rjkrejci
Premium Member
Never one to leave well enough alone, I'm performing an experiment on my fusion 20. I'm going to pit a Chaeto mini-fuge against an Upflow Algae scrubber (Santa Monica Drop .6) and see which one wins.
Full description of setup at the bottom, but generally, it's very heavily stocked with fish and corals and thankfully has been free from nuisance algae except for a short and minor bout with dinos a few weeks ago. Since starting with clean rock from existing clean aquaria in the area, I've never seen GHA, bubble or bryopsis in the tank, and I'm trying to keep it that way.
I've been running a JBJ Nano-glo fuge light lighting Chaeto in right overflow chamber (24/7) for about 6 weeks, and it's been growing great, producing about a good 3-4" ball harvest every week or 2. Lots of little critters running around in there. It's been keeping my Nitrates and Phosphates undetectable with my API test kit (not the best, I know). I had to move the light about 2-3" from the glass, since it was too bright for the chaeto and bleaching it. I created a shade for it to block stray light since it was away from the glass. Very happy with this setup.
I've also been interested in algae scrubbers and, while the downflow ones are recognized as the best, they tend to work best with sumps and are fairly noisy. I became interested in the Upflow scrubbers and decided to try the Drop .6 from SantaMonica. My main interest there is that it is self contained, can be relatively quiet (if raised a little above the water line) and won't create algae on the glass like the tray-through-glass scrubbers do. There is precious little info or reviews on these, and some skepticism, but they weren't ridiculously expensive and if it works well, may be another tool in the reef belt.
Just got the Drop scrubber running yesterday and seeded/rubbed it with a little algae from the glass between my JBJ and the chaeto hoping to jumpstart it a little. Fits (barely) in the middle chambers of the fusion. Seems to be relatively quiet with to top about 1/2" above the water line. It's quieter than my HOB-1 skimmer was, which itself it a pretty quiet skimmer.
The theory is that eventually, the most efficient of the 2 methods (scrubber vs. Chaeto) will win out over the other. So either my chaeto will stop growing, or the scrubber will never take off at all, or both will grow moderately. To be honest, I'm kind of hoping the Chaeto will win out, since that's the simplest, easiest and quietest.
I'll give it a few months for the scrubber to break in and get rolling, but I'll report in on this thread how it's going as things progress.
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Fusion 20, stock return pump
2x Kessil 160 w/controller (hitting about 40% max for now)
2x RW-4 controlled by JBWave (hitting about 50% max, alternating)
JBJ Nano-glo fuge light lighting Chaeto in right overflow chamber (24/7)
SantMonica Drop .6 in left chamber 2.
Run Carbon or Chemipure elite in a bag in media rack in L chamber
Removed: Aquamaxx skimmer and IM desktop reactor
non-coral Livestock:
2x sm occ. clowns
1 sm cherub angel
1 sm Royal gramma
1 med jawfish
1 pepp shrimp
1 cleaner shrimp
1 tuxedo urchin
1 turbo snail
4-5" RBTA
Corals: variety of zoas & LPS.
no nuisance algae except have to wipe glass every 3 or 4 days.
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Full description of setup at the bottom, but generally, it's very heavily stocked with fish and corals and thankfully has been free from nuisance algae except for a short and minor bout with dinos a few weeks ago. Since starting with clean rock from existing clean aquaria in the area, I've never seen GHA, bubble or bryopsis in the tank, and I'm trying to keep it that way.
I've been running a JBJ Nano-glo fuge light lighting Chaeto in right overflow chamber (24/7) for about 6 weeks, and it's been growing great, producing about a good 3-4" ball harvest every week or 2. Lots of little critters running around in there. It's been keeping my Nitrates and Phosphates undetectable with my API test kit (not the best, I know). I had to move the light about 2-3" from the glass, since it was too bright for the chaeto and bleaching it. I created a shade for it to block stray light since it was away from the glass. Very happy with this setup.
I've also been interested in algae scrubbers and, while the downflow ones are recognized as the best, they tend to work best with sumps and are fairly noisy. I became interested in the Upflow scrubbers and decided to try the Drop .6 from SantaMonica. My main interest there is that it is self contained, can be relatively quiet (if raised a little above the water line) and won't create algae on the glass like the tray-through-glass scrubbers do. There is precious little info or reviews on these, and some skepticism, but they weren't ridiculously expensive and if it works well, may be another tool in the reef belt.
Just got the Drop scrubber running yesterday and seeded/rubbed it with a little algae from the glass between my JBJ and the chaeto hoping to jumpstart it a little. Fits (barely) in the middle chambers of the fusion. Seems to be relatively quiet with to top about 1/2" above the water line. It's quieter than my HOB-1 skimmer was, which itself it a pretty quiet skimmer.
The theory is that eventually, the most efficient of the 2 methods (scrubber vs. Chaeto) will win out over the other. So either my chaeto will stop growing, or the scrubber will never take off at all, or both will grow moderately. To be honest, I'm kind of hoping the Chaeto will win out, since that's the simplest, easiest and quietest.
I'll give it a few months for the scrubber to break in and get rolling, but I'll report in on this thread how it's going as things progress.
--------------------------------------------
Fusion 20, stock return pump
2x Kessil 160 w/controller (hitting about 40% max for now)
2x RW-4 controlled by JBWave (hitting about 50% max, alternating)
JBJ Nano-glo fuge light lighting Chaeto in right overflow chamber (24/7)
SantMonica Drop .6 in left chamber 2.
Run Carbon or Chemipure elite in a bag in media rack in L chamber
Removed: Aquamaxx skimmer and IM desktop reactor
non-coral Livestock:
2x sm occ. clowns
1 sm cherub angel
1 sm Royal gramma
1 med jawfish
1 pepp shrimp
1 cleaner shrimp
1 tuxedo urchin
1 turbo snail
4-5" RBTA
Corals: variety of zoas & LPS.
no nuisance algae except have to wipe glass every 3 or 4 days.
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