Time to harvest ATS for the first time?

Ev8siveaz · Mar 15, 2023

Hey everyone. I have a couple questions regarding my Algae Turf Scrubber.

My other half got me my turf scrubber for Xmas. I had wanted one because I am a decently heavy stocked 180g with 75g FOWLR and I wanted something to help with nutrient export. Tank has been up and running for about a year and half. I have a number of semi aggressive larger wrasse living together and like to make sure they are well fed to subside any aggression/territorial behavior. So far it has worked. I feed my tank about 4 cubes a day which consists of a mix of PE mysis, regular mysis, spirulina brine, and omega brine (This doesnt include the hand feeding for the lion and eel which eat every 2 to 3 days). My tank tends to stay in between 30 and 60 ppm for nitrates with biweekly water changes. Currently I am running this ATS, a reefmat 1200, and a protein skimmer. I seeded my ATS on Jan 27th and it took it awhile to grow. After no growth for about 3 weeks, I ended up running the system for 20 hours on and 4 hours off and upped the lighting to almost 100%. The turf finally started to take off. I am curious as to when to harvest for the first time. I feel that my nitrates were keeping steady in between 30-40 for the past couple of months but did a test yesterday and my nitrates are about 55. I would also like to note that I got a raccoon butterfly to deal with an aiptasia outbreak. He has been mowing them down so that may be contributing to my nitrate spike a bit as well. I have attached a video of where the algae is now. It does not fill the whole screen but was thinking that maybe I need to harvest a few times for it to become thicker and thicker and it will then take out more nutrients. Is that the case? Does it look like I need to harvest now? Any input on this would be appreciated as I am trying to get my nitrates steady again and fairly new to ATS's.

I also attached a video of my tank to show my stocking. I dont have any food left over but does 4 cubes a day seem like way too much for my stocking list and tank size? I know I want to overfeed a bit but want to make sure its not crazy excessive. In my experience, I also feel that PE mysis doesnt have very much per cube so Im not sure I even really consider them a "full cube". Any input on this would be appreciated. Thanks!

https://youtube.com/shorts/gD41PTniqRI?feature=share

https://youtube.com/shorts/pHGrqmLftgs?feature=share

Ev8siveaz · Mar 15, 2023

@Jay Hemdal @SaltyT @vetteguy53081 Do you guys know anyone (including yourselves) that we could possibly tag for an answer that is well versed with algae turf scrubbers?

vetteguy53081 · Mar 15, 2023

Ev8siveaz said:
@Jay Hemdal @SaltyT @vetteguy53081 Do you guys know anyone (including yourselves) that we could possibly tag for an answer that is well versed with algae turf scrubbers?

Ive been running scrubbers over 5 years and began with Clear water and now using IceCap 60.
The best advantage I see is the control of my nitrates which hover around 18-25 which is a comfort zone for me. The scrubber is more of a remover and acts as a natural filter ( the egg crate screen mimics rocks in the ocean) to remove odors and impurities and not what some envision as removing algae that causes problems. For me it also reduces needs for water changes and general maintenance. For when to harvest, I visualy look over the opening to see when it thickens OR unit flow slows down
Here is one of my pulls:

Ev8siveaz · Mar 15, 2023

vetteguy53081 said:
Ive been running scrubbers over 5 years and began with Clear water and now using IceCap 60.
The best advantage I see is the control of my nitrates which hover around 18-25 which is a comfort zone for me. The scrubber is more of a remover and acts as a natural filter ( the egg crate screen mimics rocks in the ocean) to remove odors and impurities and not what some envision as removing algae that causes problems. For me it also reduces needs for water changes and general maintenance. For when to harvest, I visualy look over the opening to see when it thickens OR unit flow slows down
Here is one of my pulls:

That's exactly the reason(s) I got mine. Your pull looks like much more than what mine has produced so far. Should I wait until there is more or harvest it now? I was just thinking it's been almost 2 months so was thinking it may be time.

vetteguy53081 · Mar 15, 2023

Ev8siveaz said:
That's exactly the reason(s) I got mine. Your pull looks like much more than what mine has produced so far. Should I wait until there is more or harvest it now? I was just thinking it's been almost 2 months so was thinking it may be time.

Are you running yours full time?
I’m getting harvest bi weekly as pictured. One tip is when you removed algae which I do with an old credit card…… don’t clean the screen completely- leave algae residue on it which binds new algae quickly

Ev8siveaz · Mar 15, 2023

vetteguy53081 said:
Are you running yours full time?
I’m getting harvest bi weekly as pictured. One tip is when you removed algae which I do with an old credit card…… don’t clean the screen completely- leave algae residue on it which binds new algae quickly

I am running it full time at the moment. I have yet to clean it off since I started in Jan. I did hear a credit card is the way to go and was planning to leave enough to get it seeded quicker

SPS2020 · Mar 15, 2023

For me, it's about every 7-10 days for my Turbos Aquatics. It is scheduled for 14.5 hours per day (beginning at 11:30pm). I don't use a credit card, I pull it manually and it comes off nicely in clumps. I tried scraping, but it did not work so well for me.

What ATS are you using? You might try doing some searches on Turbos Aquatics; there is quite a bit of useful information regarding timing of the lights, intensity and algae growth. Too much is not necessarily a good thing.

This is not a recent pic; there's more true GHA now and no slime algae.

Ev8siveaz · Mar 15, 2023

SPS2020 said:
For me, it's about every 7-10 days for my Turbos Aquatics. It is scheduled for 14.5 hours per day (beginning at 11:30pm). I don't use a credit card, I pull it manually and it comes off nicely in clumps. I tried scraping, but it did not work so well for me.

What ATS are you using? You might try doing some searches on Turbos Aquatics; there is quite a bit of useful information regarding timing of the lights, intensity and algae growth. Too much is not necessarily a good thing.

This is not a recent pic; there's more true GHA now and no slime algae.

Awesome info. Thanks! Was your first harvest this full?

Jay Hemdal · Mar 15, 2023

Sorry, I don't have much to add, other than with ATS, you need to be aware that algae are "leaky", they tend to release organics into the water as they grow, and that increases when you physically break the cells apart during removal. These dissolved organics tend to yellow the water, and that needs to be removed via water changes of carbon use.

Jay

Ev8siveaz · Mar 15, 2023

@vetteguy53081 I am thinking that I may need to up the flow since it has finally started to grow more. I just did that. Curious to see if that helps out

Ev8siveaz · Mar 15, 2023

Jay Hemdal said:
Sorry, I don't have much to add, other than with ATS, you need to be aware that algae are "leaky", they tend to release organics into the water as they grow, and that increases when you physically break the cells apart during removal. These dissolved organics tend to yellow the water, and that needs to be removed via water changes of carbon use.

Jay

No worries Jay! Figured you may have known someone that could have added some input. Thanks as always!

vetteguy53081 · Mar 15, 2023

Ev8siveaz said:
@vetteguy53081 I am thinking that I may need to up the flow since it has finally started to grow more. I just did that. Curious to see if that helps out

Flow is of importance and I should add regarding comment by Jay, Yes they can leak out weedy substance and for that, I have a mesh filter sock at my return line to catch this escapee stuff and its simple to empty and clean by hand

SPS2020 · Mar 16, 2023

Ev8siveaz said:
Awesome info. Thanks! Was your first harvest this full?

No, it took a several months before I had that kind of haul. ;-) It took a while in the beginning before I saw much growth.

Ev8siveaz · Mar 16, 2023

SPS2020 said:
No, it took a several months before I had that kind of haul. ;-) It took a while in the beginning before I saw much growth.

Thanks. When did you and what made you harvest for the first time? I'm just curious if it makes more sense to keep letting mine grow where it's at or to harvest it and let it come back more full.

SPS2020 · Mar 16, 2023

Ev8siveaz said:
Thanks. When did you and what made you harvest for the first time? I'm just curious if it makes more sense to keep letting mine grow where it's at or to harvest it and let it come back more full.

I got advice from Bud Carlson (owner). I sent him a picture of growth after six weeks. At this point, I had worked my way up to the lighting schedule and intensity previously mentioned. Below is his response. Note that I have not changed the intensity or schedule since growth has been great.

This growth looks very good!

If that's helping keep nutrients under control, stay the course. But I see no signs of over-lighting. Generally, you can work your way up to 18+ hrs/day and 3/4 intensity

Increasing duration/photoperiod at the same intensity will keep the instantaneous rate of nutrient adsorption where it is, and that is the more gradual approach (useful if you are near a "balance" point)

Increasing intensity will up that rate of adsorption so be more cautious there. Not so much of a worry until you go past 3/4 turn. For reference, "halfway" is actually 25% intensity, 3/4 turn is actually 50%, so the last 1/4 turn doubles the intensity.

SPS2020 · Mar 16, 2023

Ev8siveaz said:
Thanks. When did you and what made you harvest for the first time? I'm just curious if it makes more sense to keep letting mine grow where it's at or to harvest it and let it come back more full.

You can pull some off and rub it into the bare spots on the screen to help "seed" that area.

Ev8siveaz · Apr 11, 2023

@vetteguy53081 I decided to do my first harvest today. How does this look? Took a couple months but looks pretty full to me. Thought it was definitely time to harvest it.

Garf · Apr 11, 2023

Ev8siveaz said:
@vetteguy53081 I decided to do my first harvest today. How does this look? Took a couple months but looks pretty full to me. Thought it was definitely time to harvest it.

Looks like you’ve got multiple species, very interesting. I’ve long suspected that browns are likely dinos of some sort, yellow goo maybe crysophytes etc. Folks selling scrubbers may not agree however. The general line is that the browns are green hair algae that is “full of phosphate”, the yellows are green algae that are iron deficient etc. Don’t suppose you’ve got a microscope?

Garf · Apr 15, 2023

It’s very odd that these threads go quiet when I suggest a possible undesirable growing on the screens. I had one that grew bryopsis like a champ, lol

Ev8siveaz · Apr 18, 2023

Garf said:
It’s very odd that these threads go quiet when I suggest a possible undesirable growing on the screens. I had one that grew bryopsis like a champ, lol

Sorry I got busy. I'm not sure what it is supposed to look like so I have no idea if it is undesirable at all. It does seem to take forever to grow as that was about 2.5 months of growth.

I don't see it making any impact on my Nitrate export either.