Algae scrubber

[Mcardle2012]

Hello everyone , was wondering how many of you guys and gals are running algae scrubbers? Also was curious on your opinions and how they are doing .


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[mcgyvr]

Quite a few here are and seem to be happy with them..
I ran one for a little while then just took it down... Too much maintenance IMO.. Scraping cups/pounds of algae a week just isn't fun IMO Just more trouble than it was worth for me..
There is a huge post about them (or a couple) floating around this forum somewhere.. (maybe in the advanced subforum)

Kind of a new(ish) trend seems to be algae reactors now with chaeto..

I have been very happy with carbon dosing though for nitrates (vinegar/vodka or combination of both).. Works great.. No maintenance except the normal cleaning of the skimmer cup..

 

[Mcardle2012]

Do you mind describing what you do for maint and your tank set up?


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[mcgyvr]

Do you mind describing what you do for maint and your tank set up?

Thats kind of a huge question that one could write paragraphs about and I'm not sure of your current level of experience/knowledge at this point and don't want to waste my time and yours writing about what you already know...

Maybe you should read the stickies on the newbie forum and then ask specific questions..

 

[frankv702]

I've been using an algae scrubber since about early August. It's a diy waterfall type and it's been working great. A ran a refugium with chaeto in it and the scrubber sucked out nutrients faster than the chaeto so it ended up dwindling away eventually. I had a huge problem before the scrubber with GHA taking over and a bad outbreak of red cyano. I couldn't get rid of it with water changes so what's what made me do a scrubber. Almost a week after setting it up, the red cyano was growing on the scrubber and noticeably being stripped from my DT. Over about 2 months, the GHA was on existent and no signs of red cyano.

I've since set up an auto water change system that changes out 1% of my water daily so maintenance on my tank is easy. Every Saturday I empty my collection cup on my skimmer, change the filter pad in the sump and scrape the scrubber. Every other Saturday I mix up new salt water for my awc. Now I run an ultra low nutrient system on a mixed reef and everything has very good growth. I have zero nuisance algae in the tank except coraline that completely covered my rocks. I've got nothing but good things to say about algae scrubbers. I'm actually building a tiny one now for my Nuvo Fusion 10 that I have an angler in and a bunch of zoas.

 

[ca1ore]

Been using ATS of various form since about 1992. Yes, they are maintenance intensive, and it's really easy to let them go for too long; however, in my system it is a key part of the export system. I have a lot of fish and feed them a ton, so ATS, chaeto, skimmer, GAC ... you name it .....