Can an algae scrubber slow down SPS growth?

[Clownreef]

Last Christmas my fiancé and I went to visit her family in Austria for about a month. During that time I turned off my algae scrubber since I didn't want my tank sitter to worry about cleaning the screen while I was gone. At that point I was running it 24/7. When we got home I noticed an explosion in growth from my SPS, but my glass was all green. My glass is usually pristine. I have to clean it maybe once a week.


Recently Ive noticed a complete freeze on growth. Great polyp extension day and night but zero growth. I blamed it on the scrubber being on all the time. I checked phosphates and they are pretty much close to zero. Nitrate is around 2. (DKH 8, Ca. 460, Mag 1350).


Can this be attributed to the scrubber stripping the water of phosphates?

I run Radions plus T5s and Kessils.. so light is not an issue.


Thoughts?

Thank you!

D

 

[Whasmack]

Either that; or feed more! (Or aminos)

 

[mitch91175]

Sure you had a higher pH not being there which would increase dKH consumption as well. Also if the scrubber is keeping nutrients really low it could have an affect on growth; maybe affecting some coral more than others.

 

[Bpb]

Many factors at play. Vacations seem to have either one effect or the other. People seem to come home to a dead tank, or one which seemed to thrive even more in the owner's absence.

In the event of thriving I have a couple theories:
1: As mentioned above, higher PH = faster calcification
2: Less messing with the tank/hands in the water/trace aerosolized pollutants entering the water/ect = happier coral
3: your theory, bump in nutrients caused a growth spurt, but what were phosphates when you returned....were they actually up?
4: (what i think is most likely) you haven't seen the tank in a while so the growth is more noticeable. Similarly to how if you're dieting, you don't notice the weight loss as much as someone who hasn't seen you for weeks.

 

[Clownreef]

Either that; or feed more! (Or aminos)

I dose acropower daily (using a DOS).

Sure you had a higher pH not being there which would increase dKH consumption as well. Also if the scrubber is keeping nutrients really low it could have an affect on growth; maybe affecting some coral more than others.

I believe that too. I programmed the scrubber to run from 8pm to 2am now.

Many factors at play. Vacations seem to have either one effect or the other. People seem to come home to a dead tank, or one which seemed to thrive even more in the owner's absence.

In the event of thriving I have a couple theories:
1: As mentioned above, higher PH = faster calcification
2: Less messing with the tank/hands in the water/trace aerosolized pollutants entering the water/ect = happier coral
3: your theory, bump in nutrients caused a growth spurt, but what were phosphates when you returned....were they actually up?
4: (what i think is most likely) you haven't seen the tank in a while so the growth is more noticeable. Similarly to how if you're dieting, you don't notice the weight loss as much as someone who hasn't seen you for weeks.

I cant seem to raise my PH past 7.5. I bought a CO2 scrubber. Should get there next week. I now think PH has to do more with the issue that phosphates..

 

[mitch91175]

I dose acropower daily (using a DOS).


I believe that too. I programmed the scrubber to run from 8pm to 2am now.



I cant seem to raise my PH past 7.5. I bought a CO2 scrubber. Should get there next week. I now think PH has to do more with the issue that phosphates..

What was your pH before/during/after the vacation?

 

[ca1ore]

There were many heated discussions years ago about the deleterious effect of the ATS on stony coral tanks. Some from the failure of the large reef tank at the Washington DC Smithsonian tank that had been the ‘inspiration’ for the ATS in this hobby and Walter Adey’s book Dynamic Ecosystems (still a good read if you can find a copy). Most of the debates revolved around turf algae releasing chemical compounds into the system, although there were some on stripping of nutrients from the system. I no longer recall the details of the released compounds, though I believe the failure of the Smithsonian tank was eventually determined to be long term yellowing of tank waters. To this day I will not run my ATS (and I have been running variations on ATS design since about 1992) without also running GAC.

As is the case with many things, the ATS is probably overhyped. The MD article from 2016 about the ATS revolutionizing reefing still give me a chuckle. It can be an effective part of the nutrient export plan and, implemented properly, it’s hard to see why coral growth would stop.

 

[Bpb]

There were many heated discussions years ago about the deleterious effect of the ATS on stony coral tanks. Some from the failure of the large reef tank at the Washington DC Smithsonian tank that had been the ‘inspiration’ for the ATS in this hobby and Walter Adey’s book Dynamic Ecosystems (still a good read if you can find a copy). Most of the debates revolved around turf algae releasing chemical compounds into the system, although there were some on stripping of nutrients from the system. I no longer recall the details of the released compounds, though the failure of the Smithsonian tank was eventually determined to be long term yellowing of tank waters. To this day I will not run my ATS (and I have been running variations on ATS design since about 1992) without also running GAC.

As is the case with many things, the ATS is probably overhyped. The MD article from 2016 about the ATS revolutionizing reefing still give me a chuckle. It can be an effective part of the nutrient export plan and, implemented properly, it’s hard to see why coral growth would stop.

Interesting thought. So would you say that aggressive Activated carbon use would be pivotal in conjunction with the algae turf scrubber for a stony coral tank? Obviously this would carry a necessity to feed extremely heavy as to not over filter the water. I ask because I am presently maturing an algae turf scrubber on my rock curing tub with intended use on a future SPS tank. I'd hate to have thrown all my eggs in the ATS basket only to find it hinder acropora growth

 

[jda]

I have always wondered what kind of organics from algae that GAC could get that a skimmer could not. Probably not a good idea to take a skimmer offline even when running a ATS.

ATS would need to strip the water to a growth limiting amount of building blocks for the stonies to be affected. In nature this is about 1 ppb of phosphate and .10 ppm of nitrate. Doubt that most people are lower than this without using chemicals or media - natural methods cannot usually get below this on their own.

 

[ca1ore]

I can only say that I have always run GAC in conjunction with ATS .... skimmer too for that matter. Most coherent skimmer comparisons say that about1/3 of organic are skimmable. Whether those released by algae are among that third I cannot say. So I run GAC.

 

[drawman]

Makes me dislike my nasty turf algae even more :mad:

 

[Potatohead]

Personally I would answer the question as yes... And that it is also likely phosphate related. IME a week between glass cleanings is too long.

 

[Clownreef]

Really good input. Thank you all!

 

[Joedubyk]

Last Christmas my fiancé and I went to visit her family in Austria for about a month. During that time I turned off my algae scrubber since I didn't want my tank sitter to worry about cleaning the screen while I was gone. At that point I was running it 24/7. When we got home I noticed an explosion in growth from my SPS, but my glass was all green. My glass is usually pristine. I have to clean it maybe once a week.


Recently Ive noticed a complete freeze on growth. Great polyp extension day and night but zero growth. I blamed it on the scrubber being on all the time. I checked phosphates and they are pretty much close to zero. Nitrate is around 2. (DKH 8, Ca. 460, Mag 1350).


Can this be attributed to the scrubber stripping the water of phosphates?

I run Radions plus T5s and Kessils.. so light is not an issue.


Thoughts?

Thank you!

D

YES.... you starved the corals.

 

[Joedubyk]

Also yes.. pH is huge for SPS , too. 8.4 is like CRACK to them. Huge difference between that and 7s

 

[mshur]

I can only say that I have always run GAC in conjunction with ATS .... skimmer too for that matter. Most coherent skimmer comparisons say that about1/3 of organic are skimmable. Whether those released by algae are among that third I cannot say. So I run GAC.

Do you see any difference in SPS health ( growth and color) while using GAC and without it? Do you run carbon 24/7 or few weeks a month?
I am running both large skimmer and large ATS but stopped using carbon few month ago and to be honest with you i did notice loss in colors on some corals but not on all .

 

[ca1ore]

Do you see any difference in SPS health ( growth and color) while using GAC and without it? Do you run carbon 24/7 or few weeks a month?
I am running both large skimmer and large ATS but stopped using carbon few month ago and to be honest with you i did notice loss in colors on some corals but not on all .

No way for me to say since I run carbon 24/7, and have for years .... since the tank has never been ‘without’ I’ve nothing to compare. Sorry.

 

[Clownreef]

Lots of value in this discussion. Thank you all.

My PH is ALWAYS low. It never goes about 7.8. I just ran a line from outside into the skimmer inlet until I get my CO2 scrubber in the mail next week..

Also Dinos seem to thrive in low PH...