My New L3-HF ATS

Hi Bud,

I installed my new L3-HF a few days ago. I primarily relied on your You Tube video for how to do it. I am a complete klutz, but found the installation process pretty easy.

I was initially concerned about being able to fit the ATS on top of my 40 gallon sump in a Marineland Monterra sump, which has about 28" of head room. Turned out to be a non-issue. The ATS fits comfortably on top of the sump, and there is plenty of room to remove the screen (and the entire ATS) for maintenance. Plus, there is plenty of room to remove the collection cup of an Aquamaxx Cone S 3 skimmer for daily maintenance and a Phosban reactor for weekly maintenance.

I was very impressed by the more than professional quality of the product and each component.

I obviously screwed up on providing you with the measurements you requested for my 40 gallon sump as the screws at the end of each of the stand pieces you sent me are a few inches beyond the sides of the tank. But the stands are still very sturdy.

Lights are now on for 8.5 hours at night. I went with a Rio 2100 pump, dialed way back for now. (Being an optimist, I’m anticipating incredibly thick screens of algae and want to be prepared to provide the flow required at that point.) Flow does not completely cover the screen yet, but I will wait to get some growth and dial the pump in accordingly. Love the union connection for the pump -- should make it a lot easier to remove the whole ATS unit for cleaning if necessary.

No problem with bubbles exiting ATS so did not need to use the filter sock. Also I’m not yet using an extension pipe on the secondary drain because the main drain is handling entire flow, and if that changes, I want to be able to hear it.

I’ll check back in 4-8 weeks from now (with pics) to report on the ATS's maturation.

So far, I could not be happier with this product.

Thanks,

Mike

 

Yeah, I'll be sure to check the dims. Not!! The support beams work very well. Obviously, if there is any problem with the measurements, who is likely to be at fault? A customer with the mechanical skills of a gibbon or a Homo sapiens sapiens engineer?

All seriousness aside, I was peeking at screen today and it has a light coating of brown fuzz one week after installation. So far so good.

 

OK, after 7 days, here's what I got, front and back:





Mike

 

Two weeks after installation:





Stuff on screen is darker than in photo.

I rinsed screen off in bucket of DT water and gently swiped it with my fingertips to remove loose gunk. Seems like a lot of gunk came off.

Guess I should keep on going as is and wait to increase water flow and/or photoperiod?

Thanks,

Mike

 

Question and observation:

I assume I should continue with skimming (Aquamaxx Cone 3), GFO (cup changed weekly), and limited carbon dosing (45 ml of vinegar per gallon of kalkwasser top off) at least until I'm scraping green from the ATS screen?

Over past week, there is a lot more schmutz (of all sizes and shapes) floating around the DT. I see the fish lunging at some of it from time to time, and I'm guessing the coral are not unhappy with this floating smorgasbord. I've also noticed that the skimmer is increasing production of skimmate. The schmutz is not causing any problems with nuisance algae or with health of anything in DT as far as I can tell. So is this part of the ATS process or is it something I should be concerned about?

Thanks,

Mike

 

Thanks.

Vinegar dosing is just as you described -- 45 ml per gallon of ATO allows for 1.5 x kalkwasser. So I'll keep on keeping on, then.

I'm actually thinking the schmutz is a good thing -- the fish are definitely enjoying it and I'm pretty sure the coral will too. So I'll be holding off on deploying any filter socks for now.

Mike

 

30 days after installation, here are the front and back of my screen:





Looks pretty good to me. I rinsed it in SW from DT today and stroked my finger over screen to remove loose algae. Also scraped away growth on bottom of screen and directly under the black holder on top of the screen.

Still at 8.5 hr photo-period and have not increased flow rate since installation.

How thick should the algae mat get before I start scraping?

Thanks,

Mike

 

Good. I'll scrape it this weekend when I'm doing water change and will boost photo-period by 30 minutes to 9 hours.

I have to test for potassium to see whether the ATS is depleting it.

Mike

 

No idea what potassium levels were before firing up ATS, but after month of ATS, potassium tested at 380 with Salifert kit, about 20 ppm below NSW. Dosed 10 ml of Zeovit's K-Balance (a potassium solution that I had left over from my unsuccessful Zeovit experiment). No idea how much potassium is in K-Balance (since mfr. keeps that info a secret) but I'll test weekly now and adjust dose as necessary.

Scraped screen yesterday. Result was 4.3 grams of squeeze-dried bright green algae, weighed with AWS DIA-20 electronic scale. I did not do a "heavy" scrape -- wanted to make sure there was still a fair amount of algae on screens for future growth. Also did not try to capture considerable amount of algae collected in small container of DT water from rinsing screens before and after scraping. Next time I'll collect it with brine shrimp net and add to the ball.

Here are pics of scrapings:





Next time I will take photo of ball o' scrapings on scale showing measured weight.

Increased photoperiod from 8.5 to 9 hours. Noticed that steady drips from secondary drain had dried up, so nudged up flow from feed pump via ball valve until secondary drain was dripping again.

DT looks great. I've increased feedings a bit -- now feed pinch of Blue Zoo mixed food or baby artemia plus four squares of nori in am plus cube of ff in pm. Only issues are small patches of GHA growing on sand in both corners. Nothing on rocks, which was where I had a problem due its infringement on coral. My plan is to start relocating Mexican Turbo snails onto on growth on sand and see what happens. God know the damn Tangs or Rabbitfish won't touch the stuff. If snails don't work, I'll just siphon it out during water changes and replace with new sand.

Next question: I'm not sure how I'm going to manage lights when I remove ATS box for cleaning, as I eventually will have to do. I'm using the true union connection for pump so that should be an issue, but not sure what to do with lights. Are those waterproof automotive connections "quick disconnect"?

Thanks

Mike



.

 

Good to know the connectors are quick-disconnect and that full cleaning can go for 6 months or until coralline build up. Makes life a lot easier.

I'll try the criss-cross/tic-tac-toe scraping patterns on my next cleaning, thanks.

One unexpected result of ATS: my skimmer has never produced more filth. I get a few inches of dark brown crud every other day now.

So far could not be happier with my Turbo ATS. Money well spent. Set it and forget it. Harvest nutrients once a week with minimum of effort. Allows increased feedings. Have not looked for them yet, but I'm anticipating enough boost in pod population to support, at long last, a mandarin goby. Fits easily on top of my 40 gallon sump and can be moved back and forth to allow easy access to FF, reactor, return pumps, etc. Opposite light cycle from DT should help smooth pH swings. My only regret is that I did not spring for largest model (L4-HF). Currently have the L3 on my 180. But planning on moving the L3 to my 75 and get me a L4 for the 180.

Mike

 

No pics this week, but scrapings from screen were at least 2x last week’s.

Noticed pretty thick growth of GHA beneath screen, on and under the removable bottom. I took ATS to sink and scrubbed all this growth out. Wondering if there is a probable cause for this growth (like too much or too little flow)?

Also, getting increasing growth of GHA on substrate despite excellent results from ATS, good production from skimmer, and use of GFO. I’m thinking it’s possible that GHA has been escaping from ATS so I will now put filter sock under outlet of ATS. I will also cut feedings back to pre-ATS level.

 

Turbo said:

"I never really scrub out the box, well at least not more often than every 6 months. Just remove the false bottom, and take the denture toothbrush (blue/green one) and swipe it around the bottom corners, the brushes do a pretty good job of grabbing and algae.

Also the algae will grow long and extend around the corners of the false bottom, so it might not actually be that it's growing under there, more that it is growing "to" there."

In my case, I removed the false bottom to scrub the algae off and noticed an even thicker growth of GHA attached to real bottom of ATS. I definitely would not have felt comfortable swiping it with a brush without removing it from sump as it would have resulted in a LOT of GHA being dumped into sump. I"m thinking I'm doing something wrong to encourage this growth, like too much or too little flow, etc.? Any thoughts on this?

Turbo said:

"If I was a big fan of SM's phosphate theory I would say your growth on the substrate is a result of nutrient leeching. i.e. lowering water column nutrients and this causing "flow...." Give it some time and see if that goes away."

Yeah, I agree that SM's phosphate theory is, at the very least, suspect. OTOH, I'm surprised at the thick growth I'm getting on the screen and bottom of the ATS, even with limited flow and reduced (9 hr.) photoperiod. And even with aggressive skimming and use of GFO, and phosphates/NO3 testing at zero, there is obviously still a lot of nutrients in tank.

In any event, I'll be removing the GHA on the substrate during weekly water changes and will see how it goes. Given the very thick green growth on the ATS screen, I am also thinking of harvesting every 5 or 6 days, rather than once a week. Do you think this would help control GHA in DT?

Very minor update: I dosed 10 ml of Zeovit K Balance phosphorous additive last week, but K levels remain at 380 ppm , about 20 ppm lower than NSW, so I'll double dose K Balance after WC tomorrow.

Thanks for your help,


Mike