Algae Mower Vac review

[little_ocean_treasures]

Not sure if anyone else on here has tried this wonderful tool (Algae Mower Vac) or not but I want to share my experiences with it.

 

First let me start by saying this is my now 21 month old 29 gallon HQI Biocube stocked with 3 small fish and 6 hermits...and has always been stocked this way. I was doing everything right in my tank (not a lazy reefer by any means) so I don't know at all how the algae got in my tank in the first place and grew so bad!! I researched EVERYTHING I could to figure the problem out. I was religious and never missed a beat on my maintenance. I changed 10-15% water weekly using reef Crystals. Fed every other day with rinsed food. Changed light bulbs, filters, etc regularly (on time). Use my own RODI unit here that has a TDS meter on it and I change the filters regularly. I turkey basted the rocks during weekly water changes. I run BRS GFO in a reactor and BRS carbon in a mesh bag and change all regularly. I have an awesome protein skimmer I keep clean...etc. I don't know where I went wrong. It was like the more I tried to better the situation the worse it got, if that makes any sense. I did find out one thing it may have been...feeding corals in a nano. But I fed them like maybe once a week if that...and only the bigger ones.

 

Well, anyways here's my before picture a month and a half ago. It's was pretty bad, I know, I know. And the algae is not Bryopsis like I first thought, so the Kent Tech M I did try did nothing but bleach everything. lol So I ordered the awesome AMV and...

 

...Here's the after picture I took of my tank today. A big difference, huh? That's why my desire to share my experiences with it. It made such a difference in my tank that I hope it will help any of you guys that have any sort of algae problems!

 

 

The Algae Mower Vac is awesome...though I wish it was stronger to more quickly remove the amount of algae I had in my tank. The AMV is basically a wand with a little pump on the end and a drill bit attached to the impeller of the pump. The drill bit basically drills the algae off your live rock while the pump sucks it up in a fine mesh bag (not in the picture). The wand is extendable as you can see here in the pic.

 

 

The drill is not super strong so it takes a while to get a big job like mine was done...took me 11 hours to complete it all. But the algae was so hard to remove by hand that without the AMV I could not have done this good of a job by hand at all!!! So even though it is not perfect and it is kind of cheapy plastic construction it did a good job at removing my stubborn algae with time and patience. I'm still working on removing it in the hard to reach spots as you can see in the "after" picture but it's coming along nicely. And I'm dosing Dr. Tim's Waste Away every other day to eat up extra nutrients that the algae was feeding on so that helps prevent it from growing back. It's all a slow process but like I said, it's coming along.

 

Pros-

-light weight (for those long hours holding it up)

-no need to do a water change while using (fine mesh bag and collection cup traps the algae...which is good cause it takes way too long to remove the algae and you couldn't keep up with the water it would be sucking out while drilling the algae off)

-don't have to get hands wet at all in tank

-can remove not just algae but also corals (encrusting) and other things off live rock

-comes with a fine mesh bag, collection cup, and tubing (for water changes)

-either plug it in or 9V battery (best to plug in, would drain a battery fast)

-easy and fast to remove screws to get to impeller where algae or debris stopped up impeller (had to do that many times but it wasn't a big deal)

 

Cons-

-kind of cheap material (has a cheap feel to it)

-fine mesh bag still lets fine materials through

-drill not strong enough to remove large/tough algae very quickly

-very very time consuming for my tank

-designed more for spot cleaning algae problem areas rather than a whole tank

 

For anybody who would like to learn more (no I'm not a salesman or anything...sorry if I sound like one, lol); here's a link to the website- http://www.algaemower.com/

 

*Notes* - when I used the AMV to remove my algae I used both the collection cup and the fine mesh bag to help trap as much debris as I could. I cleaned it out as soon as the collection cup was full and it blew the little foam plug out of the cup...another good reason for the added mesh bag.

 

-Also, being I was grinding algae off my live rock there was a lot of green goo in my skimmer cup right afterwards, I'm assuming from all the fine algae debris. But it did not cause a problem in my tank at any point...which is why I took so long to write this review. I wanted to make sure that there was no long term problems using this tool on so much algae. And so far everything is good.

 

- The pale colored corals in the "after" picture are from using the Kent Tech M and not the Algae Mower Vac. Even though it may be hard to see, the colors are coming back.

[mpsti05]

That did a hell of a job cleaning that crap off!

[little_ocean_treasures]

Yes, it did. Like I said, it is time consuming but for sure worth the effort. And can be used on not just algae but anything you would like removed from your live rock.

[Lawnman]

So the drill bit thingy spins causing the algae to get trapped on it? It twists the algae onto the bit pulling it from the live rock?

 

Ok just watched the video. That is pretty crazy.

[little_ocean_treasures]

Actually, yes algae does get wrapped up on the drill bit but you're actually supposed to directly attack the rock where the algae is growing from to best remove it. You're basically using the drill bit to grind it right off the rock which does take little bits of live rock with it. For me. when the algae got wrapped up on the drill bit it caused it to bind and stop which is somewhat frustrating...especially with the algae I had being it was not easy to just pull away. This algae in my tank is pretty tough stuff. But a soft hair algae probably would just wind up on the drill bit and be removed no problem.

 

The other reason I love this tool is cause I will always have the upper hand now on any algae wanting to grow in my tank. And that feels awesome!!!!!

[uglyfish]

Looks like it works! Reminds me of the

for leg hair removal.

[little_ocean_treasures]

UPDATE!

 

I used it quite a bit but since the food source of the algae was still in my tank, sadly no amount of mowing totally removed it. And then after a few weeks it would grow back just as much as before removal. So it was VERY time consuming and labor intensive and did nothing to help me in the end. I set up a new tank as a result of the algae being so bad and I was REALLY frustrated since I did not know what was causing the problem in the first place. I had been through and changed out everything in that tank to try and fix it. And was just worn out.

 

Once I got the new tank running, I took out both fish and corals of the algae filled tank and put them in the new but left the old one up and running as an experiment. I want to see if I can still get rid of the algae by finding it's food source. I know for a fact that it was not the two small fish and a handful of corals that were in there causing the problem so removing them wasn't a big deal in messing up the experiment. And I know it was NOT my lights, or water, or overfeeding, or anything like that. I had been through ALL that like I said.

 

But I did hear that Rock-Mags made by Aqua-Mags has caused algae problems but found no real hard confirmation by anyone on the internet. So I never thought to blame those two man-made rocks in my little tank even though the larger one was falling apart (crumbling) pretty bad. It wasn't until speaking to a few of my local club members who had the exact same Rock-Mags and they had problems (with algae or corals dying off) that things started making sense for me in my tank. So now I have the sand (which I had NEVER cleaned) and the Aqua-Mags rocks removed in the old tank and I'm waiting to see if the algae disappears on it's own. I might once again try to use the AMV to help get rid of the algae faster. But since my tank was so bad and overrun with that awful algae and the food source was still in the tank, it was not going to work by using that little mower to end the problem like I had originally hoped.

 

I'll update if the removal of the Mag-Rocks and dirty sand gets rid of the algae for good.

[spazizz]

I think not cleaning your sand was probably the source of your problems.

[little_ocean_treasures]

I agree, though I honestly think it was both because the larger Mag-Rock was crumbling BAD so I know it was part of a bad batch he had a while back. So that I'm sure was NOT helping even if it wasn't the main problem. Again, both mag-rocks and sand are now out of the tank so I'm hoping the algae is gone in a few months.

[bizzarro]

It wouldn't be surprising if the rocks had a lot trapped in it.

[little_ocean_treasures]

 

As embarrassing as this is, here was the tank last month right after I removed the corals and fish. But you can still see it has the Mag-Rocks and sand in it. The Mag-Rocks are the one in the very upper back wall of the tank and of course the right side on the glass. The one on the back wall broke in half a few months back but had crumbling pieces off of it for a year or so. When I finally pulled it out of the tank to toss it out it was literally melting chunks off into the bucket...so gross!! How could that not be the culprit to that green mess, is my opinion.

 

Also, you can still see corals attached to the live rock which is why I'd rather try to kill off the algae in this experiment since this tank is no longer the main display. I don't have the heart to just tear down the tank and toss out the live rock just yet...not without giving it a fighting chance. I'm also wondering what to do with this tank right now. Put a fish or two in it, or wait. Cause if I have to tear it down I don't know where the fish would go. So I'm just waiting. So far, it does look like the algae is loosing the battle. Right now I just have a single hermit crab in there with a bunch of mini hitch hicker turbo snails. Not much to look at at all right now I know. lol

[grmoore]

My best guess would be the rocks leaching phosphates. As the GFO pulls the phosphates, the rock will continue to leach trying to maintain equilibrium with the water. Based on your last photo, the sand doesn't look to be the issue. The Mag-Rock is probably leaching phosphates as well, but based on the density of the GHA, probably not as much as the base rock. You could toss in a seahare (Dolabella sp. if I remember correctly) to keep it trimmed, but you will need to be ready to re-home it once the GHA is gone, as that is all they eat.

 

Continue to use the GFO aggressively, and the phosphate leaching will eventually end.

[Royce Hellwakka]

HOLY SHIT do you think this thing could mow pulsing xenia?

[cal1319]

Get a free sample of nualgi.... See if it does what it claims to do!

[SantaMonica]

More about phosphate in rocks:

 

Phosphate flow out of rocks

Many people, when they get their filters running for the first time, get worried when more (not less) algae starts to grow on their rocks. It seems really strange, especially when nitrate and phosphate have gone lower than before. What is happening is that phosphate is coming out of the rocks. Remember, phosphate is invisible, so you can only see the effects of it, and it always "flows" from higher concentrations to lower concentrations (just like heat does).

Example: If your room is warm, and you put a cold object on the floor, heat from the air in the room will "flow" into the object until the object and the air are the same temperature. Example 2: If you put a hot object on the floor, heat will "flow" out of the object and go into the air in the room, again, until the air and the object are the same temperature. Now suppose you open your windows (in the winter). The warm air in your room will go out the windows, and it will get colder in the room. The object on the floor is now warmer than the air, so heat will flow out of the object and into the air, and then out the window.

Think of phosphate as the heat, and your rocks as the object, and your windows as the scrubber. As the scrubber pulls phosphate out of the water, the phosphate level in the water drops. Now, since the phosphate level in the water is lower than the phosphate level in the rocks, phosphate flows from the rocks into the water, and then from the water into the scrubber. This continues until the phosphate levels in the rocks and water are level again. And remember, you can't see this invisible flow.

This flow causes an interesting thing to happen. As the phosphate comes out of the rocks, it then becomes available to feed algae as soon as the phosphate reaches the surface of the rocks where there is light. So, since the surface of the rocks is rough and has light, it starts growing MORE algae there (not less) as the phosphate comes out of the rocks. This is a pretty amazing thing to see for the first time, because if you did not know what was happening you would probably think that the algae in the scrubber was leaking out and attaching to your rocks. Here are the signs of phosphate coming out of the rocks:

1. The rocks are older, and have slowly developed algae problems in the past year.

2. The filter is new, maybe only a few months old.

3. Nitrate and phosphate measurements in the water are low, usually the lowest they have been in a long time.

4. Green hair algae (not brown) on the rocks has increased in certain spots, usually on corners and protrusions at the top.

5. The glass has not needed cleaning as much.

Most people have never seen the effects of large amounts of phosphate coming out of the rocks quickly. But sure enough, it does. How long does it continue? For 2 months to a year, depending on how much phosphate is in the rocks, how strong your scrubber is, and how many other phosphate-removing filters you have (GFO, carbon dosing, etc). But one day you will see patches of white rock that were covered in green hair the day before; this is a sure sign that the algae are losing their phosphate supply from the rocks and can no longer hold on. Now it's just a matter of days before the rocks are clear.