Algae Turf Scrubber and Manifold DIY

[zemuss]

Long over do. Had a spare sump and was running out of room in the 40 gallon breeder for a ATS, so I built a manifold for the DC3000 to run a return, Water change line, media reactor and ATS now.

Manifold:

ATS with light

Drain system, kinda loud right now.

 

[zemuss]

while simulating a power loss, the pump seems to not restart which is concerning me now. DC3000 not strong enough to return the water back to the areas needed after power returns.

Suggestions?

 

[zemuss]

NVM I was using the wrong power source..

 

[zemuss]

Day 4 of the ATS up and running has changed the color of my screen from a white to a light reddish / green. I will post back when I start getting a algae covered screen. This might take a week more then I should start seeing algae in my display tank reduce as well.

i am currently running the light 24/7 but will be dropping to an 18 hour run time tonight. (12 am to 6 pm)

 

[zemuss]

It has been ten days since my last update.

I added the timer and the screen is starting to grow some algae. I am running a 18 hour light cycle and 6 hours of darkness. Not fully seeded yet, but i have my skimmer off so the ATS soaks up all the nutrients. I am waiting for the spots of hair algae to take off but that has not happened yet. Once seeded this screen should be able to out compete the cyano and film algae in the display.

I am feeding daily to my fish so the nutrients supplying the screen is not a problem.

I believe this is day 14. (nitrates are currently 10ppm which is on the high side right now but thats to be expected with the skimmer off for two weeks.)

I have the light about 6 to 8 inches from the screen.


"Z"

 

[thejuggernaut]

Looking good. Can I ask why you have the skimmer turned off?

 

[diablomaster9045]

Looking good. Can I ask why you have the skimmer turned off?

I thinks its to help get the algae scrubber up to running at max capacity.

 

[zemuss]

What diablo said.

I turned it off to get a build up of nutrients. Ofcourse a build up of nutrients is a bad thing but I wanted to fully seed the ATS before turning the skimmer back on.

This way there is nothing else competing for the nutrients which will grow the ATS.


"Z"

 

[diablomaster9045]

What diablo said.

I turned it off to get a build up of nutrients. Ofcourse a build up of nutrients is a bad thing but I wanted to fully seed the ATS before turning the skimmer back on.

This way there is nothing else competing for the nutrients which will grow the ATS.


"Z"

I would do a 12 on 12 off with your skimmer while your Algae scrubber gets up and running. This way your nutrients don't get too high.

 

[zemuss]

Good suggestion and I am watching the Nitrates closely right now.. Going to test again tonight and if I hit the 20 ppm range then i will turn the skimmer on as suggested.

 

[thejuggernaut]

Makes sense. A skimmer also aids in gas exchange and stabilizes PH. So might run it on a reverse day light to help remove CO2 at night, or if it is in-sump, just the take the cup off and let it overflow back into the sump 24/7.

 

[zemuss]

I will post another update once I get the hair algae to grow. Hoping I don't have to seed the hair algae but you never know.

 

[zemuss]

Latest update on growth.

Finally i have some green stuff growing on the screen. Hoping the new algae growth takes off and I start seeing a reduction of Cyano and Algae in the tank along with a reduction in Nitrates.

Testing everything today before I turn the skimmer back on.

Cyano is growing in my tank so I need to get the nutrients out quicker.

 

[Reefcrazed417]

It would be interesting to see results adding this and continuing your normal routine to see the impact the ats had

 

[zemuss]

I have turned the skimmer on and adjusting it back to pulling a tea colored skimmate.

I will start taking pictures of the display. But the algae on the screen is building so I will monitor the progress.

What I have noticed is turning the Skimmer off bumped up the nitrate to about 10 to 20 ppm.

 

[ProfessorX]

What light are you using? The lights look like they are at an angle

 

[zemuss]

I am using a free light I got from Reef Radiance called a DM-5e.

Update on Nitrates is I am currently at 0 but display algae is still growing.

Here is the result of about a 2 months of growth.. (Originally I thought 1 month but checked the original posting.) Anyways that is about a 14 day period of seeding and growth thereafter.

Here it is all clumped up after scraping:

This is about a t-ball baseball size scraping.

Also the seeding process took some time and since the scraping the algae on the scrubber has taken off. Pictures were taken on the 18th of May and in 11 days the screen needs another cleaning this weekend.

The turf scrubber does work, however, I still have a build up of green / red slime algae that I am trying to curtail. I believe it is being caused by a rubbermade tote leaching phosphates which I am in the process of correcting with a ten gallon tank.

 

[Cory]

So howd the scrubber work out? Algae free tank?

What size tank and screen?

 

[zemuss]

Pretty much helped when i had it up and running. I am changing a few things over the next month which should help resolve the Nitrate and Po4 issues.

When I had the Turf Scubber up and running I didn't have nitrates and lower levels of po4.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Cool!