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New Algae Scrubber newbie

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by lovefish77, Apr 17, 2017.

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  1. lovefish77

    lovefish77 Member Trusted Member

    Hi Turbo, thanks for the detailed write up and thoughts, i have never heard of that concept for corals, interesting. Came back home, took some tests:

    - Phosphate hanna ultra low checker, 0.003!!!! don't know how
    - Nitrates zero on API.

    very surprising results given the algae film i am seeing on the rocks on the display tank to be honest!!!
     
  2. lovefish77

    lovefish77 Member Trusted Member

    Algae is till on the rocks even though N&P are reading almost zero, any tricks to get it off the rocks? I changed the light to reef breeders and maybe that is making the algae stick more to the rocks due to higher intensity? any tricks and thoughts welcome.

    thanks
     
  3. Turbo

    Turbo Does not really look like Johnny Carson Staff Member Site Owner Multiple Units! Customer

    Any change is going to cause some kind of disruption in the overall balance. Lighting is a big one, because all lights are different - spectrum/blend, intensity, dimming ability, etc. So that is a hard one to troubleshoot.

    I am of the general opinion that you should do everything you can to avoid chasing issues, that usually makes things worse. So where one person might say to remove your rocks and scrub them off or flip them over, etc, I would say don't do that because that further disrupts things and then if problems continue, you won't know where you stand on stability

    Do what you can to remove algae if it's affecting expensive things negatively (like corals) but if it's not and it's just unsightly to you, leave it be for as long as you can stand it!
     
  4. lovefish77

    lovefish77 Member Trusted Member

    Hi Turbo, thanks for replying. No not hurting me in anyway, some corals died because i was trying to raise alk. But the algae is like an eye sore that is all, and actually first time i see algae in display after i installed the mammoth scrubber :) I know the new reefbreeder light contributed to it ..maybe.. I dont want to take the rocks out, they have a thin layer of black sponge on them so def not pulling them out. I heard about adding few drops of hydrogen peroxide to the tank lol. Dont know if that is dangerous or not. In the meantime i reduced feeding and increase photo period on scurbber to like 16-17 hours. So i will take your advise for it and leave things as it.
    Btw, i just installed a pilot project to do auto water changes (like 1000ml daily) and will see how things go. I am using a dosing pump to do that .... stay tuned.
     
  5. Turbo

    Turbo Does not really look like Johnny Carson Staff Member Site Owner Multiple Units! Customer

    From what I've read, the H2O2 solution is direct application to the algae, rather than a "dosing" type of thing (like Alk or Cal, etc). But that is a technique that I have only glanced at, I can't advise on the method with any level of knowledge
     
  6. lovefish77

    lovefish77 Member Trusted Member

    ok got it, thanks for the info. Will keep you posted.
     
  7. lovefish77

    lovefish77 Member Trusted Member

    Hi Turbo, had a question. I am planning to travel overseas for like 10 days in Jan. So the scrubber is a major concern for me due to streamers and other splashing issues in the sump. So would it be possible to:
    1. just simple unplug it for these 10 days (i mean take out the screens from the pipes after cleaning, turn off the light and the flow)
    2. Store the 2 screens in the sump water horizontally (submersed somehow) in order to preserve the roots of the algae and not have it die
    3. Once i come back will attach the screens and rerun the scrubber as usual?

    this will give me a comfort level, i took care of other potential breaks in the system but not this one.

    Let me know what you think please
     
  8. Turbo

    Turbo Does not really look like Johnny Carson Staff Member Site Owner Multiple Units! Customer

    Yup, you can do exactly this. I would only do a light cleaning, rub & rinse, maybe remove 50% of the growth (just the thicker areas) and then upon your return, repeat the rub/rinse and put back into action. As long as the screens are submerged, you should rebound quickly with growth (and should have a growth spike)
     
  9. lovefish77

    lovefish77 Member Trusted Member

    cool you made my day with that answer :) thanks a lot Turbo for the prompt answer ....
     
    Turbo likes this.
  10. lovefish77

    lovefish77 Member Trusted Member

    Hi Turbo, i just unplugged by scrubber and took out my screens as i am preparing for the trip but i am a bit confused. My SPS are not doing well, one green bird nest is dying, red planet is so so with burnt tips and PE is not that good overall in SPS. I think the scrubber is just too big (as you told me before) and pulling tooo much nutrients from the system, nitrates is a SOLID ZERO!! Could the scrubber be over-sized to the point it hurts SPS? I am just perplexed. When i come back, i will go to 1 screen only really, never thought an ATS could do damage really!! Let me know your thoughts please.
     
  11. Turbo

    Turbo Does not really look like Johnny Carson Staff Member Site Owner Multiple Units! Customer

    There could be many things causing those effects, hard to say. But over-filtering seems to be one of those. could also be a chemical interaction thing. When keeping a lot of SPS, I usually recommend running either a small skimmer, or a very small amount of GAC, or both.
     
  12. lovefish77

    lovefish77 Member Trusted Member

    thanks for the note turbo , but i have a skimmer (hang on back in a sump) but working well not oversized for the tank as well as a bag of carbon under the filter socks. So dont know what is going on... algae was green/light green with red streaks, so dont know how to decipher here
     
  13. lovefish77

    lovefish77 Member Trusted Member

    Hello again.

    I am back with a new ats scrubber (twin design using a brita box). Currently powered by rio 800 pump. Each screen is roughly 6 wide ×7 tall. Issue I am having is the water does not go all the way to the end of the screens (especially the right one). Question is: Is this issue caused by low flow (like a stronger pump will help)? Or something else?

    Pictures attached.

    Thx a lot
     

    Attached Files:

  14. Turbo

    Turbo Does not really look like Johnny Carson Staff Member Site Owner Multiple Units! Customer

    I would say that is definitely the pump. That's a 210 GPH pump at zero head, for 2 screens that are 6" long you would need at least 20 GPH/in, or 12 x 20 = 240 at head loss. So you would probably need a 1700. Might be able to get away with an 1100, but that's not much of a bump in flow.

    That all being said, just let it fill in and see how it actually works. I've backed off on the flow requirements. It's no longer a minimum of 35 GPH/in of screen, that's the max. It's about balance, and sometimes a slow flow with the right balance of light will grow a pretty decent amount of algae, and depending on the tank, that might work OK.
     
  15. lovefish77

    lovefish77 Member Trusted Member

    Ok thanks a lot for the feedback Turbo. Will leave it for a few days running and see. Then maybe change the pump.

    One screen was aged but left in the sump, the other is brand new

    The aged one surprisingly is not having any algae yet . Maybe it is resetting from scratch?

    Will keep you posted. Tyx again
     
  16. Turbo

    Turbo Does not really look like Johnny Carson Staff Member Site Owner Multiple Units! Customer

    If you "reset" the tank, possibly. I would back off the light intensity and photoperiod if that is the case
     
  17. lovefish77

    lovefish77 Member Trusted Member

    I didnt reset the tsnk, everything in it is the same. Just pulled our chaeto and put the scrubber in .
    Ok will add a teflon diffuser to the light
    Thank you
     
  18. lovefish77

    lovefish77 Member Trusted Member

    I just lowered the photo period. What do you mean by "resetting the tank"? I didnt reset anything really
    Thx again
     
  19. Turbo

    Turbo Does not really look like Johnny Carson Staff Member Site Owner Multiple Units! Customer

    Sorry I read your comment about it "resetting from scratch" as you saying you had reset the tank. By that I mean rip cleaning the tank

    The Bacterial “Rip Clean” Method

    This is where you clean off all the rock (not powerwash but definitely a heavy cleaning) and rinse all the sand, etc.

    I think by "resetting" you mean changing from an established scrubber setup to a new scrubber setup, and while that changes the dynamics like the light and the flow received, it's still on the same system receiving the same nutrients from the bioload.
     
  20. lovefish77

    lovefish77 Member Trusted Member

    System is still the same, just used some gfo to lower phosphates from 0.5 to 0.3 ppm. Everything else is still the same.

    The scribber has two screens, one old and one brand new. But the growth in both is the same....nothing
    Sorry if I wasn't clear earlier
     

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