Hey. I installed smallest Turbo ATS scrubber in my 180 sump in 11/14. (I chose smallest bc my PS (SRO 3000INT) seems pretty efficient producing lots of brown foam on a daily basis). At that time I had serious infestation of cyano and green/brown hair algae. ATS performed well, gradually growing greener and thicker. But the algae in the DT continued to proliferate. So I shut down ATS, kept screen in overflow of 75 to keep it alive, and did an AlgaeFix dose. Took 3 weeks, but eventually eradicated algae from DTS. Set ATS back up in 180, was getting good results, but then crappy pumps (Jebao, etc.) died and lights cooked my screen 3x. Sigh. I then tried carbon dosing (NoPox) and although it reduced PO4 to below .03 ppm, algae in DT came back. (NO3 was and remains at between 0 and 1 ppm). So I reinstalled ATS a few weeks ago. The screen is starting to produce bright green algae, but the cyano/algae in the DT have returned with a vengeance. My new plan is to remove ATS to 18 gal bucket filled with enough water from DT so that bottom outflow from ATS is at surface of water level. I'll add Eheim heater with Finnex controller and use two wooden planks to support ATS above bucket. I'll run ATS lights 8 hours a night. I'll also feed bucket to provide nutrients for ATS. Any suggestions re what/how much to feed? Meanwhile, I'll be doing another Algae Fix Marine regimen in DT. It worked 6 months ago without damaging coral, inverts, or fish. Took about a month to rid the tank of nuisance algae. Last time, the ATS was not functioning at anywhere near full throttle when I moved it back to sump of DT. This time my goal is to reintroduce fully functioning ATS after Algae Fix wipes out algae in DT. I have a reliable pump now (Eheim 3400) feeding ATS and and an amped up circuit breaker so do not anticipate any further pump failures. My maim concern is keeping ATS "fed" during month long AFM regimen. So any advice on what to feed ATS screen to keep it thriving would be appreciated. Also feel free to comment on my overall plan, including flaws you see. IOW, any feedback appreciated. Mike
You could just add some pellet food that you dissolve in the water and mush up. Theoretically if you had algae growth on the screen and just let it run, as it ran out of nutrients it would die off and release the nutrients into the water, which would get picked up with more algae growth, i.e. a self-fulfilling cycle. I would just run the scrubber lights at a pretty minimal time cycle, like 3-4 hours/day and check on it every once in a while, and don't clean it, or only clean it lightly
Thanks! Crushed pellets (or equivalent), 3-4 hours of light daily, no cleaning or at most light cleaning, and I'm good to go. This is definitely going to work this time. I will control cyano/algae in my 180. This is positive feedback at its worst. Happy New Year, Mike
You're one of the very few that seems to be having ongoing difficulties, at least that I hear from! It's gotta be frustrating, the bad pumps, cooked screens...not good! I hope that all things will eventually come together this time. I usually hear OK things about the Jebao pumps but they do seem to have failures more often, at least the wavemaker pumps do. I personally am hesitant to use one for the primary pump, even more hesitant now!!
