808Rob
New member
What's an algae scrubber?
How much % water change do you do a week?
- Thread starter jfingers8
- Start date
Robert Patterso
New member
Q: What are algae scrubbers?
A: Algae scrubbers are not brushes! Scrubbers are devices which use light and flowing water to remove the "bad" things (nutrients) from aquarium water, while leaving the "good" things (food, nutrition) in. Unlike the scrapers/scrubbers that you use to clean your glass, an algae scrubber does not physically clean anything. Instead, the "scrubbing" is when the "dirty" water passes through an algae scrubber, and then the "clean" water comes out. The water is thus "scrubbed" clean of nutrients (nutrients are "œbad", but nutrition is good).
A: Algae scrubbers are not brushes! Scrubbers are devices which use light and flowing water to remove the "bad" things (nutrients) from aquarium water, while leaving the "good" things (food, nutrition) in. Unlike the scrapers/scrubbers that you use to clean your glass, an algae scrubber does not physically clean anything. Instead, the "scrubbing" is when the "dirty" water passes through an algae scrubber, and then the "clean" water comes out. The water is thus "scrubbed" clean of nutrients (nutrients are "œbad", but nutrition is good).
kev apsley
In Memoriam
I no longer do weekly wc's since I feel that doing 20% every 2 weeks is just as beneficial and less stressful on my tank than doinng weekly wc's
How is your tank doing? I hate to do water changes too.
Robert Patterso
New member
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1885414
You can see his tank here.
You can see his tank here.
sanababit
Active member
Wow, where to start, ok guys, here it goes, i started like everyone else, doing my weekly water changes, then i started using ARTIFICIAL filtering like a denitrifier and bioballs, etc, etc, it worked really good but really started worrying about putting to much chemicals into my tank, so i decided to go a more NATURAL way, as the tank matured i noticed that my nitrates where staying at 0ppm so i stopped doing water changes all togheter, some might say, well you need to add trace elements or fish need new water because their swimming in their own waste or new water does a coral good, or you need nutrient exportation, that for me at least is BS, i have a calcium reactor with ARM media and MAG media which keeps alk, cal, mg, trace elements, i have an algae scrubber which takes care of nutrient export, i still use carbon and phosguard for obvious reasons, and thats it, my params are
ammonia, nitrite, nitrate 0ppm
cal ~440ppm
mag ~1440ppm
alk ~8-9.5dkh
sal 1.025
temp 75-86f
This is only my experience, tha tank is a little more than 3 years old, full of sps, things die, things thrive, i really dont look for a reason why something died, i keep it simple and cheap, thats my story and like my signature says, Don't try to preach on me, I am to old to change and to smart to follow the lemmings...
Sana
ammonia, nitrite, nitrate 0ppm
cal ~440ppm
mag ~1440ppm
alk ~8-9.5dkh
sal 1.025
temp 75-86f
This is only my experience, tha tank is a little more than 3 years old, full of sps, things die, things thrive, i really dont look for a reason why something died, i keep it simple and cheap, thats my story and like my signature says, Don't try to preach on me, I am to old to change and to smart to follow the lemmings...
Sana
boodlefish
Premium Member
when i started my tank (a year ago now) i had every intention on doing 14% monthly water changes... but i have ended up only actually doing 3 to 5 water changes ranging form 7 to 14gallons each. i guess i just wait until i feel guilty and then do a water change. I will make up 2 gallons of salt water when i buy new frags and know i will need to use some of my tank water for the acclimation and dip process. but thats about it. i find myself not wanting to buy salt so much and doing less and less WC's. i used to worry about adding too many nutrients especially with my limited WC's but i noticed that my corals were getting lighter/ pastelish. i now feed like crazy and dose AA's and am able to keep low nutrient without too many WC's- i have a good skimmer and dose carbon and bacteria to keep N&P in check.
sanababit
Active member
Hi, i really dont know how much evaporation i have, i had always used an autotop off since the start, its conected directly form the RO to a macanical float inside the sump, ATS has NO smeel to it, unless water stops flowing thru it for a long period of time, and it still doesnt smell bad, it smells like wet dirt....
Sana
sanababit
Active member
Theres no secret, everything is available to you, algae scrubber, skimmer, carbon and phosguard, fuge, rock, sand, that is it, in time your tank will mature and start to process nutrients better and faster, good luck
Sana
sanababit
Active member
Sanababit is Neptune in disguise. tricky reefer you are oh king of the ocean...
Neptune in disguise?, LOL, I AM NEPTUNE!!!!
Sana
808Rob
New member
walk me through ur secret setup? here's my sump
Attachments
sanababit
Active member
LOL, well water comes down thru two overflows, one goes to a compartment where there's a pump that feeds the carbon, PO4 and calcium reactor, the other overflow comes down where the fuge is, in the fuge there is rock, sand, some kind of macroalgae that really doesnt grow, then both comparments go into to the middle where the return pump is and a little pump is that feeds the algae scubber, the water keeps recirculating a bit, IME the algae scrubber works prety well, and sometimes it gets really full of algae and sometimes it doesn't, it all depends on the amount of nutrients in your main tank, i try to feed the fish without going overboard, but its hard, they always seem hungry, lol, oh and i have a couple of koralias in the first compartment and in the middle compartment which turn on at 12am, what this does is lifts all the detritus on the floor of the sump and the return pump kinda feed the corals when they have extreme polyp extension, well that is my secret....
Sana
sanababit
Active member
Well the diference is first the algae you grow, turf algae seems to eat not only nutrients but metals and chemicals i believe, i need to go read the site again.... that is why i was convienced, when you first install your algae scrubber you will get diatoms, hair algae, cyano, etc and after a little while you will start getting like a green mat of algae that is really hard to remove, that is turf algae, when you clean your scrubber you will need a blade to remove it, cut it short and put it online, with enough flow and light and nutrients it will grow again in no time, also it is a good idea to clean it weekly because if you let it in place too long it will start to color your water kinda yellow, this is why i run carbon 24-7 and it helps a lot to keep water crystal clear, good luck
Sana
wickedfish
New member
use to do 25 gallons every 15 days for 7 months, now do 14 gallons every weekish now for 7 weeks...changes.... no nitrates, phosphates 0 before .25 or higher on both, better color in corals but still have no or little PE. I also clean the glass a lot less, coraline growth and die off (can't figure that out), growth is winning though.
Sana, man what can I say your tank is what young guns like me, wish that when we woke up we had your success and growth, cheers!
Sana, man what can I say your tank is what young guns like me, wish that when we woke up we had your success and growth, cheers!
