Freshwater African Cichlid ATS Build

Sabbath - I'm the guy that has the multiple FW setups that Turbo was talking about. But I've recently shut them all down due to several reasons and I'd like to hear if you have also had these problems.

1. Cleaning - Removing the entire box to scrub every square inch of the scrubber once a week is too much trouble. If you go longer than a week than you get a ton of algae tear offs that end up in your tank.
2. Heat - The best for FW scrubbing is running the lights 20-24/hrs a day. This creates a lot of heat...LOTS of heat. I can't get my aquariums under 82 degrees when running the L4 20+ hours a day on a 180g tank with a 40g sump.
3. Color - FW algae stains the water plain and simple. The longer you have it running the more yellow your water will get, even with large water changes within a day or two the water is yellow again. Since I've removed all my scrubbers my water is once again clear.
4. PH - The scrubber naturally drops the PH of the water juts like plants do which isn't optimal for Tanganyikans where I'd prefer to house at 9.0 PH or so.

While I cannot dispute the positives of the algae scrubbers in FW I've found that I just can't deal with the negatives. Back to doing more water changes.

Walleyefisher

BTW - that browned up area on your screen is due to two things. Heat and not enough water passing over the screen. You either need a bigger pump to run more water through or you need to run the lights less.

 

Ya, I ran filter socks on both the outflow and the overflow to catch the algae that tears off all the time. But the heat and constant cleaning are tough to manage. PH might have been affected from something else, It has been my experience that plants soften the PH in fresh water.

I do love my scrubbers but they just don't work for me for FW. I was thinking about making a L8 or whatever santa monica sells for a grand. I have two of the long light modules off the L4 that I can use on top of a floating algae bubbler type. I figure making that foam box would be pretty damn simple and adding some air pumps would be easy too. I just wonder if the lower flow rate would net the same results. I could possibly live with the stained water but the maintenance is a nighmare. I wonder if reaching in and grabbing out the algae might be easier as well. I would float the box on top the tank which would hopefully cut down on heat injected into the tank.

 

Walleyefisher, did you use the algae scrubbers as your only source of filtration? Have you tried using the scrubbers inconjunction with Seachem Purigen or Clemipure Elite to help with the water clarity? I use Seachem Purigen to help control the nitrate levels in my tank but I still find it too high a week after a 80% water change. What did you do with the algae scrubbers?

 

No they were not the only source of filtration. I use filter socks in the sump and I use the big Fluval FX5. I still have my scrubbers 2xL2s and 1xL4

 

Oh, and yes I tried Purigen without any real success. When I tell you it leaches green into the water I mean its a lot. I think the only way I could truely make it work would be to clean the screen every 1 to 2 days as that would allow minimal growth and therefore minimal staining

 

That sounds like it will probably not work in my setup as well as I have a FW setup with a sump with lots of goldifish. I was hoping to find a good solution to reduce the number of water changes and keep good water clarity. How about the Santa Monica Drop systems? I know they are not as good as the L2 etc but they seem to be in a container that may hold the algae in place.

I wonder how other people with FW system have success with their algae scurbber setups?

 

Ya someone was going to send me one for testing *cough*. I'm really not sure whether Santa Monica version will work since I think the flow rate might be too slow. Also, since the algae grows long and thin it might be even worse and clog the outlets on the SM box.