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Richiero's Tank & Scrubber

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Richiero, Jan 10, 2014.

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  1. Hey Floyd i am running my scrubber lights opp my display lights is that ok? And should i scrub off the brown algae now that i am alternating lights and have the defusers on or will it turn green?
     
    Last edited: Mar 2, 2014
  2. Turbo

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

    Reverse display timing is fine, it doesn't make much difference as far as the scrubber 'knows' it is more for pH control of the tank.

    The brown algae you are growing is actually probably diatoms. Completely different algae so it won't just turn into another kind, it's just all that is able to grow in the high-light environment.

    I personally never scrub the screen unless I have an infestation of red algae (turf or otherwise) which does not seem to prefer growth-spectrum LEDs anyways. Red algae seems to grow better under HID (metal halide) and low-K fluorescent.
     
  3. one the heads on my torch is dying , i made a video and posted it on reef central and they are telling me to take the scrubber off line that i am pulling to much nutrients out of the tank. right now i have a skimmer ,scrubber,cheato, and bio pellets what do you think?
     
  4. Turbo

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

    Yeah the problem with the guys on TRT that I can't seem to wrap my head around is that they insist on idealizing everything. All that talk of eutrphication, etc... I've had many discussions with other "reef experts" in person or on the phone and brought up this issue and the fact is that there is just no way - at all - to make a closed system aquarium "oligotrophic", they're all eutrophic to one extent or another.

    You can argue until you're blue in the face that algae grows and you remove it equals export against their conviction that algae is able to grow because something is wrong in the tank and you will just end up with a bruised forehead from banging it on your desk/wall. Their mind will never change and likely anyone reading it will just learn a little and make up their own mind, or be overwhelmed and look for a simpler answer.

    As for your trumpets, could be a number of things. Jumping on the scrubber is a knee jerk reaction that still happens. Someone else might say it's your biopellets. I agree it might be "too clean" but that would fail according to the oligotrophic crowd. Could be coral warfare, unstable water parameters, wrong placement in the tank for lighting and flow, wrong conditions for the species, etc. Link to the thread if you don't mind, I'd like to see what information you posted about it.
     
    Ace25 likes this.
  5. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2391286

    all those suggestions were giving to me in the RC chat room
    only one person actually replied to my post on RC

    i did take my carbon off line, one video is my torch, and the other is showing that all my other coral are doing good or so i think they are.
     
  6. Turbo

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

    My gut tells me no - not the scrubber. If it was anything related to any piece of equipment, I would think both heads would be dying. The other is fully extended and looks fine.
     
  7. two out of the three heads are doing fine, there are a few tenticals left on the 3rd head but they seem retracted and deflated, i dont see any brown jelly looking stuff.
     
  8. Kerry

    Kerry Member Trusted Member Customer

    My torch corals grow like crazy in my scrubber tanks. Your tanks does have nutrients other wise your scrubber screen would not have any growth. Yes it pulls it out pretty fast but your corals get all they need. I even keep zoa's in my scrubber tanks along with mushrooms as well and they all pop off new ones like they are having coral orgies up in the tanks!!
     
  9. I like the coral orgie comment lol, like i said when i was in the reef central chat room they said i was pulling to many nutrients by having the ats, bio pellets, cheato, and a skimmer. My skimmer still pulls some nice skim mate. i just don't want to loose my corals or have a tank crash. What are u running kerry besides the ats?
     
  10. Kerry

    Kerry Member Trusted Member Customer

    I run only ATS waterfall LED type 6x6 screen 4 660nm red and 2 450nm blue per side. I dont run filter socks or anything beside the scrubber and only do about 10% water change every 6-ish months or so. If your not doing water changes as most of us dont very often you MUST be sure you are dosing Calcium, Alk, Mag, and others. This might be your problem, these things get used up and your corals will suffer. If this is the case a couple 20% water changes would help.
     
  11. All my alk cal and mag are good I only dose alk and cal my mag and trace gets replenished with my w/c what else do u dose?


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  12. tebo

    tebo Member

    IF your no3 are below 0.1ppm and your po4 are below 0.04ppm, surely you're cleaning much water, this certainly affects all your corals

    regards
     
  13. My torch started this about 2 weeks ago , this my 1st wc in a month. What do you guys dose besides the big 3?


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  14. Turbo

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

    I don't think that is necessarily true @tebo because there are reefs where the PO4 is well below the measurable range for hobbyist test kits. Also, hobbyist grade test kits are very poor indicators of actual conditions. If you are feeding your tank at all, then you have enough nitrate and phosphate for your corals.

    This is something else happening. One head out of 3 is not a big cause for alarm,, but if another one goes then it might be.
     
  15. I hope your right Floyd , after hearing from those two other guys this whole scrubber thing just got a lot more complicated for me, now I might have to lean towards buy a doser and adding more trace elements besides the big 3, how much stuff can you possibly dose, what do you dose on your systems and how often do you do w/c? I counted on the w/c to replace those other trace elements


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  16. Turbo

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

    I don't dose anything but alk, cal, and mag. I do PWCs maybe once every 2 months, but mainly because I'm too busy to do them on 5 tanks. I feed a DIY food that is a mixture of seafood, cubes, nori, and supplements so I don't dose any trace. I also try to dose K but I'm bad at that. If you are growing a lot of algae I would check K, scrubbers soak it up and that can be a limiting nutrient. Then there's things like Iodine/Iodide and Strontium that you really should test and maybe dose, but the test kits are a total pain.
     
  17. Kerry

    Kerry Member Trusted Member Customer

    Good input Bud!!! Thats how I do it as well but I do water changes a bit less.
    I make Kalkwasser (vinegar and calcium hydroxide (pickling lime from walmart canning section)) this ups the ALK and Cal. For just calcium I dose calcium chloride available cheap at the pool stores, just dont get anything that says HYPO on it, thats bleach so be sure it says calcium chloride. For Mag I buy Epsom salt. If I just need to raise pH its baking powder. I also dose once a month iodine and strontium but I only dose the weekly amount for the whole month due to the kit to test is with is terrible as Bud said. You could buy a doser if but its not much to keep up with, your tank will fall into a schedule so you will know about what it will use daily, bi-daily, or weekly. I Keep up with a 40G breeder, 75G and 150G. The 40G is the most work as its not covered.
     
  18. Turbo

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

    I thought the baking powder had to be over-baked also to raise pH, otherwise it lowers it...or something like that, right?
     
  19. Kerry

    Kerry Member Trusted Member Customer

    I thought plain made kh go up but baked made pH go up as well. You have me second guessing myself now LOL, I could be wrong it would not be the first or last time.
     

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