Success at Last

I bought an L2 in 11/14. (A day that will live in infamy in Bud Carlson's life, given the pest I made of myself over the ensuing months trying to determine ways to improve the ATS efficiency.) At first, the ATS did not stem the tide of an explosive growth of brownish algae in my 180. I was trying to do so many things at once to combat the algae that I now recognize I impeded the ATS from working. Finally, at my wit's end, I removed the ATS and did a full-bore Algae Fix Marine dose. It actually worked and did not affect any of my tank full of SPS and LPS coral.

After a few major water changes, I reinstalled the L2 ATS. At that time, I had some green algae issues and some weird pink film algae. But with weekly water changes (siphoning out the problem algae) and increasing growth of good stuff on L2 screen, the algae is almost all gone. I have now discontinued vinegar dosing, cut GFO filtration in half, and the tank is looking better and better. With the next water change, I am discontinuing GFO (but still running a very efficient protein skimmer (SRO3000INT) and GAC reactor, which I believe are complementary to ATS).

With $ saved on GFO (that stuff is expensive), ATS should pay for itself within no later than 2 years. And tank has never looked better.)

Mike

 

ATS still maintaining PO4 at below .05 ppm (measured with Hach kit) and undetectable N03 (with API kit.) without GFO or vinegar. Interesting, skimmer started working overtime when the GFO and vinegar were discontinued. The tank has never looked better and algae in DT is gone.

But I'm kinda concerned about the type of growth I'm now getting in scrubber, 10 days after I last scraped the screen. Here are photos of front and back of screen -- each has a yellow patch near the middle. The yellow growth is slimey, and I brush it off with a brush. Here are some photos:





Also, there is a weird yellowish growth on the bottom sides of the box itself:





Here is a photo of the yellow stuff after scraping it from the box:



So how do I replace the yellow slime on the screen with green algae? And should I be concerned by the yellow stuff growing at bottom of chamber? If so, how do I get rid of it?

FYI, I'm running RIO 1400 at full throttle and have light on for 11 hours a night.

Thanks,

Mike

 

Oh, and here is a photo looking down the box before I removed he yellow crud at the bottom sides of the box:


As you can see, the "false bottom" is coated with dark green algae.

I'm wondering if the mess of the bottom of the ATS box may be caused by keeping water level in sump high enough to put back pressure on the main drain, which in turn may be causing the water level at the bottom of the box to back up? I noticed when checking water level in sump tonight that the main drain of the ATS was slightly submerged and that water was surging out the bottom of the drain. I lowered water level in sump until ATS stopped surging. I'll see if this does the trick.

Mike

 

Just noticed the white growth the last 2 cycles. I think that once I stop ATS from surging, that will take care of it.

Re streak on screen, it's definitely on both sides of screen at around same spot -- with one side's streak a little bigger than the t'other.

Just did my weekly PO4 test with the only PO4 kit that actually and consistently works for me (Hach!), and PO4 in tank has decreased from .05 to .04! With no GFO or vinegar and slightly increased daily feeding (an extra square of Nori) and a pinch of Blue Zoo mix to supplement baby brine shrimp at beginning and end of baby brine shrimp growing cycle.

But Puh-lease get me one of your new L2s for my 75 ASAP, which is being eaten alive with weird green film/encrusting algae and is not responding to any treatments.

Mike

 

Thanks.

Noise is a non-issue for me. So if growth of weird yellow thrush on bottom sides of ATS body is not an issue, that's fine with me.

And if yellow growth on both sides of screen is not an issue, that's cool too.

I do wonder, however, why I'm not getting triumphant growth of thick turf algae on screens, as I have seen on videos/pics on this forum and U-Tube. One video I saw reported incredible growth of thick turf algae on L2 within a few weeks and luxuriant growth each week after weekly scraping.

Any tips on improving quality/mass of algae growth on screen?

Thanks,

Mike

 

Hi Bud,

I am running Rio 1400 at full throttle.

I'll check out Jason's thread on RC.

Thanks,

Mike

 

So here's what I take away from Jason's thread. I will try covering blue LED lights with cellophane tape and increasing photo-period to 12 hours and make my own decisions
as whether either improves growth.

No offense to you or Jason, but I won't be spending $ to measure ORP, which RHF has basically dismissed as a test parameter that does not bear chasing.

Re my pending question on flow rate, I will make my own determination based on trial and error.

Mike

 

So now for something completely different.

Third pump has died on ATS, causing algae on screen to once again be cooked overnight. Obviously, this is not an ATS problem -- something must be wrong with my electricals. I have two GFCI outlets behind tank, each rated at 40 amps. After first pump (Rio 1400) died (along with MaxiJet 600 on TLF reactor), I followed advice on RC and added humongous surge protectors between reef keeper light controller outlets and GFCI outlets -- so 2 x RKL 4-outlet panels plugged into separate surge protectors, each of which in turn is plugged into separate GFCI outlets. But for ATS and GFO reactor I plugged pumps directly into surge protectors (bypassing RKL outlets), and I suspect this may be the problem. I now have GFO pump plugged into RKL reactor, and when I get my new pump for ATS reactor (Eheim 1262, which IME is one of the most rugged and endurable pumps in existence), I will plug that pump into RKL controller which in turn will be plugged into surge protectors.

So my question is this. Should I order a new screen, or will soaking it in vinegar be sufficient? If new screen is best route, can you provide me with ordering info?

Mike