Algae issues? Why dont more people use algae scrubbers?

[Reefering1]

I have been using a model of his for 10 years.
In first year or two the led lid module developed condensation. I was out of warranty. I messaged him pictures. He said I had a early revision (I was one of the first to buy it) and he had upgraded the seams and sealant. He sent me a new led lid at no charge to me

About 6 years later I had a power outage and the power supply blew out. I messaged him asking if I could send it in for repair. He said I could replace just the power supply. I couldn’t see how. The cord was siliconed into the lid. Turns out over the years he revised the design to make the power supply independent from the lid so it could be replaced on its own. But mine didn’t support that. I needed an entire new lid/led system. He offered me a replacement lid of the upgraded style with a new independent power supply for 50% off the website price - 85$. I bought it and he express shipped it to me so I wouldn’t go too long without light for the scrubber

As a company, I feel they have stood behind their product and I feel it is a good product it has worked well for me and controlled nutrients in both sps reefs and my now lps dominate reef. Like the carbon dosing user above me, I can flash feed as much as I want without fear of outbreaks in my tank. I also don’t need to run a skimmer anymore, which helps keep food in the water column for my corals and fish. My numbers are stable, I test monthly. It never deviates.

I have some bubble algae, it’s never helped with that. But gha - I don’t know the reason I develop it when the scrubber is offline for prolong times, but it takes care of that also. It’s a quality unit that works for me

Now that's customer service!!

 

[GARRIGA]

I appreciate that. Under blues, it definitely looked better. That being said, when I was having GHA problems, I took the rocks out and power washed them, soaked them in water-change water, and returned them to the tank.The GHA was gone, but the rocks were still green.
MOST of the green that you see does not rise off the surface of the rocks. I can not scrape it off with my fingernail. I say MOST because I didn't literally try to scrap off every area Can it be stained from the algae that was there before?


Here's a rock that has been out of the tank for several months. Algae is certainly dead, but the rock is still green in parts, and that pic is without the enhancement or magnification from the tank water

Placed some rocks in the garage year plus ago. Had the same green tint. Thought it was persistent algae. Unless I got the rocks mixed up. They are all white again. Guessing that living tissue eventually expired and decomposed. Look white like the day I bought it.

 

[VintageReefer]

And I don’t know about their current relationship today but Santa Monica is one of the original designers of the scrubbers and has many patents but originally back in 2012 while making new designs he gave them out to free to the community to use and make their own at home and who was one of the people that was on the forum and getting the design ideas, collaborating, and providing insight and advice - Floyd Turbo.

Waterfall scrubbers have water flowing down a screen and Santa Monica invented and patented the upflow design to reduce noise, where water flows up or though a screen using bubbles.

 

[VintageReefer]

Placed some rocks in the garage year plus ago. Had the same green tint. Thought it was persistent algae. Unless I got the rocks mixed up. They are all white again. Guessing that living tissue eventually expired and decomposed. Look white like the day I bought it.

periphyton. Not algae. You are correct it is a living coating on the rock.

 

[GARRIGA]

periphyton. Not algae. You are correct it is a living coating on the rock.

Yeah. Saw you posted that earlier. Learned something new including the internals. I just want it off my rocks

 

[VintageReefer]

lol be glad it’s there. It’s a sign of healthy rock and provides filtration and some fish nip at it and eat it. Ever see fish just nip at rocks but nothing is there? They are grazing on periphyton

No rocks in the reef are bleached white

 

[jda]

I had a feeling someone was going to say that. I took these at the same time as the others, but my bright white tank is really ugly. Lol.

You did not eradicate that algae. You can see it on the rocks. Something is eating it. I had Heniochus once that was a voracious algae eater as well as powder browns and goldrims. I even had a flame angel once that would eat some sorts. Somebody is just mowing your lawn. I would not get rid of any of those fish.

 

[jda]

If you want those rocks to grow coralline and stuff, get some uchins that can eat the rest of that algae down to bare rock. Pencils, rock and tuxedo urchins will stay on the rock better than pincushions, IME. They will clean the algae off down to bare rock and the coralline can take hole. Coralline looks better under white light than green algae does.

 

[ScubaSkeets]

You did not eradicate that algae. You can see it on the rocks. Something is eating it. I had Heniochus once that was a voracious algae eater as well as powder browns and goldrims. I even had a flame angel once that would eat some sorts. Somebody is just mowing your lawn. I would not get rid of any of those fish.

I know it certainly looks like algae but someone else suggested that it might be periphyton. There have been several times that my GHA was so bad, that i took them out and pressure washed them. Soaked them in dirty tank water and returned them to that tank. The algae was gone, but the rocks were still green. There's no surface feel to it. And I cannot scrape it off.
Even if it is algae, I still feel that the ATS is keeping it at bay. Actual, slimey, algae is in the ATS and not in the DT. It truly has not been this...should I say..."algae-less" for as long as it has with the ATS. Believe it or not, my GHA has been BAD and even when it wasn't, there would still be tufts of algae and easily recognizable GHA...even under 100% blues. That is not in my DT. I wish I took pictures when the algae was bad, but unfortunately I did not. But trust me, it was bad.

 

[ScubaSkeets]

Duplicate post

 

[ScubaSkeets]

If you want those rocks to grow coralline and stuff, get some uchins that can eat the rest of that algae down to bare rock. Pencils, rock and tuxedo urchins will stay on the rock better than pincushions, IME. They will clean the algae off down to bare rock and the coralline can take hole. Coralline looks better under white light than green algae does.

I have tried urchins several times...mostly pincushion. Last one, I had for about 2 weeks until I saw all the pins in clear gob of something and the shell nearby

 

[VintageReefer]

I had a long spine urchin long time ago. If I remember correct he ate my coralline and also chewed up my live rock

I had a tuxedo urchin also, I don’t remember much about him but he somehow died and I found him infested with bristlewoms. I do think I remember he ate my coralline also

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

Well, thanks to nothing in this post (lol) I bought two Geo scrubbers that will be here this week. Happy holidays all!

 

[Reefering1]

I have tried urchins several times...mostly pincushion. Last one, I had for about 2 weeks until I saw all the pins in clear gob of something and the shell nearby

How old is the tank? Have you stopped removing the rocks for scrubbing?if so, how long?

 

[jda]

It is most likely the roots of the algae, but that is not the correct term. It doesn't matter as long as you keep whatever is eating it. It takes the mouth structure of an urchin to get down and get it all out. If you want to rid of the fish, then maybe try some more urchins beforehand and maybe you got a bad one - I have found them to be really hardy.

 

[ScubaSkeets]

How old is the tank? Have you stopped removing the rocks for scrubbing?if so, how long?

2.5 years I think.
I have had several bad bouts of GHA. Tried just about every common fix there is except nopox...I really didn't want to mess with that, but I did try Vibrant...it didn't work. Some fixes worked, but only temporarily.

Last bout, my N and P were at 0.
The GHA was so bad, that it looked like there was a small furry animal in my tank!! Lol,
I have pulled the rocks out to pressure wash them 3-4 times before this with success, but it didnt last.

Last time, I did it was right before I started the ATS.

However, I only pressure washed about half of the rocks. The other rocks either had coral, an anenome and obviously I didn't want to pressure wash them, or something came up and I didn't have the time to pressure wash the remaining ones.

The rocks that I did not pressure wash still had quite a bit of GHA.

That is when I put my DIY algae thingy together and put it to use. It took a while for any kind of algae to appear on the mesh screen.

Since then, all of the GHA that was still on the rocks that I could not pressure wash has gone away. I really doubt my fish could have eaten all of it. I watch my fish alot and while they may graze, it really doesnt look like a ton of grazing.

Sure, the rocks in my white light photos do look green with algae, and I stand corrected when I said that my DT was virtually "algae free", but I am still convinced the ATS was a big part of getting rid of the remaining GHA, and keeping it at bay

 

[ScubaSkeets]

It is most likely the roots of the algae, but that is not the correct term. It doesn't matter as long as you keep whatever is eating it. It takes the mouth structure of an urchin to get down and get it all out. If you want to rid of the fish, then maybe try some more urchins beforehand and maybe you got a bad one - I have found them to be really hardy.

Thanks, but I'm not sure where you get the idea that I want to get rid of my fish

 

[VintageReefer]

So you manually removed what you could. Left behind what you couldn’t scrub/clean. Added the scrubber. And the result was - the algae you cleaned didn’t come back, and the hair algae you couldn’t remove, died off?

 

[ScubaSkeets]

So you manually removed what you could. Left behind what you couldn’t scrub/clean. Added the scrubber. And the result was - the algae you cleaned didn’t come back, and the hair algae you couldn’t remove, died off?

Exactly. Why did take me so long to say that when all it took for you was a couple sentences? LOL

 

[VintageReefer]

Usually I’m over wordy but this time I was pretty concise lol