can you help me go skimmerless?

[zreefs]

what should the light cycle be on the ats

 

[bguile]

18hours ON 6 OFF

 

[mrbncal]

I use to have shrimp's and hermit's. Now I only rely on worm's,snail's,chiton's copepods etc.

with out the hermit's/shrimp imo you will see a mass increase in worm's,pods,snail's,chitton's etc which imo should make up for the hermit's/shrimp's not be added.

+1 I dont have any snails or hermits any longer. Just worms, limpets and mini stars. I could live w/o the stars.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Though I do mine 4pm-7am, so 15 hours. It's in an office so only on during off hours. Also mine has only 433 GPH on 20" so way less than 35 GPH/in but also has 4x24W T5HO grow lamps which think makes up the difference

 

[spamreefnew]

floyd when you say "grow lamps" do you mean grow lamps or just low kelvin? you have great growth,,do you think it is due to the t-5's or the low flow? my scrubber is just like yours but lit by four 23 watt 27000k spirals in reflectors and my growth is only half that....

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I use the 24" T5HO red/bloom lamps from www.aghydroponics.com. You just can't beat T5HO, it blows away CFL because of the even spread of lumens/sq.in.

 

[srusso]

I use the 24" T5HO red/bloom lamps from www.aghydroponics.com. You just can't beat T5HO, it blows away CFL because of the even spread of lumens/sq.in.

+1.. I don't have them... But it's 100% true.

 

[stormrider27]

I use the 24" T5HO red/bloom lamps from www.aghydroponics.com. You just can't beat T5HO, it blows away CFL because of the even spread of lumens/sq.in.

Wow, great prices especially if you order in bulk. Thanks for the tip and link :thumbsup:

 

[apt220]

Check out RC user "sanababit" and his tank. It's nicer than Marko Haaga's tank, IMO. He's growing SPS on a skimmerless ATS.

If you are going skimmerless, an ATS is almost 100% necessary because oxygenation could become an issue with a heavy bioload.

Just so people aren't mislead, sanababit does run a skimmer on his tank. See his posts and his beautiful tank on the first page of this thread:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1885414

 

[CLINTOS]

I'm taking the plunge as well on a 29G cube/15G sump

It will be a 24" x 4-t5 h.o box design.

no skimmer.

 

[srusso]

Great, people post pictures of growth here or start another thread. :celeb1:

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

You could just go with 2 x 24" T5HO, one on each side, unless you don't use reflectors (or DIY it). For 29 + sump (I assume that is a 15g sump 1/2 full = 8g?, or a 30g sump 1/2 full?) you need 37 sq inches, at 20" wide (effective useful width of screen, as the lamps are actually 21.5" long, a standard fixture ends up being 24" long) then you need only 2 inches of height on the screen, which is really only enough room for 1 bulb on each side. And you will get mad growth.

 

[CLINTOS]

Something like this:

 

[CLINTOS]

Something like this:

 

[breakdanc3]

Im going to be trying an algae scrubber on my 29g tank. im currently using a skimmer rated for 55g. its a warner marine hang on back . but i threw it in the sump. .. it removes alot of gunk and it smells horrible when i pour it out.. smells of rotten eggs and sulfer.
Well...... although i think wow glad thats out of my tank.. i know its removed alot of the food particles and plankton and beneficial filter feeding type foods .. and its collected in a mass and now its rotting .. thats why it smells so freshly horrid.. if u were to take the fish or corals in your tank.. and chop them up and put then in a liquid cup soup for a day .. it would smell the same.

Now i know a skimmer alone does not removed nitrate and phosphate .. i've had hair algae issues and caulerpa gone wild. i had to introduce a rabbit fish to eradicate it. which was a mistake. shortly after the rabbit fish ate all my caulerpa my tank went through a bleaching event .. it was a nitrate / phosphate induced crash i believe. caused bleaching on every coral .. my torch. montipora. frogspawn, even green star polyps were bleaching pale white. frogspawn and monti did not recover. Completely removing the algae from my system caused this imbalance. If i had a sump with a collection of caulerpa algae i dont' think my tank would have had a crash. Several frequent water changes and i was seeing corals revived. And finally a 90% waterchange and all New aragonite sand in a new setup and corals are healthy once again full of color. but im not about to do all that again in a year later ..

Anyone who has a sump with macro algae effectively has an algae scrubber..
Anyone who uses vodka dosing or biopellets is trying to remove phosphate and nitrate in the same manner an algae scrubber would do. but now u have to skim more .. which means u have to feed more. And feeding more is the whole reason u began to have nitrate/phoshate problems.
Using algae is more natural, Cheaper, and will allways be available. the problem is getting it off of your rocks and aquarium sand and tank walls and having it grow in a discrete location where no one would ever know about it or see it. The watery blanket sheet design seems to be a good grower of algae from the pictures ive seen. im deffinatly going to give it a try ..

 

[breakdanc3]

29g biocube with 55g rated HOB warner marnine skimmer no vodka dosing. No Sump with macro algae(no algae scrubber).
<a href="http://s442.photobucket.com/albums/qq141/breakdanc3/?action=view&current=28859_610775384703_63201782_34992095_57405_n.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/qq141/breakdanc3/28859_610775384703_63201782_34992095_57405_n.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
<a href="http://s442.photobucket.com/albums/qq141/breakdanc3/?action=view&current=28859_610775389693_63201782_34992096_2841866_n.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/qq141/breakdanc3/28859_610775389693_63201782_34992096_2841866_n.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Introduction of Rabbit Fish !
<a href="http://s442.photobucket.com/albums/qq141/breakdanc3/?action=view&current=28859_610775394683_63201782_34992097_3004172_n.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/qq141/breakdanc3/28859_610775394683_63201782_34992097_3004172_n.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Then ... Horrible bleaching event.. most corals survived..






Sry no picture : ( .. didn't really want to take it.

Then ...
New setup after about 90% water change and new sand ..and cleaning rocks.
Yet ...Caulerpa is returning and hair algae.

<a href="http://s442.photobucket.com/albums/qq141/breakdanc3/?action=view&current=P2020432.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/qq141/breakdanc3/P2020432.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
<a href="http://s442.photobucket.com/albums/qq141/breakdanc3/?action=view&current=180658_655964560233_63201782_36252522_4395642_n.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/qq141/breakdanc3/180658_655964560233_63201782_36252522_4395642_n.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
i have been vodka dosing
Its returning again and covering rocks .. i need an algae scrubber quickly ..

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Anyone who has a sump with macro algae effectively has an algae scrubber. Anyone who uses vodka dosing or biopellets is trying to remove phosphate and nitrate in the same manner an algae scrubber would do. but now u have to skim more .. which means u have to feed more. And feeding more is the whole reason u began to have nitrate/phoshate problems.

Using algae is more natural, Cheaper, and will allways be available. the problem is getting it off of your rocks and aquarium sand and tank walls and having it grow in a discrete location where no one would ever know about it or see it. The watery blanket sheet design seems to be a good grower of algae from the pictures ive seen. im deffinatly going to give it a try ..

You've got the right notion in the second paragraph quoted above.

Just a clarification in the first, the comparison between a refugium w/macro algae and an ATS is correct, except that an ATS is essentially a highly concentrated version of a refugium, and it does a lot more. So while an ATS can be considered a refugium, the reverse comparison, IMO, cannot be made.

I would challenge anyone running a standard refugium to produce as much algae of comparable weight and volume in 7 days as my ATS does on a regular basis. To illustrate my point, here are pics from the last 3 harvests:

1-29

2-5

2-13

 

[breakdanc3]

i have my ATS built now .. 1/2 pvc and an old roughed up plastic undergravel filter screen. The screen is aprox 12"x10" and only lit on one side with 23 watt CFL lamp of a lower kelvin,

Im more interested in seeing how my corals will do once the system is established.. my corals include: leather corals, green star polyps, zoanthids, Acanthestrea, torch, duncan, red and green montipora plate, acropora, and xenia.


I've never owned test kits but, with Softies, LPS, SPS, Caulerpa, and Green hair algae all in my tank. i plan on checking the lifeforms for growth rates and color change.. I went from skimmer only to ATS only. I had no room for my skimmer and my ATS to fit in a 10g sump. Other wise i would have done both for awhile. My skimmer is dry and in a bucket. And my screen has small hints off algae tufts on day 2.

 

[apt220]

First off let me say that I really want algae scrubbers to work. But...

Seeing pics of everyone's scrubbers is great and all, but why don't we see more pics of the actual display tank itself? Even the main algae scrubbers site has mostly pictures of the scrubbers themselves, rather than the display tanks.

Shows us pics of your beautiful displays. That is what the end point is anyway. It is no wonder why a lot of people are skeptical of algae scrubbers.

 

[srusso]

This has been said once before... I even think on this thread... Here is mine about a month ago... The tank is 6 months old now. I will post a new one tonight.

The reason may that we ATS'ers aren't trying to prove they work anymore, that's already been done... We are now improving designs. hence all the pictures of screens and lights.