Roller Mats and Phytoplankton

[SheldonC]

I'm hoping someone has already done the math, but I'm currently putting phyto into my tank weekly while leaving the roller mat operational. I turn off the skimmer for a few hours, however. I imagine SOME of the phyto is filtered out, but my understanding is the Red Sea roller mat is about 200 microns, meaning a lot of the phyto would get through until it clumps.

Am I throwing away phyto at this point by letting it run through the sump? If it means turning off the return for a while when dosing, that's fine, but it's just one more thing to do

 

[tzabor10]

You can easily make your own to have surplus phytoplankton. It might waste fleece, but what else would you expect from this hobby?

 

[esquare]

You can always turn off the ReefMat for a bit when you add the phyto. I found the ReefMat to be too good at cleaning the water so I only run it a couple times a day.

 

[SheldonC]

You can always turn off the ReefMat for a bit when you add the phyto. I found the ReefMat to be too good at cleaning the water so I only run it a couple times a day.

Doesn't turning off the mat just prevent it from spooling as it gets full? It doesn't actually bypass the water if I understand correctly.

 

[esquare]

Doesn't turning off the mat just prevent it from spooling as it gets full? It doesn't actually bypass the water if I understand correctly.

Correct, it turns off the drive unit so the fleece clogs up and the water overflows the body effectively bypassing the fleece. Other RollerMats have a bypass valve but the Red Sea does not so this is the workaround I have found. It actually works Better than a bypass valve, IMHO, because you can control the amount of filtration by turning off/on and can tie that to other variables via a controller. As an example, I only have my RollerMatt turn on twice a day when my MP40's go into nutrient export mode. This helps keep larger detritus from accumulating in the display but doesn't strip out too many nutrients.

 

[esquare]

The only negative, other than the somewhat noisy water overflowing the reefmat is that it causes the water level in the sump to fluctuate slightly when the water volume in the ReefMat increases when turned off and decreases when turned on. It's not a very significant fluctuation though.