Ats

[caevan]

Snailman,
I can understand the confusion, when I built my ATS I only had Dynamic Aquaria vol 1 as a guide and used the are quoted for the 120g home tank and scaled it down.
If I was to build one again I think I would follow the same approach, since it worked well for me.
I would say rather than tank volume one of the major factors influencing total are would be the tank load.
You could compensate for an undersized scrubber by farming it more often, though from memory Dr Adey does tank about how to determine if the scrubber is to large for the tank, but I would have to reread the chapter to remember exactly what he said.

 

[cwa46]

Fredfish,

I have been running a homemade ATS for about 8 months. It is essentially what you are describing. It is under the tank(basement) and surges into the sump. It is not a dump bucket, but a stationary screen with variable water levels. I get 4-8 ounces of wet algae per weekly scraping. You can see the ATS at my web site.
With an ATS and a refugiumand DSB, I can feed very heavily.

 

[Fredfish]

cwa46,

Thanks for the link. Thats an innovative design you have.

My tank and sump are in the livingroom so noise is a big issue (no noisy slurping while my spouses favourite show is on ). I'm stumped right now as I think that all surge devices will probably make more noise than the family finds acceptable.

I suspect that the algae dump bucket that Adey uses will be the most quiet, IF I can figure out a way to get water into the bucket without a lot of splashing.

I will probably move my sump into the basement once I can afford a larger pump!

Fred.

 

[MarkS]

Sorry to change the subject...

Sorry to change the subject...

Am I the only one who is outraged by their agreement? Imagine what would have happened if the creator of the protein skimmer had decided to do that! It's just a filter for God's sake! How does using this filter and selling corals out of the tank in any way warrent them collecting money from the sale of the corals? What harm does it do for me to use on a tank 3000 gallons or more? Why would they NOT want it used on a public aquarium? How can they honestly think that by doing any of this you suddenly owe THEM money?

And then I noticed that little disclaimer at the bottom of each page. They trademarked the words "refuge" and "refugium"! I wonder if they have gone after any authors or makers of refugiums for violating their trademark? Really sad.

I would not purchase one of their filters, even if I was impressed with it. I would just DIY. I would never buy from a company that would do this to it's customers. I mean, what if I happened to open a LFS in the future? By God, I would not pay them a dime!

Anyway, off of my soapbox and back to your regularly scheduled program...

Mark

 

[Flatlander]

:hammer:

 

[MarkS]

Uh... yeah...

 

[LiquidShaneo]

Mark: How's the tank looking with the ATS100 on it? Any update?

Shane (aka "liquid")

 

[Mark]

Mark: How's the tank looking with the ATS100 on it? Any update?

Shane (aka "liquid")

Well,

It's kinda weird. I've been battling this red stuff in both tanks for months now. In the 75 gallon reef, I noticed that is affected the growth of my macroalgae. Now, in the 38 gallon ats system, the turfs haven't spread after 2 weeks. Inland said it only takes a week. Last night, I took out all the rocks and scrubbed off as much of the red stuff as I could. I'm now leaving the tank dark for 4 days, but keeping the scrubber on it's normal light cycle. Hopefully this will give the turf a kickstart while the red stuff withers away. I was originally hoping that the ATS would simply outcompete the red algae, but that didn't happen. Again, I wonder if the red stuff is using chemical competition to inhibit the growth of other algae. Just a thought. Keep in mind that this appears to be the same algae that drove Sanjay to tear down his tank, bleach it, and start over. I'm desperately trying to avoid that scenario.

I did the same scrubbing-rocks thing to the 75, without the dark phase. I also added some Mexican Turbos, which Carlos recommended. The prognosis on the 75 is good, and the macroalgae are gaining their foothold. The turbos actually seem to like this red stuff as well.

So, that's the long drawn out story. I also received some biotrace this weekend, and will begin dosing it.

 

[LiquidShaneo]

You got a pic of this "red stuff"? Is it kinda bubbly and grows all over your macroalgaes? I've got some issues with a red microalgae that's currently growing on top of my macro's too and from the looks of it, it's also out competing my macro's...

Also, what is "biotrace"?

Shane
(aka "liquid")

 

[Mark]

Check out the long-winded thread title Algae ID by Edsreef in Eric's forum:

http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=30618&perpage=25&pagenumber=2

It's a sporophytic stage of a more fleshy algae. It resembles red cotton. Sanjay has pics of it on his site here:

http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/s/b/sbj4/aquarium/reef_pictures/algae/algae1.jpg

Here's a link showing the sporophyte and gametophyte phase:

http://www.uog.edu/classes/botany/Mar_Bot/Asparagopsis.htm


I hope for your sake, that you do not have it. If you do, it seems turbos will actually graze the stuff.

Biotrace is a trace element supplement that Inland recommends to help kickstart the algae. The contents seem to be a mix of a variety of things including strontium, vitamin c, and other stuff. Kinda like a combisan, but the biotrace actually seems to have stuff in it. Well.. at least it has color to it(combisan not only was water, but it looked like water.) The only place I could find it online was:

http://www.marineandreef.com/shoppro/trace_elements.html


Sigh...I miss the days my tanks ran like they were on Autopilot.
I'm sure other online retailers carry it, but a quick search only turned up this site. The 32 oz. is pretty big, which is what I ordered.

 

[LiquidShaneo]

Whew. Nope, that's not the same stuff that I have. Hope you get yours under control soon... Man, that sux...

Shane

 

[Diatom2]

You guys are killing me!! I just got my refugium set up now I gotta figure out how to build a Surge/ATS.

Hey Eric I'll take your old ATS off your hands for you, you don't want that dirty old thing sitting around your place anyway do you? Aren't I a generous. *lol*

 

[Flatlander]

Thats what makes it fun. My wife says I keep aquariums just so I can always switch things around & buy new thingys.

When we use to RV on vacation, I always came back from Minnesota, with the 5-th wheel full of aquarium goodies.

 

[Mark]

LOL,

I'm with you Doug! I love to tinker with new gadgets. You should see the variety of skimmers in my closet!

 

[Flatlander]

Although the reason I am going to install the ATS, is to make it more simple. As I once said, I wish to use it as my only outside source of filtration and water flow,[ after Eric,s suggestion].

This will eliminate the sump, return pump, skimmer, hoses &pipes,[:celeb1:], 5 powerheads, my Kold Sterile, etc.

I just need to purchase a new reactor, as mine sits in the sump and with the tank being covered, there will not be enough evaporation for kalk.

 

[Mark]

I'm with you man. Simplicity is best. I guess I should clarify that my fondness of gadgets has not led me to the high-tech tank. I believe in the "less technology, more biology approach." Slowly, I've been undergoing some changes in my approach. The ATS tank is meant to be as simple as possible. No sump, reactors, anything. If it goes well, I'll attack the larger system. Right now, I'm working on replacing the calcium reactor on the larger system for a nilsen reactor. For some reason, kalk just seems less technical. No CO2 cylinders to deal with. Once I figure out a way to get an affordable ATS for the 75, I'll probably yank the skimmer on it as well. I was thinking since my tank is reef-ready, I could just plug the bulkheads and make the overflow chamber a place for my float switch and heater. I can also put the powerhead that powers the ATS in there, to help process the proteins that would develop on the surface. Think of all the room I'd have in the stand underneath! I think such a tank would be a little less prone to failures, and thus more vacation friendly. At last, I could go on my dive trips without constantly worrying about my tank!

 

[Flatlander]

Same line of thinking as myself, . My overflow will do the same.

I to, would like to use kalk, but what about evaporation. If yours is set-up like mine, and covered, the rate will be to low to sustain enough kalk drip to keep up with the heavy demand of my tank.

Part will need to be covered to keep the salt creep from the dump limited. Esp. from reading DT,s posts, when he was using yours.

 

[Mark]

I'm not experiencing the same salt creep problem. With the ATS, I've noticed my evap rate has increased significantly, even with the tank completely covered by glass lids. This might help with the kalk situation. Fwiw, I've never had a problem keeping my calcium levels up with kalk. Granted, it's hard for kalk to keep alkalinity at the same high levels that reactors do, but I can live with a dkh of 7 instead of 10. I think nilsen reactors help make kalk dosing more efficient. I also no longer keep a zillion sps anymore which has reduced the calcium demand.

I guess the whole calcium demand thing hints at another area where I'm beginning to keep things simple. And that's stocking densities. As you can tell from the outdated pics on my site, my reef was heavily stocked with corals for a while. I've had a few mishaps along the way, and now my tank is less densily stocked. The more I read and read, I'm starting to realize how unnatural densely stocked reef tanks are. Everyone worries about overstocking fish, but yet few think of corals along the same lines. I attribute a lot of the mishaps that occured to my tank due to the stress from overcrowding. The remaining corals have a lot more breathing room now. I'm going to try to keep it that way.

Kinda like how you got rid of a lot of softies, I'm trying to make my tank a less stressfull place for corals. I've always enjoyed seeing pics of your tank, since it's a good example how good a reef can look if one doesn't stuff it to the brim with rock and coral. Your tank is very open, and the corals appear to have a lot of breathing room. That's what I'm striving for now.


So hopefully I can go without the reactor. I intend to hold onto it, in case the kalk doesn't cut it.

 

[LiquidShaneo]

FWIW, here's how I got around having to deal with a Nilsen reactor: http://www.liquidreef.com/kalkwasser.htm

Shane
(aka 'liquid')

 

[Mark]

Hey Liquid, that's a great idea. Especially the styrofoam thing. I think Capn at Augsburg has something like that setup as well, with great results. Have you noticed any deterioration with the styrofoam? I'm just wondering if the caustic nature of kalk(12 pH) is affecting it in any way.