Dosing for Algae Scrubbers

[Larry Stewart]

For all those who do dose your systems that contain algae scrubbers, which product have you used with great results to grow your algae for the scrubber?

I'm just connecting my algae scrubber to my system and was curious as to which product to began dosing.

Please let me know. Thanks.


Larry

 

[Quietman]

If you have nitrates and phosphates in your system at any level then you don't need to dose. What are you looking to do with your ATS beyond that?

 

[Larry Stewart]

For some reason, I read where a form of iron was needed to increase the effectiveness of the scrubbers. However, I do have both phosphates and nitrates in the system.

Have you not had to dose/add Fe (Iron) for growth of your algae in the scrubber?

 

[Quietman]

Ah...yes if your algae is a paler green you can add some iron to darken it up. Mine is pale but my nitrate and phosphate are still low and no algae in display so not fixing what's working.

Iron dosing isn't required to start your ATS.

 

[Larry Stewart]

Okay. So, do you current add any additional trace elements or additives to your system for stability? Fe, Mg, Ca, Mn....etc due to the ATS depleting certain elements?

Or do you simply do water changes to correct the imbalance of depletion?

 

[Reefology1]

Iron and manganese are depleted rapidly in a reef tank utilizing macro algae for nutrient control (ATS/refugium) so I dose daily. Weekly water changes with a good quality salt should also do the trick.

 

[Breadman03]

Brightwell’s Chaetogrow is a good simple option.

 

[dzolot]

I have an ats on my 150g display as the primary nutrient export, and do very infrequent water changes. I dose brightwell chaetowflow pretty sparingly, but to be honest i have no idea if it helps or hurts or is right or wrong! I asked brs about it in the public q&a on the product page and they gave a very wishy washy answer. Probably not a great response to your Q, so I would love to hear what others have to say!!

 

[dzolot]

Here’s my tank to give you a sense of how my tank is doing.

 

[Cory]

Besides iron and maganese, you can feed more food like nori to get it growing better. Mostly ats do well with red leds.

 

[Josh@ClearWaterScrubbers]

For all those who do dose your systems that contain algae scrubbers, which product have you used with great results to grow your algae for the scrubber?

I'm just connecting my algae scrubber to my system and was curious as to which product to began dosing.

Please let me know. Thanks.


Larry

Yes you will need to dose iron and traces in. We recommend Captiv8 Aquaculture Reef Blue Print Trace M/T. It was designed based off our scrubbers on the systems at ACI Aquaculture. You can reach out to them about where to pick some up. It is the purest and most concentrated trace dosing you can get and was specifically designed for systems with ATS’ on them.

 

[Boomski]

I didn't do anything besides turn it on and run it 24/7. Grows like a champ and exports a ton.

I noticed when I clean it, if I leave a small amount on the screen it grows much better.

 

[Larry Stewart]

I didn't do anything besides turn it on and run it 24/7. Grows like a champ and exports a ton.

I noticed when I clean it, if I leave a small amount on the screen it grows much better.

Thank you for this information. I had it running at 24/7 for a week....then I switched to 18 hrs a day.... it will be 2 weeks this weekend and the screen is starting to harvest its first algae patch. This photo was taken this morning.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I recommend a simple DIY iron supplement using Fergon tablets from the drug store, if you want to dose iron (which I recommend).

 

[Larry Stewart]

Randy,

How do you dose this Iron product? Crushed and diluted in water? What is your formula or solution to dosing pertaining to quantity ? Thank you for the response.

I recommend a simple DIY iron supplement using Fergon tablets from the drug store, if you want to dose iron (which I recommend).

 

[reef3reef]

I dose ESV's Transition Elements (not the Plus version which includes carbon dosing) daily. It contains Fe, Mn and Zn which can rapidly deplete in a tank.

 

[Larry Stewart]

I just did the first scrapping on the screen and wanted to share. Also I started this product of Brightwell Aquatics called Ferrion which had occupied space on my shelf for a few years.

I am really thankful for all the information generated around this topic. Thank you all for adding you advice....and I'm sure there's more room for more advice. So please continue to add your information.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Randy,

How do you dose this Iron product? Crushed and diluted in water? What is your formula or solution to dosing pertaining to quantity ? Thank you for the response.

My recommended DIY is:

Fergon tablets (from a drug store).

One Fergon tablet (ferrous gluconate) contains 27 mg of iron. Dissolve that in about 27 mL RO/DI (my recommendation, but other concentrations are OK, just don't dilute too much), the concentration is about 27 mg/27 ml ~ 1 mg/mL.

I dose ~1 mL to my tank with a volume of about 300 gallons once or twice a week.

 

[Its only Money]

Good info here, Thanks to all that chimed in. I’m also looking to purchase a scrubber to export n03 & p04. Any recommendations? Looking at the CW-50 by clear water.

 

[Larry Stewart]

Good info here, Thanks to all that chimed in. I’m also looking to purchase a scrubber to export n03 & p04. Any recommendations? Looking at the CW-50 by clear water.

The Clear Water Scrubber seems to be off to a good start for me. Nitrates are definitely going down and Phosphates aren't that far behind. A lot of algae growth has occurred since this past Wednesday morning's scraping of the screen. I'm going to wait a couple of days to scrape the screen again.

I am satisfied with the purchase and it already seems to be doing exactly what I have read seen...from the reviews and videos I will recommend this scrubber to anyone interested.