Micro-Small Algae Remover System for Nano's: Free!

[nanoreefnate]

I love it when people stick their head in the sand and then accuse those who are asking for evidence to back up their claims as being "closed-minded".

+10000000000

it annoys me greatly.

[Lalani]

LOLZ please link to me the times "we" the american people have been proven wrong in reefing and then i will believe you. but as of late, you have not show any evidence to support your claims. FOO>

This makes my brain hurt.

[Deleted User 6]

yes how complicated is algae?

 

How complicated are spelling and grammar?

[SantaMonica]

Successes Update:

 

Jlinzmaier on the RC site: "An ATS is the easiest and the cheapest DIY project I've ever done. Not to mention it has been more effective at nutrient management than carbon dosing, and has only affected the corals positively (no chance of stripping nutrients too fast or too low as you might run into with carbon source dosing.) The maintenance of it only takes 5-10 minutes once or twice a week. Total cost for the project was no more than $30 and it took about 45 min to build."

 

Pistolshrimp on the SARK site: "i have one of these in my sump, not eleborate though jus got one cfl spotlight on it, but they do a good job, hardly eva have to wipe my glass, it transfers 90% of the algea growth from my tank to the screen."

 

Trichome on the CR site: "I installed one on my 29g tank and it is working better than my AquaC Remora that is rated for up to 75g. Best part about it is its cheap as hell to install and i was able to remove a pump from my set up to save money on electricity."

 

Jennyfish on the AP site: "i use an ATS but i also use a skimmer, i do find since i added the ATS i have no phosphates, and my water is crystal clear with no bad algaes growing."

 

Schnitm on the algae scrubber site: "Our friend was moving to a new house, and her 90 gallon system wasn't moving with her. So it took 10 hours to move everything [to my daughter's room] and we're just about to put the fish back in. I decide I'll test the water first. I have never seen a nitrate test change color so fast. By the time I'd finished shaking the vial it had maxed out. After some RO/DI dillution I finally got a reading along with some others from my Red Sea Marine Lab kit:

 

Nitrates: 300

Nitrite: 0.3

Ammonia: 0.25

Phosphate: 5.0

 

After freaking out and figuring I'd done something wrong and effectively killed my daughter's new aquarium, I decided I'd better test the water the fish were still in. It had come straight from the top of the tank that morning. I got something like:

 

Nitrates: 400

Nitrite: 0.4

Ammonia: 0.25

Phosphate: 5.0

 

Seems the fish had been living in this and we'd just dilluted it some with the water change from toping off the tank. 3 anemones and a dozen soft corals were living in this too. So, in go the fish. I'm running around trying to figure out what to do. The protien skimmer is dead and hasn't worked for more than a year (thanks for telling me now!). The LFS store is closed because their moving too. I'd been "priming" an ATS screen in my shop using wastewater from our Bio Cube. It had been going for about 2 weeks and was nicely green but not thick at all yet. What the heck...I slap it in the sump and start it running with 4 CFL floods from WalMart. Then to bed to have nightmares of my daughter waking to a tank full of death.

 

To my pleasant surprise, the next morning everything was alive and, apparently, well! I go to work installing the hood, chiller, etc. By that evening I took another water sample and got:

 

Nitrates: 200

Nitrite: 0.2+

Ammonia: 0.25

Phosphate: 5.0

 

Everything seemed fine. I'm wondering if I'd messed up the readings on Thursday. Saturday was mostly a day off. The ATS had grown thick already so I scraped it. Just a few measurements:

 

Nitrates: not measured

Nitrite: 0.2

Ammonia: 0.25

Phosphate: not measured

 

Last night's water parameters:

 

Nitrates: 15 (I kid you not. 15. Checked this over and over. The 10X dillution I started with showed undetectable. I'd needed a 10X dillution before, just to get a reading. Got this 15 on straight tank water.)

 

Nitrite: 0.2

Ammonia: trace

Phosphate: 3.0

 

Thursday night I thought I was in the middle of a slow motion trainwreck, but by today all looks good. Thaks to all who have contributed! You lead me down the right path.

[nanoreefnate]

pix of tanks or they dont work.

seriously...where are the pix of their thanks?!

[Mr. Fosi]

No units on those numbers. Could be in the unit of "toenails" or "elephants".

 

When will this idiocy end?

[SantaMonica]

Update: RC has un-blocked "scrubber", "algaescrubber", and other scrubber-related words.

 

Update: Algae on rocks: If you are building a scrubber to help remove algae from your rocks, don't remove the algae from the rocks manually. Let it stay there so it can do some filtering while your scrubber starts growing. The algae on the rocks will start disappearing after you have cleand off about three scrubber screens. It's also fun to watch it disappear.

[Phyto4life]

Finaly RC came to there senses

[supernip]

this threat delivers

[BLoCkCliMbeR]

[SantaMonica]

RainerFeyer on the RC site: "My tank is 75g, 230W T5 lighting, about 8-9 years old now (was FOWLER for 2 years before that). I started a little more than 2 months ago with a vertical ATS. Very happy with it: 3 lights, 20W each, 350GPH flow. I added a horizontal scrubber purely because, by fault of my design, cleaning screens was cumbersome, plus, the size of the scrubber was not preferred. So, been running a verical now for less than one week (aside the horizontal) and all is well so far. Once the Horizontal is well established, I will remove the Vertical. Have been without PS for 6 weeks now! The change in the tank is just amazing! No more algae or cyano, and, the sps which [previously] started dying (probably from nitrates / phosphates/ lack of food) is starting to come back! Thanks for the idea, all of you and especially SM and Worley!"

 

Jauld on the RC site: "N and P have been 0 since installation. This is the only filtration I have on my aquarium and I do a 20% water change monthly. this [scrubber] one has been running for nearly 3 months now with 0 problems. When I first set this model up, I accidentally used a metal nozzle that released some bad metals into the aquarium and I lost a frogspawn. After that, I changed out the nozzle and did an 80% water change. been fine ever since. Before I installed this [scrubber], my tank was COMPLETELY filled with algae (almost no rock visible). I let this thing run and after about 6 weeks, the algae started to thin and die in the DT. Then, at 8 weeks, I took the rock out piece by piece and scrubbed all the remaining algae off. 0 algae growth since that in the DT, but the screen grows a TON. I have before and afters pics if you really want to see. I found that the DT [water] will start getting cloudy after about 2-3 weeks IF i don't scrub the algae off the screen every 7-10 days. This is because so much algae is growing on the screen that when it starts to get thick, the algae underneath doesn't get any light and starts to die, releasing the stuff that makes the water quality suffer. However, as long as I clean the screen 3 times a month (takes 3-5 min), the water stays clear as day. This thing is such low maint. and is the sole reason i'm still in this hobby. I was planning to quit since I couldnt get the algae growth under control."

 

Gowingsgo on the RC site: "I just added a ATS to my system and have found that it did reduce my nitrates down to 0. from about 5 ppm. I still use my skimmer but have found that I do not have to clean it as much, and that the skim-mate is much darker in color. I have attached a few photos of my new sump. I built my sump the way I did with 5 separate chambers. (1 intake from main tank) (2 ATS) (3 skimmer) (4 fuge with live rock and sand so if I need to I can also put stuff in my sump) (5 return to main tank). I set up the ATS not to remove nitrates but to remove algae from my display tank (and that is exactly what it is doing). I now clean my glass about every 4 days and I used to do it every day. This is not for everyone but I wanted to give it a try and have found that I am very happy with my results. BTW I over feed my fish and corals a lot so I was very happy with the nitrates dropping down to zero. I will most likely keep my skimmer on line. even if it stops skimming. I like knowing that if I get something in my tank that skimmer is there to remove it."

 

Av8BlueWater on the MD site: "In 2 weeks all my cyano was gone. I didn't have a huge problem , but it was there. In 3 weeks, nitrates were 20-30 (down from 40-60), 4 weeks nitrates = 15, then the first week I notice nitrates = 0 was about 9 weeks total. I started June 24, and Nitrate zero on Sept 2. It was a happy day. My PO4 here lately is .02-.03 (tested with photometer) but I also still run rowaphos. I had an area of GHA about the size of my fist a few months ago, and now it's the size of a pea, but it is still there. I'm also an overfeeder."

 

MyFishEatYourFish on the MFK site: "update on my tank. no waterchanges since completion of ats over six months ago with multiple thriving sps, polyps, and a softies. [DT] algae growth is slowed, though what algae does grow is much harder than normal because it is corraline and that crappy tough brown stuff. my plants, chaeto and small grape calerpa show almost no growth, unfortunately xenia grows much slower than i would like too. one thing that everyone skimping on waterchanges must know is to keep up on additives, coral vite, calcium, magnesium, stonium, molebdenum essential elements etc. the best part is my nitrates and phosphates are still undetectable!!! thanks santa monica for starting this great thread!

[HecticDialectics]

lmao @ the nitrates from 400 to 15 in three days story

[Scott Riemer]

Scott Riemer on the N-R.com site: "lol"

[wombat]

These posts are worthless without pics.

 

Come on, SM. Let's see the photos of SPS tanks run solely on ATS systems.

[SantaMonica]

A quote from Eric Borneman on feeding SPS corals, from

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-11/eb/index.php

 

"Corals with small polyps do not necessarily require more or less light than those with larger polyps. The only real difference between corals with small polyps and corals with large polyps is the size of the prey they can consume. Many small polyped corals, such as Pocillopora damicornis and Stylophora pistillata, are highly photoadaptive and can be found in very deep water. The genus Acropora has more species than any other coral and, as might be expected, can be found in similarly varied locations. Species of Acropora are found in deep water and shallow water, high water flow and low water flow. Furthermore, corals with small polyps have been found in many studies to consume more prey than corals with large polyps (see Borneman's article on feeding corals in Reefkeeping 2002 for pertinent references). The belief that large polyped corals need to be fed more than small polyped corals is just wrong."

 

[skimmers remove coral food; scrubbers add coral food]

[supernip]

lolz adds in that last part to make it look like it was part of the study. wins

[nanoreefnate]

A quote from Eric Borneman on feeding SPS corals, from

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-11/eb/index.php

 

"Corals with small polyps do not necessarily require more or less light than those with larger polyps. The only real difference between corals with small polyps and corals with large polyps is the size of the prey they can consume. Many small polyped corals, such as Pocillopora damicornis and Stylophora pistillata, are highly photoadaptive and can be found in very deep water. The genus Acropora has more species than any other coral and, as might be expected, can be found in similarly varied locations. Species of Acropora are found in deep water and shallow water, high water flow and low water flow. Furthermore, corals with small polyps have been found in many studies to consume more prey than corals with large polyps (see Borneman's article on feeding corals in Reefkeeping 2002 for pertinent references). The belief that large polyped corals need to be fed more than small polyped corals is just wrong."

 

[skimmers remove coral food; scrubbers add coral food]

can you name some of the substances you call "food"

i can easily add food to my tank without needing a AS.

also my fuge adds food to the tank via DSB and macro algae.

oh yeah and +1 to pix. id like to see how colorful these AS run tanks are.

[mbarton2010]

Ban this stupid SantaMonica. He has been banned on other boards. Ban him now......... Pretty please. He had contradicted himself many times. I read the first five pages and found countless contradictions. He is just doing this to see how many replies he can get

[intermision]

I can't believe I just read this entire thing. While I'm sure scrubbers do something, whether they start fires of clean the water I don't know. To get one even remotely big enough they take up a ton of space, and use a lot of light.

 

Now let the idiotic ramblings of SM continue.

[HecticDialectics]

lolz adds in that last part to make it look like it was part of the study. wins

 

 

blah blah blah, technical stuff average people will probably skip over and not read cause it looks hard, not realizing that the words "skimmer" or "scrubber" do not even appear in the paragraph blah blah blah

 

[skimmers suck and scrubbers are awesome!]

 

lol

[Deleted User 6]

IMO, if the safety hazards of the scrubbers are not addresses ASAP, thread should be locked before some noob tries it and burns his family alive.

[BLoCkCliMbeR]

anyone ever get shocked by a light fixture that has a ton of salt creep on it? just me?

 

ok hes won me over.......im building one......his science and posting quotes has convinced me

 

ill post the pics of my apt burning

 

changed my mind, im watchin family guy

[SantaMonica]

Excerpts from "Our Coral Reef Aquaria - Our Own Personal Experiments in the effects of Trace Element Toxicity" by Ron Shimek

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-08/rs/feature/index.php

 

"Trace elements in heightened concentrations are considered to be poisons, nothing more, nothing less, by every researcher examining them."

 

"With regard to arsenic (when found), copper, nickel, tin, and zinc, the average tank water must be considered as being polluted with heavy metals."

 

"The water from the average reef tank is clearly dangerous to the organisms put into it [because of too many trace elements]."

 

"What causes these excessively high trace metal concentrations? Initially, the problem occurs with artificial seawater mixes that have abnormally high concentrations of these materials [...] Also, there is inadequate export of the materials due to any number of causes, but including such factors as poor skimming, inadequate water changes, and inadequate biomass export. Finally, in some cases well-meaning, but ill-advised aquarists often add supplements containing unknown quantities of some trace elements."

 

"There are NO data that any trace element additions are beneficial, and for any trace element for which there are data, excess amounts are detrimental. No adequate test kits exist for the vast majority of these materials, and few supplements list their ingredients in a trustworthy manner. Consequently, it is prudent not to add any at all to a system."

 

[scrubbers remove metals]

[johnmaloney]

yeah! accurate and true post. a ball of chaeto does the same thing, and more effectively, but I think this is a big yeah! Of course all that Shimek stuff aside, chaeto and ATS aren't needed to keep anything, and nothing is dying off from trace elements in water changes etc....

[bradisfun]

look at this

hope this helps