On my way to hair algae heaven!!:)

Should I clean the screen a little better? Or, is that sufficient? I figured that I don't want to take all the algae off the screen and left some to regrow.

 

Thanks Bud. I wonder if the next 2 weeks will give me less, the same, or more growth than the past 2 weeks?

 

Yeah, no telling what it will do I suppose.

 

Floyd, I just added my fish back to the tank and will start feeding a crap load daily. Since my ATS screen is now mature, do you think I can increase the photoperiod to around 16hrs? I've been at 9 hours since I started the unit.

 

Wow, I just peeked inside the ATS and I see lots of algae! It's been 10 days since my last cleaning and I am impressed! Not only is the algae growing on the sceen, I also see it growing at the base, in front of the glass. Is that called 3d growth?
Here is a pic I just took about 5 min ago:

 

Here's another pic:

 

Here's a pic of the other side. I have never been so excited to see hair algae!!

 

Bud, how many more days should I give it before I give it a good cleaning? I'm guessing another 4-7 days or so? It's been 10 days since the last cleaning.

 

Ok, will do. I also increased the lighting yesterday to 16 hrs from 9. Will that be ok?

 

Niterate has always been 0. I'm actually trying to raise it to around 5-10 so my corals could color up a bit. I haven't tested phosphate in a long time but last time it was around 0.3! Really high phosphates. The good news is that the hair algae in my tank is almost all gone. I'd say at least a 95% reduction since adding the ATS.

 

Just cleaned the screen exactly 2 weeks after the last cleaning. I am extremely satisfied with the amount of algae on the screen. Here are a few pics:

Before cleaning:








After cleaning:





Do you guys think this is a good start?

 

Thanks! I just peeked into the chamber and after 5 days since my last cleaning, it look like it's almost full again! Wow, I must have a ton of nutrients as I have been feeding my fish and corals a lot lately.

 

So I've decided to take a leap of faith and turned off my skimmer last night. I really want more nutrition available for my corals so I decided to turn off the skimmer and let the ATS do its thing. I also turned up the photo period to 18 hrs. Wish me luck!