Time to switch from algae scrubber to carbon dosing?

[Frag_mad]

Morning people. Considering a change from an algae scrubber to nopox as filtration. Keeping up with the minor elements for a scrubber is getting a lot of work. With me having to dose manganese, iron, iodine, vanadium on top of the essentials pro I’m already using. I’m considering going and buying a skimmer and switching to carbon dosing. Anybody done this? Successful? I want carbon dosing to take over from the scrubber, I don’t want to use rowa or a similar product due to time and financial constraints. Any points of view welcome, looking for your pros and cons to try and avoid any mistakes

thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The bacteria will also take up trace elements.

I made the switch from large amounts of macroalgae to small amounts and organic carbon dosing (vinegar) and thought it was desirable from the standpoint of lower costs (less electricity) and better growth of filter feeders that eat the bacteria (like sponges).

 

[Frag_mad]

The bacteria will also take up trace elements.

I made the switch from large amounts of macroalgae to small amounts and organic carbon dosing (vinegar) and thought it was desirable from the standpoint of lower costs (less electricity) and better growth of filter feeders that eat the bacteria (like sponges).

Hi Randy, did you get the desired results? I’m sure they will but I’m sure it won’t take up trace elements upto the level my ATS is. Dosing 10ml of your manganese solution daily, 6ml of your iron solution, 44ug/l iodine a day plus others. It’s getting too expensive and too labour intensive.

 

[X-37B]

I run a skimmer with no macro algae or fuge.
I do not carbon dose.
I do have live rock with many sponge attatched.
They have gotten pretty big in a years time.
Alot of small sponges in overflow and sump.
Sump and tank are bare bottom.
Po4 .02
No3 <2

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hi Randy, did you get the desired results? I’m sure they will but I’m sure it won’t take up trace elements upto the level my ATS is. Dosing 10ml of your manganese solution daily, 6ml of your iron solution, 44ug/l iodine a day plus others. It’s getting too expensive and too labour intensive.

I was happy with the change, but regardless of amount of vinegar dosing, was never able to control macroalgae algae in the main tank (before or after the change) without a fish like a foxface. Not sure why.

 

[bobssecrtsn]

Can we see your setup for your ATS? I run a skimmer and ATS, (SantaMonica railfall4) and I dont dose any elements you speak of, I do harvest every 1.5-2 weeks.

 

[Frag_mad]

What do you want to know / see? I use a turbo scrubber, L2 I think it is. Used scrubbers for 5 years with some great results but this minor elements depletion is getting expensive. It’s mainly because I don’t water change?

 

[bobssecrtsn]

are you testing for those elements? I'm curious as to why someone would dose it. Would it be better to run a CARX as it will put those elements back in the water ? or triton method ? or ATI essential two part ?

 

[tvan]

Any points of view?
Here goes....
Skimmer+rodi-water = dosing, You strip it out then dose it back. Been there. It's why I left the hobby 20 yrs ago.
Cryptic filter, Why I left 10 yrs ago.
ATS (Big no no)+hard-tap-water (Big no no) = GHA. So far, 3 month old tank, algae is moving to sump and ATS(I am exporting algae). Vinegar dosing for a poor coral. And striving for balance.
Hope this helps.
Glad to see RHF is still put'n it out there... I followed you on an other board.
Tvan

 

[Rick Krejci]

I run a turbo ATS as well, and wasn't getting the desired growth, so I started dosing Brightwell's Chaetogro a few weeks ago. Definitely noticed an improvement. Seems to replenish many of the elements my ICP tests indicated were low. So far only dosing 1-2 ml/day on my 60 gallon, so won't be expensive.

 

[Frag_mad]

are you testing for those elements? I'm curious as to why someone would dose it. Would it be better to run a CARX as it will put those elements back in the water ? or triton method ? or ATI essential two part ?

Already use ati essentials 2 part. I ICP once a month. I dose a lot of manganese and iron especially & they still always come back on the icp as 0. If I stop dosing those minor elements the scrubber stops growing and the nutrients sky rocket. This is why I’m looking at changing it’s exhausting. One of my lines recently blocked up and my po4 flew up from 19ppb to 191ppd. It’s years of experience and testing that’s led me to this but the elements I dose are as important to algae as No3 & Po4, if it doesn’t have access to them it doesn’t grow. For example if I’m running everything as it should my scrubber grows around 150g of ulva in 3 days, if I turned off manganese and iron it’d grow approx 50g in the same period through what the essentials put in. This is why I’m seriously considering swapping as my scrubber is developing too many variables to wether it works or not.

 

[Frag_mad]

@Randy Holmes-Farley do you water change when carbon dosing? Do we need to water change when carbon dosing?

 

[Frag_mad]

I run a turbo ATS as well, and wasn't getting the desired growth, so I started dosing Brightwell's Chaetogro a few weeks ago. Definitely noticed an improvement. Seems to replenish many of the elements my ICP tests indicated were low. So far only dosing 1-2 ml/day on my 60 gallon, so won't be expensive.

Thanks for your input. I tried the fauna Marin equivalent early last year, it didn’t put enough back in unfortunately which is why I had to separate the elements and dose individually. I

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

are you testing for those elements? I'm curious as to why someone would dose it. Would it be better to run a CARX as it will put those elements back in the water ? or triton method ? or ATI essential two part ?

None of those methods (except Triton specific additives) will maintain iron and manganese that are depleted super fast.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

@Randy Holmes-Farley do you water change when carbon dosing? Do we need to water change when carbon dosing?

I changed 1% daily. I don't think water changes are driven by nutrients as much as other things you cannot measure.

This is my summary from my water change article:

Water Changes in Reef Aquaria by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Conclusion

Water changes are a good way to help control certain processes that serve to drive reef aquarium water away from its starting purity. Some things build up in certain situations (organics, certain metals, sodium, chloride, nitrate, phosphate, sulfate, etc.), and some things become depleted (calcium, magnesium, alkalinity, strontium, silica, etc.). Water changes can serve to help correct these imbalances, and in some cases may be the best way to deal with them. Water changes of 15-30% per month (whether carried out once a month, daily or continuously) have been shown in the graphs above to be useful in moderating the drift of these different seawater components from starting levels. For most reef aquaria, I recommend such changes as good aquarium husbandry. In general, the more the better, if carried out appropriately, and if the new salt water is of appropriate quality.

Calcium and alkalinity, being rapidly depleted in most reef aquaria, are not well controlled, or even significantly impacted by such small water changes. In order to maintain them with no other supplements, changes on the order of 30-50% PER DAY would be required. Nevertheless, that option may still be a good choice for very small aquaria, especially if the changes are slow and automatic.