My newest L4 ATS

I didn't make the ones for this ATS but If I remember correctly the ones I made for my prior ATS a few years ago, I made them out of a 3/4" coupler. I just cut 2 - 1/4" slices from the coupler which made a ring. I then removed a 1/4" section from the ring, sanded the edges smooth and spread it apart until it slid over the pipe. Really wasn't much to it.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

I made a harvest yesterday afternoon and like the 2 harvests I had prior, there was a snotty yellow growth on the screen (pics attached). Can anyone identify what this is and reply whether I should be concerned with it.
Additionally, it appears that I may have contracted Dino's and I have a feeling that this growth and the Dino's have a correlation.

Thank you,
Tom

 

Been over a year since my last update but my L4 is still kicking butt. The pics are of the latest harvest (last Wednesday evening) and I am just amazed at how well this scrubber works. My Nitrate levels are at 0ppm according to my Hanna Checker and I am feeding heavily 2x a day, my fish are fat and happy and my tank and corals are thriving.

Just for reference because the pictures aren't that great. The mat of algae on the screen is at least 1" thick on both sides and still firmly adhered to the screen.

Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk

 

I case anyone was wondering. The pic is how much algae it takes to clog the main drain and also the overflow of an L4.
I know what you are thinking ! That's some awesome growth! But wait, it gets better.

The clogging effect has no bearing on the Rio-400 pump and it continues to happily do it's job. It does that job so well that it will continue to try and pump water for 2 days while you are on vacation. Even though there is no longer water in the sump to pump. GO RIO-400!

Sounds cool? Thats a big fat NOPE!

I digress, as water overflows from out of the top of the scrubber it cascade saltwater over the outside body of the L4 and led heatsinks. Just like a beautiful rainforest waterfall! The plus side is that it drains about 90% of the water back into the sump so that the awe of the beautiful rainforest waterfall can be appreciated again and again. Unfortunately though, as I stated previously, I was not home for 2 days to witness this majestic event.

I know what you are wondering, where the heck does the remaining 10% of the saltwater go? Well this is where your aquarium helps you to relax and insists that you take a vacation day off work to ponder the benefits of having a saltwater tank in your home. Don't worry, you will find all that water, correction, don't worry your wife will find all that water in the room around the tank.

What's that? Yes I do have 2 Apex ALD modules and 8 ALD sensors! That detection system is awesome, it gets great reviews and can send you alerts and even turn off pumps when it senses water where it shouldn't be. Its simply an amazing piece of equipment. What's that? Did it fail? No it works great when others use it, its just that mine is in the packaging it came in when I bought it 5yrs ago.

GO TEAM ALGAE!!

Tom


Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk

 

Please do not take this occurrence as an implied failure of your scrubber. This was 100% my fault for not doing simple maintenance. I estimate that the the growth was at least 3-4 weeks maybe more. Normally I harvest the screen every other Sunday but I have had so much to do that I have neglected the tank and didn't clean the ATS.
The side drain most certainly did kick in and was definitely giving me warning signs that the scrubber needed to be cleaned. Warning signs like additional water noise coming from the side drain due to it taking on more and more water as the main drain was being restricted by the growth; algae floating in the main display. (this happens in my system because the emergency drain dumps into the return section of the sump and when the water volume increases in the side drain of the L4 it pulls bits of algae that grows in the drain free and sends them down the drain into the return section of the sump and then the return pump pushes them to the main display.) Usually when I see this I know I am late in cleaning the L4 and need to do some maintenance. But this time I had been seeing algae in the main display for over 2 weeks and just ignored it.

 

Bud, what are your thoughts on using a Rio-600 on my L4? The reason I ask is that I ordered a new Rio pump on Amazon and accidentally bought a 600 instead of a 400.

Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk