ATS Just to Control Phosphate?

[reefgeezer]

So... whatta ya' think... Will an ATS address the small phosphate issue I currently use GFO to control?

I carbon dose w/ vinegar and have a decent skimmer. Nitrate is always roughly 0. While I don't have a decent test, I know I have phosphate issues when I don't run GFO because algae starts to grow a little, the glass needs to be cleaned more often, and coralline growth slows.

I'm thinking about replacing the GFO reactor with a DIY ATS. Whatta ya' think?

 

[outy]

Yes ,,,, do it.

How can you go wrong not having to buy GFO?

 

[StrikerKratos]

I don't have my ATS set up yet so I can't speak from first hand experience, but from I've seen other reefers have undetectable levels of phosphate because of their ATS. I don't see why it wouldn't do the same, especially considering your system seems to be handling the bio load well as it is.

 

[rog2961]

cheato is easier/better. Most fuges are way underlit. Try using one of those red led par38 ones and watch your chaeto growth explode. I tried an ats before, while they do work there are many downfalls. They are quite loud, your water will 100% turn green, and cleaning them is not the most fun.

 

[AZRippster]

cheato is easier/better. Most fuges are way underlit. Try using one of those red led par38 ones and watch your chaeto growth explode. I tried an ats before, while they do work there are many downfalls. They are quite loud, your water will 100% turn green, and cleaning them is not the most fun.

Definitely not trying to attack you, but I would have to strongly disagree. I've been running an ATS for over half a year now and I haven't experienced anything that you are claiming here. Mine is nice and quiet (maybe it's the design), my water Never turned green, and I can clean it and have it back in operation in under 5 minutes. I struggled with nitrates and phosphates for the year after we migrated our 180G to a 450G. I settled on a sulfur denitrator which worked amazing but once nitrates were so low, I struggled with balancing it to avoid hydrogen sulfide gas. That's my issue though, many others have done historically well. Once the N & P were knocked out, I integrated the ATS. It has been nothing short of amazing and very easy to maintain.

To reefgeezer's earlier post about dropping GFO. Yes, you can, but there may be times you might want to put it back online. Over the holidays my wife and I purchased several new fish (yeah, I know, bad practice). Obviously I had to feed more which introduced a heavier bio-load. My phosphates went up, not horribly, but higher than I like. I through a cup of GFO into my reactor and drove it back down until the ATS could catch up, which it has.

 

[outy]

cheato is easier/better. Most fuges are way underlit. Try using one of those red led par38 ones and watch your chaeto growth explode. I tried an ats before, while they do work there are many downfalls. They are quite loud, your water will 100% turn green, and cleaning them is not the most fun.

Not true.


My water is clean and chaeto dies no matter what lighting, including the one you listed.


Put on a ATS and its growing great, water is clear, its quiet and easy to clean.

 

[rog2961]

put your water in a white cup and tell me its not green

 

[rog2961]

Not true.


My water is clean and chaeto dies no matter what lighting, including the one you listed.


Put on a ATS and its growing great, water is clear, its quiet and easy to clean.

you've tried both and ats works for you, ive tried both and chaeto works for me, see where I'm going with this? never said they don't work, just quite a bit more work than grabbing a handful of chaeto and tossing it. 5 seconds < 5 minutes.

 

[AZRippster]

put your water in a white cup and tell me its not green

Hey, that's a darn good test. I'll try that today. I'll also fill a clear glass and check it against a white poster board background. Maybe mine has a green hue to it and I didn't realize it.

 

[MidwesternTexan]

you've tried both and ats works for you, ive tried both and chaeto works for me, see where I'm going with this? never said they don't work, just quite a bit more work than grabbing a handful of chaeto and tossing it. 5 seconds < 5 minutes.

I"ve never run GFO- and never will.

My Oversized/surface area- DIY ATO has been running over 5 months now.

I USED to have MASSIVE amounts of bright green Chaeto! LIke enough to fill a 30g crammed full. It always grew well for me, and everyone in my local club always got it from me, traded/sold to lfs, etc.
I ran 420W's total light on it, lighting 12on/12 off- sorta opposite the DT.

But even with all that- I still had some nuisance algae growing.

Now that my ATS is woking well, I gave away ALL of my chaeto months ago,
and no nusisance algae-
Water is cleaner than ever!- even fellow reefers comment on hos clear myh water in the DXT looks- Without a filter sock running too.

GFO is not the way to go, after a month or two of establishing growth-
the ATS is BY FAR the way to go for a reef system.
No sustaing costs, NO CRASHES from something getting out of whack, etc.

My is simple to take a screen out and 'harvest/clean'.

I have 2 screens, side by side, each about 11x10"-
I only clean/harvest one at a time, and stagger so one is always growing well/pulling nutrients etc.

In fact, my Reef Octo skimmer pump fried/went down and I had no skiimmer on my well stocked ~320g system for 6 weeks.

While I got another pump and int's up and running now-
I noticed to visable difference in my system w/o the skimmer!
I still run it though, set the column low/dry skim- still pulls some dark stuff after a few days- I run it 24/7.

The ATS, while the water flows 24/7
I took advice and run the lights on it 18on/6 off.

HTH, cheers,
I'm going to clean the long, bright green algae off one screen today in fact.
Takes less than 10 minutes- easy to do. Easier than wiping/cleasning my skimmer cup

PS- MY systems water AIN'T GREEN either!! It's clear! Yes, I checked it

 

[outy]

you've tried both and ats works for you, ive tried both and chaeto works for me, see where I'm going with this? never said they don't work, just quite a bit more work than grabbing a handful of chaeto and tossing it. 5 seconds < 5 minutes.

My point was you claimed downfalls that really don't exist.


They may not be for everyone and not work in every application, but you poured on the negative rhetoric just a little to much to steer people away from a very good and positive method of phosphate control.

They will not turn your water 100% green, maybe you meant to write 1% at worse. Ive seen pics on certain systems that did show slight yellow back dropped against white wall. But that was one example not all.


Noise can be addressed, one can hook up a GFO and make it noisy if done wrong to. So that's really non sequitur.


And those par38 bulbs are not the greatest thing since sliced bread but they do work great and I would posit they have the best color balance. Many people get great results from 6500k. Some of the best growth from sodium and MH.

The trick is really balancing electricity cost to light the algae or chaeto to match your systems feeding amount. There is no need to dump 150W to keep chaeto alive if you can run a ATS for 12 hours at 20W.

 

[AZRippster]

put your water in a white cup and tell me its not green

OK, so I ran the test. I admit the water is not perfectly clear, but then again I wouldn't imagine any tank water would be. I do not run carbon and maybe some of the slight coloration could be from nori, organics, or who knows. All the same, I'm plenty good with how clear it is.

 

[outy]

. I admit the water is not perfectly clear,.

I think your water is as clear as they come.


They did a test on a ATS and it showed slight visible yellowing, probably his source of complaint.

as to where yours is clear as they get regardless of any ATS

 

[Jone]

Could you post some pictures of your ATS set up,,?

I"ve never run GFO- and never will.

My Oversized/surface area- DIY ATO has been running over 5 months now.

I USED to have MASSIVE amounts of bright green Chaeto! LIke enough to fill a 30g crammed full. It always grew well for me, and everyone in my local club always got it from me, traded/sold to lfs, etc.
I ran 420W's total light on it, lighting 12on/12 off- sorta opposite the DT.

But even with all that- I still had some nuisance algae growing.

Now that my ATS is woking well, I gave away ALL of my chaeto months ago,
and no nusisance algae-
Water is cleaner than ever!- even fellow reefers comment on hos clear myh water in the DXT looks- Without a filter sock running too.

GFO is not the way to go, after a month or two of establishing growth-
the ATS is BY FAR the way to go for a reef system.
No sustaing costs, NO CRASHES from something getting out of whack, etc.

My is simple to take a screen out and 'harvest/clean'.

I have 2 screens, side by side, each about 11x10"-
I only clean/harvest one at a time, and stagger so one is always growing well/pulling nutrients etc.

In fact, my Reef Octo skimmer pump fried/went down and I had no skiimmer on my well stocked ~320g system for 6 weeks.

While I got another pump and int's up and running now-
I noticed to visable difference in my system w/o the skimmer!
I still run it though, set the column low/dry skim- still pulls some dark stuff after a few days- I run it 24/7.

The ATS, while the water flows 24/7
I took advice and run the lights on it 18on/6 off.

HTH, cheers,
I'm going to clean the long, bright green algae off one screen today in fact.
Takes less than 10 minutes- easy to do. Easier than wiping/cleasning my skimmer cup

PS- MY systems water AIN'T GREEN either!! It's clear! Yes, I checked it

 

[wildman926]

I use both an ATS and a Chaeto reactor. I believe, and the growth both of them tell me, that they pull out all of the unhealthy, excess wastes in the tank. I have to clean my ATS's every two weeks, or they are completely clogged. My chaeto reactor is cleaned every 2 months +/-. My chaeto reactor is made from Aquamaxx Biopellet reactors (I saw no change in my tanks after 8 months of use), and I use Floyd R Turbo's L2 ATS's.

BTW - My water is crystal clear


Here is one set, my 150g -

Here is the waste pulled out of a chaeto reactor after 2 months, and both ATS's from each tank -

 

[rt67ghy]

From mt ATS I got 200 grams of (wet) algae after 2 weeks. I'm also growing chaeto and the harvest is increasing all the time. Last time I harvested 230 grams of chaeto after 1 month. These are keeping my PO4 in the acceptable range.

 

[rog2961]

My point was you claimed downfalls that really don't exist.


They may not be for everyone and not work in every application, but you poured on the negative rhetoric just a little to much to steer people away from a very good and positive method of phosphate control.

They will not turn your water 100% green, maybe you meant to write 1% at worse. Ive seen pics on certain systems that did show slight yellow back dropped against white wall. But that was one example not all.


Noise can be addressed, one can hook up a GFO and make it noisy if done wrong to. So that's really non sequitur.


And those par38 bulbs are not the greatest thing since sliced bread but they do work great and I would posit they have the best color balance. Many people get great results from 6500k. Some of the best growth from sodium and MH.

The trick is really balancing electricity cost to light the algae or chaeto to match your systems feeding amount. There is no need to dump 150W to keep chaeto alive if you can run a ATS for 12 hours at 20W.

I mentioned things I did not like about the system so no bad talk at all about ATS? haha. Noise can be addressed, but it can't, otherwise you'd offer a solution. Unless you have a beananimal setup with a full siphon going, you will always have noise on a ats. Anytime air is involved in your drain, you will get noise. I've used those spiral lights before, for a long time in fact, In the two years i've used them growth has always been minimal. Upon changing the LEDS growth exploded. You say they are good and bad in the same sentence, Which one is it? I've hooked up the lights to a multimeter, they don't pull more than 30w total. Same water turning green, you say they don't but in the same sentence say they do. To the OP, try both and see what happens!

 

[rog2961]

I think your water is as clear as they come.


They did a test on a ATS and it showed slight visible yellowing, probably his source of complaint.

as to where yours is clear as they get regardless of any ATS

Nope, used an ats for quite some time on my system, without carbon, water is always green. If you choose to use carbon, the issue is slightly negated for sometime.

 

[rog2961]

that is a slick chaeto reactor, I've always wanted to build on like that. It ends up becoming mechanical filtration too once it grows in.

 

[Spectorman]

I do not have a huge phos and nitrate issue in my tank. While the parameters are not "0" as many claim my ATS keeps the phos and nitrates really low. I clean the ATS once a week. Takes 5 minutes. I used to do weekly water changes. Now with the ATS I change every 3- 4 weeks . my water has never turned green. The water will turn green if you scrape the screen in your tank or do not rinse the screen after its been scraped.