proper light and set up.
Ive done lots of research to design my own ATS and Ive read over and over that the algae grown in the ATS is a more simple and agressive type than chaeto and will beat the last one in a run for nutrients.

If you run both, growth will stall in the chaeto and it will start breaking off and becoming a mess.

I built my ATS with waterproof leds and it works great.

While I would mostly agree with you, in this situation I think they both would flourish for a while. But yes, eventually the ATS will take over and the chaeto will die off.

Built my ATS as well from acrylic from home depot. Think the entire thing with lights and separate feeder pump was just 100$

 

[nycman]

Very helpful. I have a highly functional ATS, that produces red and green slime algae (and contains it!). In my fuge, the Chaeto has never done too well - it just survives, and then slowly disappears. But my entire bottom of the fuge has healthy green feather caulerpa which I brought in on a single rock and it spread rapidly. So this sample of one suggest that a good ATS will not out compete all macro algaes. Zero nitrates all the time.

 

[Louis Z]

Is your light always that high away from the Chaetomorpha . Maybe you need 2 lights on it.

 

[Louis Z]

Sorry I didn't realize you posted as previous setup . Maybe add a white Home Depot LED to it and to get another algae to grow on it.

 

[laverda]

An ATS can defiantly out compete cheeto and is more efficient in my experience. There is no reason not to run both and it looks like you have plenty of room for both.

I have 2 ATSs and cheeto, some other dense matt algae and 4 mangroves all growing rapidly in thesump for my 350 gallon system. When I ran the ATSs 24/7 my nutrients dropped too much and my cheeto all but disappeared and my corals were not very happy. I than reduced the light cycle by over 50%. My nutrients climbed back up and I increased the light cycle until I got my nutrients where my corals are happier. If your nitrates and phosphates drop too much just reduce your light cycle. You don’t say what your phosphate levels are. It is my understanding Cheeto requires phosphate to grow.

I agree it does not look like you have enough light on the cheeto. It really doesn’t look like enough on the ATS, hard to tell. Also dosing a little iron 5-10ml a day will help with your cheeto growth.

 

[Louis Z]

Laverda what iron supplement do you use?

 

[laverda]

I have used Kent and Seachem currently.

 

[DanielJay]

Is your light always that high away from the Chaetomorpha . Maybe you need 2 lights on it.

Forgot to post when I installed it but on April 13 I added this new light to my refugium for my chaeto. I moved all the rocks around in there to make things easier to clean as well. If the chaeto doesn't have enough light now then there is something wrong.

You don't say what your phosphate levels are.

I am trying to get back into testing water parameters. For way to long I was slacking and didn't test. I need to pick up some regents for my Hanna phosphate checker as the couple of them I have left expired in 2016. :eek2: Granted I did try one the other night and it read zero. :hmm4:

 

[Fourstars]

I went back to just Cheato to keep it simple. You never mentioned if you have a DT algae issues? I have to dose nitrates and phosphates to my tank.