Experience with algae scrubbers

[rtparty]

I ran my old 50g with just an ATS for a few months. It was very low bioload and an LPS tank. I never measured nutrients in that tank. After about 6 weeks, it had cleared up of all cyano and hair algae. My biggest issue was I just added randomly and it made maintenance a little more difficult. This led to me not scraping the screen as often as I should.

I took it offline and sold it. Went back to just a skimmer. The tank paid the price and never looked as good again.

I decided they are well worth it and bought a CW-200 for my new 250g upgrade. Like an idiot, I didn't measure and it won't fit in my stand where I planned it to go. So now I have to sell it at a nice loss and wait for the new Clearwater scrubbers coming out this month and make sure they will fit and make maintenance easy.

I want to run a heavily stocked tank with lots of food for everything but need serious removal and an ATS fits the bill. Add in a little carbon dosing and I will be set.

Instead of chasing the numbers, look at your system and see what the corals are telling you. Are they light in color? Are they dark in color? Let the tank speak and not numbers on a hobby grade test kit. JMO. I couldn't tell you what my numbers are on my new tank right now. Everything is open, growing, good color, and overall healthy. So I will just keep on doing what I am doing

 

[BanjoBandito]

Most scrubbers are too small.

Once I added my DIY scrubber and going through 6 different lighting options It's the best thing I've ever done for my tank.

It's large (15 high tank) and I use lights from Expressions LTD and it's no joke.

Only drawback is having to dose iodine.

100% - I wish I would have seen this unit prior to buying it. The screen in 6x6” if that.

 

[BanjoBandito]

And here I am thinking I have an amazing sense of humor. Perhaps it was your timing??

I’ll tell you who else doesn’t appreciate it - THE askBRS FACEBOOK GROUP.

 

[BanjoBandito]

I have had good results in tuning my nutrients by adjusting the light cycle of my ATS. I do also dose Viniger and Iron as the ATS will deplete Iron. Then the algae will not grow much if at all.

Yeah I think I’m going to need a secondary method, which is kinda what I’m getting at. Originally I believed this would be capable of handling nutrient export, but it’s not either due to size or user error.

 

[The Farmer]

I think they reach a certain level of growth and stop removing nutrients. I would have to scrape mine more often then I wanted to see a difference in the nutrients levels. I had the lights set 12 hours after Dt

 

[rtparty]

I think they reach a certain level of growth and stop removing nutrients. I would have to scrape mine more often then I wanted to see a difference in the nutrients levels. I had the lights set 12 hours after Dt

If algae is growing, nutrients are being consumed. There is no way around this

 

[DavidinGA]

I ran my old 50g with just an ATS for a few months. It was very low bioload and an LPS tank. I never measured nutrients in that tank. After about 6 weeks, it had cleared up of all cyano and hair algae. My biggest issue was I just added randomly and it made maintenance a little more difficult. This led to me not scraping the screen as often as I should.

I took it offline and sold it. Went back to just a skimmer. The tank paid the price and never looked as good again.

I decided they are well worth it and bought a CW-200 for my new 250g upgrade. Like an idiot, I didn't measure and it won't fit in my stand where I planned it to go. So now I have to sell it at a nice loss and wait for the new Clearwater scrubbers coming out this month and make sure they will fit and make maintenance easy.

I want to run a heavily stocked tank with lots of food for everything but need serious removal and an ATS fits the bill. Add in a little carbon dosing and I will be set.

Instead of chasing the numbers, look at your system and see what the corals are telling you. Are they light in color? Are they dark in color? Let the tank speak and not numbers on a hobby grade test kit. JMO. I couldn't tell you what my numbers are on my new tank right now. Everything is open, growing, good color, and overall healthy. So I will just keep on doing what I am doing

Ya an ATS is really all you need is sized properly.

I have a 90g mixed reef with medium bioload and that's my only export system. No skimmer, no water changes, no reactors. Just an ATS, dose kalk, some floss, occasionally I'll toss in a little bag of carbon for polishing and I have a uv on standby for additional water clarity when I want it.

KISS ftw.

 

[Garf]

Ya an ATS is really all you need is sized properly.

I have a 90g mixed reef with medium bioload and that's my only export system. No skimmer, no water changes, no reactors. Just an ATS, dose kalk, some floss, occasionally I'll toss in a little bag of carbon for polishing and I have a uv on standby for additional water clarity when I want it.

KISS ftw.

You’ll prolly want to do regular ICP tests, now if you believe the results, thats a different matter

 

[DavidinGA]

You’ll prolly want to do regular ICP tests, now if you believe the results, thats a different matter

So what your really saying is that I should just trust my 20+ years of reefing experience instead, got it!

 

[Garf]

So what your really saying is that I should just trust my 20+ years of reefing experience instead, got it!

Winky emoji replies baffle the hell out of me. So do you do ICP tests?

 

[DavidinGA]

Winky emoji replies baffle the hell out of me. So do you do ICP tests?

No, I don't.

 

[Garf]

No, I don't.

Ok, thanks.

 

[Garf]

No, I don't.

Perhaps you don’t add magnesium but if you do, how do you stop the chloride and sulfate getting out of whack with sodium? Or perhaps it doesn’t matter. Kalk also tends to slightly increase calcium, compared to Alkalinity also, which may or may not be a problem to some.

Edit - I suppose sodium hydroxide dosing may help with both of these points, maybe. Would lead to an overall increase in salinity over time though, I would have thought.

 

[Paul B]

We'll see. Always somethin' in this hobby.

LOL, I have been using Algae scrubbers since the 60s.

I use my DIY scrubber more to keep algae out of my tank but I want algae growing in my system just like it grows on every healthy reef in the sea.

I almost never check parameters and I am sure they are way out of whack but my fish and corals don't seem to care. As for diatoms, I could almost clean my glass every day and if I let it go for a week, my glass would look like sheet metal. Good sheet metal not that cheap stuff from Home Depot.

 

[BanjoBandito]

I've been thinking about this - so I've decided to ask 3 questions to ATS users:

1. Is the nutrient removal consistent and/or measurable? Meaning if the screen is "full" I see 30% less reduction in Nitrate/Phoshate or when the screen is new I know that my nitrates will drop by 5ppm, etc.

2. Using an ATS causes nutrient depletion so I dose X. Backed up by an ICP or titration test.

3. Using a 24 hour light cycle is less efficient than 18 hour....or 12 hour is better than 14 hour....any facts to back that up

BONUS QUESTION: What piece of equipment, or dosing, or whatever to you think the ATS is replacing? If any? Would you say they are a standard in your setups? A nice feature to have? Totally unnecessary?

 

[SPS2020]

Like @Paul B , I use a scrubber solely to keep GHA out of the DT. Since I change filter socks, clean the protein skimmer routinely, coupled with weekly water changes, it's tough to determine how much of a reduction of NO3\PO4 occurs via ATS. As a reference, here is my screen after new installation and running for six weeks. I plan to do an N-DOC test in a week or two.

 

[guysmiley]

i run a icecap x large it fills up in 5 days lol

 

[kerbfish]

I have had good results in tuning my nutrients by adjusting the light cycle of my ATS. I do also dose Viniger and Iron as the ATS will deplete Iron. Then the algae will not grow much if at all.

I am having this stall out problem with growing chaeto…..i think could be similar issue, anyone want to recommend where they get iron supplement? I think brightwell has ?

 

[atoll]

I am having this stall out problem with growing chaeto…..i think could be similar issue, anyone want to recommend where they get iron supplement? I think brightwell has ?

Make your own. Easy to do and cheap using iron tablets. Randy Holmes Farley has a how to on his forum.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

I think.your way over thinking this
D