New Algae Scrubbers

[mbonus]

A guy in my local reef club is giving a scrubber a try. It will be interesting to see how it pans out as he has a good test scenario with stuborn algea and high nitrates in his display tank (i think 125?). To me this is an ideal test since if he has high nitrates due to possible poor husbandry and overstocking, and they are reduced by the scrubber, this really might be something to consider as a viable option.

 

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1968328

 

This is some of the stuff he has tried:

SSPiro:I need to search and link all the threads i've started on this site.

 

* Weekly water changes.

* Filter socks, changed daily.

* Running BioPellets and GAC

* Have run GFO and BioFuel previously, going to restart GFO again

* Feed every other day, drained meaty foods. One cube, and its all eaten.

 

Hmm.. what else.. I'm missing some tried stuff.

 

Interesting to a newb like me.....

[HecticDialectics]

A guy in my local reef club is giving a scrubber a try. It will be interesting to see how it pans out as he has a good test scenario with stuborn algea and high nitrates in his display tank (i think 125?). To me this is an ideal test since if he has high nitrates due to possible poor husbandry and overstocking, and they are reduced by the scrubber, this really might be something to consider as a viable option.

 

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1968328

 

This is some of the stuff he has tried:

 

Interesting to a newb like me.....

 

Substituting one poor husbandry practice with another isn't a good thing, imo.

[Deleted User 6]

this thread causes babies all over the world to simultaneously burst into tears.

[mbonus]

Substituting one poor husbandry practice with another isn't a good thing, imo.

 

 

Algea scrubbers are a poor husbandry practice? Like I said, I am new to all of this and don't have an opinion on it either way. I just think it will be interesting to see; as a local is actually trying this and not just speculating about it.

 

Also, I don't have direct experience with this guys tank husbandry, only his reports of tank state, which could or could not be related to his husbandry methods.

[holdorf333]

Algea scrubbers are a poor husbandry practice? Like I said, I am new to all of this and don't have an opinion on it either way. I just think it will be interesting to see; as a local is actually trying this and not just speculating about it.

 

Also, I don't have direct experience with this guys tank husbandry, only his reports of tank state, which could or could not be related to his husbandry methods.

No, the presence of high nitrates suggests his tank cannot handle the boiload that is present in his tank.

 

Your #1 answer to all of your nitrogen related problems: get rid of the fish.

[SantaMonica]

The algae in the scrubber will consume the nitrates, just as the algae in the oceans and lakes do. Algae does all the filtering, and feeding, in the lakes and oceans.

[Llamaguy]

Isn't that why over the last 5-10 years we've gone to a refugium/sump filled with macro algae? It's easy, quick, doesn't require anything unusual. Takes a small, $10 shop light and bulb to thrive. Maintenance is simple: grab ball, tear in half, profit. Oh and it doesn't get you ignored/banned because of constantly defending an idea that only a small segment of the hobby agrees with.

 

Oh and when I said profit, that's actually what happens when you pass your excess waste algae onto someone else that wants it.

[holdorf333]

Problems you never knew you had are now suddenly fixable for only $89.99 plus shipping.

[SantaMonica]

Success Updates:

 

Mrmikeasaurus on the RC site: "i had one that worked great after about 2 months... youll love how clear the water is"

 

Coralrookie on the RC site: "I have one.. keeps phosphates down, ph in check. Minimal water changes and I do not run a skimmer"

 

Zangmann on the RC site: "I've been running an ATS for about 18 months with no other form of filtration (not even a filter sock). It most definitely works. Conversion from a 5 year old FOWL with consistantly high nitrates (50+PPM) and off the chart P04. Now everything is rock solid at 0."

 

Spamreefnew on the RC site: "I have an ATS witch is much like floyd r turbo's, it is my ONLY filtration and has been for 6 months now. It has been the BEST 6 months of reefing in my life. skimmers are only good for sps only tanks IMO. scrubbers are the best option for everything else. my water is clear, my coral is healthy, my fish are fat,,i mean fat!,,,and my pods and shrimp,,that's right shrimp,,,reproduce like crazy. I could never say all that when i ran a skimmer."

 

Lps_blasto on the RC site: "After using [scrubber and skimmer] both, I've come to the conclusion that I'd never run a reef tank without a scrubber. But I would run a reef without a skimmer. I could only have one, I'd pick the scrubber, no contest. Don't get me wrong, I'm not part of the "anti-skimmer" crowd. I use a skimmer. I've been running some form of protein skimmer for over 2 decades. I had one back in 1985 when all they were was a wooden airstone and a poorly designed venturi. I just won't rely on ONLY the skimmer anymore. I'll always have a simple turf scrubber on any reef that I have."

 

King_Richard on the RC site: "I setup a tank about 8 months or so ago. The tank started out as a seahorse tank and all was fine and dandy until an oil spill occured in the gulf area. I used NSW at the time for water changes and due to the spill, I quit doing water changes for about 6 months. In that time I lost focus on the tank (college student) and by december time the tank had started to slip away from me. Holiday season hit and we were away for some time, came back and found one of our seahorses dead, within the next week, our other seahorse died also. We also loss a mushroom that we had but our scooter blenny was still alive and well. Not entirely sure why the seahorses died, they quit eating the water clarity was becoming a nightmare so it could've been a number of things. A few weeks ago the water was so green that I literally could not see into the tank. Now the good news. With this tank, I've been striving for a natural system, no filters, no skimmers, no carbon, nothing except nature's methods. I had been looking at algae scrubber designs off and on for some time and out of desperation I decided to give it a try, originally I didn't think I had enough room for one. I didn't do anything fancy, just picked up some screen from walmart and pieced together some 1" pvc that I had laying around, I then hooked it up to my drain located in the sump, the whole process took about 5 minutes. Now two weeks after setting up a 1" pvc with a slot and a screen hanging from it, water is now, almost, crystal clear again. I really wish I would have taken a before and after picture because you wouldn't believe how nasty it was compared to now. And all in two weeks! I'm sold, I think I spent about $6 for a roll of screen. This is by far the cheapest, most efficient method I've come across. I even tossed out my chaeto the same day I installed the algae scrubber, well actually I kept it in a spare tank just in case, lol. To be honest though, I had a decent amount of faith in the method before I attempted it, based on previous observations with algae in some of my older tanks that would grow algae along the baffles. I always assumed that algae was doing something good. The water should be crystal clear again before the end of the month, excepts for the pods and stuff occosionally floating around!"

 

Johnarky on the RC site: "I've been using the scrubber for 6 weeks now and water quality is great. I turned off the skimmer and removed the sock over a week ago and everything is still good. I think I'll continue in this way for another month or so and if everything goes well I'll start the transformation into a seahorse tank."

 

Green_reefer on the RC site: "I have been using an ATS since [four weeks ago], about 1 week after my tank finished cycling. I designed it over-sized and built an acrylic box to house it over my sump and use 4x24w T5's to light it. My [display] hair algae outbreak after my cycle was gone within 4 weeks, even the algae in my overflow has disappeared. I grow all different colors and textures of hair algae on different parts of the screen, but GHA is the dominant. Other than a pipe organ frag that has doubled in size since I got it, I can't really comment on coral growth as my tank is too new. After reading all the posts on combating algae outbreaks on new tanks I can definitely say that an ATS works to control algae. The only coral introduced that did not have full polyp extension within 2 hours of being in my tank is a sun coral that was introduced over the weekend. Digitata, Pocilipora, Stylophora, Acropora, Candy Cane, Zoa's and Gorgonians (photo and non-photo) all showed great PE (even after being shipped for 24hrs). It could be the NSW that I use, but the lack of algae [in the display] and great water quality from the ATS doesn't hurt."

 

Alaska_Phil on the RC site: "I added an algae scrubber to my system 5 months ago. I inherited care of this tank nearly 6 years ago and I've been battling one type of algae after another ever since. I'd tried everything imaginable, GFO, frequent massive water changes, starving my fish, daily manual removal, and hords of snails and hermits. But my nitrate and phosphate was always undetectable due to all the algae [in the display]. I use a 6" wide vertical screen style with spiral PC light. when I started it my display was over run with brown cotton candy type algae. it grew on everything, rocks, sand equipment even the cords for my power heads. It took about a month for algae to really start populating the screen. At that point the only real difference I noticed was the lack of diatom algae on the glass. I'd had to clean it daily, now I only have to clean it about twice a week. After 2 months, i only had algae growing on my rocks, but my equipment was staying clean. I'm assuming the rocks were leaching phosphate back into the system. After 3 months the rocks were still covered, so I got impatient and plucked it out manually. I completely filled a 1 gal pitcher with algae from my 50 gal display! After that the algae on the screen really took off. But it never came back to the display. Even after my life got rather busy and I neglected doing water changes for 3 months. Now, I still get a little algae in the tank, I pluck out a few little tuffs about once a month. I clean half my algae screen every 2 weeks. It takes that long for it to build up again. I'm still running my skimmer, but it's just back-pak II, so not a very efficient one. I've always run carbon since I have a mixed reef with leathers. Never noticed any bad smells or water discoloration. I could probably have gotten the same result with a high end skimmer, or zeovite, or bio-pellets too. But so far I'm really happy with algae scrubber."

 

Williah on the RC site: "I added an ATS 1 1/2 years ago, and after 10 months I got rid of my skimmer, but I was very careful and watchful before I did it. I will point out I use a phosban with mixed GFO & active carbon in it. I will continue to use this to deal with phosphate and other nasties in the water, regardless of the other subject. Also I do a water change every 2 weeks regardless. With either setup, I found a water change every 2 weeks kept everything looking happy, so I'm going to continue with this timetable. Now, I had 2 major goals when I started experimenting with ATS: 1. coming up with an affective, long-term method for reducing my nitrate levels (I was between 50-100 at the time); 2. to increase phytoplankton levels in my water column. 1. My nitrates have been 0 or barely above 0 since I got my ATS working. I NEVER had this before. This definitely never happened with just a skimmer. I like to feed heavily and since going with a working ATS I've been able to do just that without freeking out about my nitrate levels. 2. I wanted to maintain high levels of phyotplankton to my tank, and it was my understanding that the skimmer would remove the phyto from the water. People said to turn off the skimmer while feeding, but I wanted a constant presense of the little criters, and the methods behind an ATS seemed to allow this. Since I went ATS and removed the skimmer, my filter feeders have exploded in size (at least 3x the original size). They all look larger and healthier and beautiful-er (laugh, people, it's funny). Could be a coincidence but I believe more food plus more phyto in water has been the direct cause."

 

Der_wille_zur_macht on the RC site: "My TS was not running for very long, but it was essentially the ONLY nutrient export on my 360 g, except for a small bundle of chaeto. At one point I tried to run a skimmer on the tank but it produced zero skimmate - there was nothing in the water for it to skim. In the short time that I had it operational, I made a few observations: I noticed a SIGNIFICANTLY higher growth rate of naturally occurring filter feeders in the tank. Mini feather dusters, stuff like that. There was noticeably more "stuff" in the water column. It wasn't enough to distract from viewing the aquarium, but it was clearly enough to make a significant difference for filter feeders."

 

Williah on the RC site: "I removed my skimmer a year ago and added an algae turf scrubber as a replacement. I did this with the thought of creating a more nutrient rich yet low Nitrate environment. The result has been an explosion of growth with my corals."

 

King_Neptune on the SWF site: "I had a scrubber going for almost a year. They work awesome! But I swapped over to a skimmer in the end. My water paramiters arent as good as my scrubber, and I dont even have 1 percent of the pods I used to....but it looks alot more pristine and clear. [Meaning, there are no more food particles in the water, like there is on a natural reef. A few months later...] Im having Nitrate troubles these days. Everything else is perfect..as in undetectable. Scrubbers will work off of nitrates alone correct? I think I will start one up again."

 

Gnorman on the SWF site: "through the years we would have times where unwanted algea would take over, and then we made this sweet little filtration called a turf scrubber. [...] since we have added one ( its a DIY project ) we have never had a problem with unwanted algea."

 

Floridabob on the SWF site: "personal experience!!!! nitrates and po-4 very high for long time, water changes helped. made diy algea scrubber and within 1 month everything was at zero. so ....imo good cheap build for big results"

 

Mangrovejack22 on the MOFIB site: "I stumbled across a thread on ATS's over a year ago and decided to give it a try. I could never get my skimmers adjusted right, and was always tweaking them trying to either stop the milk jug diy (off the collection cup) from overflowing onto the floor, or scraping thick sludge build up out of the cup itself. took me less than an hour to build my first scrubber following SM's guide and links to others diy's. I'm now onto my 2nd generation of it and couldn't be happier with the results over the last 18 months or so. I've seen pretty much every expected phase of nitrate reduction as mentioned in his threads. i've had patches of hair algae spring out of the rockwork in high flow, even though i had no algae growing anywhere else in the tank, and watched those patches dissappear over the next few weeks. I spend 10 mins a week cleaning the screen and pump intake prefilter sponge, and every few months change some cheap home depot CFL's, which do the job for me. I highly recommend giving one a try if you are on the fence. I only wish i had documented the nitrate reduction in my tank to support the changes"

 

Fishstink on the RS site: "i used one one my 75 gallon system and it went from nuclear (off the chart) to undetectable in two months. going to have one in my 270 frag tank with no skimmer, we will see how it goes as i will be doing the pappone feeding method twice a day"

 

Mgraf on the RS site: "I always ran a skimmer until I set up a algae scrubber, IMO the scrubber works better. Less upkeep, less hassle, and more food to the corals. Seems like many are resistant to change, but changes and new ideas open up new doors to the hobby. I guess it is all a matter of what works for you! I prefer a little "marine snow" floating around in my system, corals look great, and a scrubber will clear out just about any algae blooms you will come across."

 

Drbark on the RS site: "I have a 115 gallon reef with about 40 gallons of sump space. It has been running for 2 yrs now. Half of it is growing macroalgae it in. 6 months ago I added a turf scrubber in. I was running my skimmer 24/7. I noticed with the scrubber that corals started growing faster. The dealer I bought the scrubber from said to run the skimmer from midnight to 12 noon only. I noticed the corals were growing even faster along with my refugium and turf algae growing faster. The tank looked healthier. I have been running the skimmer on half time for only 2 months now. Might not be that much time yet. Too chicken to turn the skimmer of completely. I have a very heavy bioload because people just give me stuff and I have a hard time saying no. Just wanted to throw this out their since people were talking about the all or none thing. I just run it half time."

 

Sikpupy on the RS site: "Been a long time (about a year) algae scrubber user. I can attest that is seems to work because I have 6 gobys, 2 tangs, a clown, Anthia's, royal gramma and another fish or two. My tank is just about clear, maybe a teaspoon diameter "total" all over of very soft hair(?) algae. I have a coast to coast which has a baseball size clump of hair algae I have let grow for pods. Other than that, the tank is totally free of algae. I may, may get a small dusting of algae on the glass once a week. It usually takes 10 days to build up enough to see it on the front. If fact, i am so algae free, my poor Blenny is starving with a sunken belly, lol."

 

Accident on the MFK site: "I put mine in the hood on my 150. Working in conjunction with a fresh water drip system, all the bad stuff sits at zero. All the brown algae is gone now. Forget how long it took to die off, but it was tough stuff."

 

Geosquid on the MD site: "after going through your thread about 3+ years ago I've used only a diy scrubber as a filter. That was the healthiest tank I've ever had. I sold the whole system and moved to VA for a new job recently but I have a new tank on order right now and can't wait to get going."

 

Kevvin27 on the LR site: "If I had known about algea scrubbers when I was first setting up my tank I would have started out with it right away. Everything in my tank looks so much better now with just the scrubber running then it did when I had a skimmer...and so much easier to clean and quieter too."

 

Rwing on the RA site: "Many of us have had the unfortunate experience of dealing with algae breakouts. For some these problems are a minor nuisance, but for others this problem can drive them right out of the hobby. In dealing with my algae problems, I became determined to educate myself with why I was experiencing this outbreak as well as how I could stop it and hopefully prevent it in the future. I hope that the experience that I gained can help others who are plagued by this nuisance. My plan of attack was to look at my home made filtration system and determine if I could make some improvements. I came across some articles about Algae Scrubbers that seemed very interesting. They looked really easy to build, and I thought "What have I got to lose?". I purchased the items needed to build it and had it installed in 1 evening. I used 2 5700k power compact bulbs and reflectors that I bought at Home Depot. I anxiously awaited for something to grow, and low and behold, in about a week I had a nice little algae crop growing. Within 2 weeks I was scraping it off, and have been ever since. I was starting to feel like I was going to beat this [nuisance algae] menace. When I [originally] started asking questions about controlling algae I was told to run a multitude of reactors and various chemical solutions. After reading many articles about algae, I chose not to run any reactors of any kind...I use 2 algae scrubbers to filter my water, I currently run a protein skimmer, and I do regular water changes . That is it, and my results have been remarkable! Sometimes I think we make things a lot more complicated than they really need to be. This entire process [scrubber plus some other changes] took about 3 months, but I can honestly say that my tank is now completely free of nuisance algae, and I am very confident that it will remain that way.

 

Slovak on the RA site: "In theory, all sounded reasonably good. How would this hold up in a real world application? The early adopters reported nearly too-good-to-be-true results. Just like everyone swore that all the approaches I already tried would work miracles. Besides, you can’t believe everything you read on the internet! Then again, what did I have to lose? I built my algae scrubber from 1/2-inch plastic tubing and a 8 1/2 x 11’’ plastic mesh screen found at Michael’s craft store. Two light fixtures with energy-saving bulbs and a timer for a total expense of less than $40. The results didn’t come overnight. I ran my skimmer in parallel for a couple of weeks simply because I feared a tank crash. The water flow and the lighting periods needed tweaking. For an impatient person it’s difficult to watch algae grow. Besides, there is nothing to clean as with a skimmer. After 4 weeks of this experiment I started to notice less algae in my overflows and on my pumps. 8-10 weeks and I could see the rocks again. My corals looked healthier, polyps were opening larger every week. There are many additional benefits from this approach: Less maintenance, as the algae screen is only cleaned every 7-10 days. I have even taken a 3-week vacation with only feeding and glass cleaning performed, and the tank was as beautiful as ever; There is also a significant cooling effect in the summer as the water runs over the screen. More energy efficient, as I traded a 50+W skimmer pump running 24 hours per day for 2 13W energy-efficient bulbs running 18 hours per day; The system is silent! One less pump injecting air into the water - nearly every visitor has commented on the quiet system - my office desk is 5 feet away from the glass; The algae growth is directly proportional to the load of the system and the amount of feeding. Once set up, there is nothing to adjust! My tank has been algae free for nearly 9 months. I perform weekly filter cleaning about every 10 days, with general tank cleaning / coraline scraping once a month. Water changes are back to 15 percent every month. All corals and inhabitants are very healthy. The anemone has split multiple times and the largest one is now over a foot wide. The hammer coral that started from a handful of heads is now over 10 inches in diameter and boasts over 100 heads. I now supply many local reefers with ample frags and my enjoyment of the hobby has finally returned!"

 

Vannpytt on the scrubber site: "since my scrubber started growing green, the polyps on the sps has been INSANE. During light off period (when light is on the scrubber) the polyps extend 5mm looking amazing. Later update: the tank is clean, the SPS are more than happy, a few of my Acros extend polyps all over the place, especially the milleporas, and the fish are fat. The Salifert nitrate test show <0.1 and the same with the Merck Phosphate test. Life is good. Skimmer is offline. Running carbon and doing a small waterchange every month to reduce the sulfate buildup when doing 2 part Randy's recipe. Going to take the carbon out also, just not yet. Had some startup problems with Acro's stressing out and RTN'ing each other. Seems fine now."

 

Donj on the scrubber site: "I would just like to add a little something about scrubbers, even though im not getting the green hair algae [on the screen] yet, the benefits so far have been incredible, the life in my system is thriving, the amount of little critters from having an ats is unbelievable, with lights out I can take a flashlight and see what seems to be millions of little critters. I have a 125 gal. tank with a fairly heavy bioload, with fish and mostly sps and lps coral, all are doing very, very well compared to when they were in my ninety gal with no ATS. About 4 weeks ago, I added a pair of mandarins (male n female), the male had a shrunken belly at my LFS, since then he has put some weight on, I would never have attempted this in a system thats been up for only a couple of months, its hard enough to keep 1 mandarin alive, much less 2, but there not only alive, there getting fat , this is pleasing to me as this is one of my favorite species of fish. The coral growth is mind blowing as well, just gotta say thanks for your site, as I would have just kept on blowing more $$ on equipment I dont really need, had I not stumbled upon this site."

 

Craig1 on the scrubber site: "Thought I'd post an update. After over two months of use, so far, so good! Algae is growing nicely on the screen, more than enough to clean off each week. But for the results: Feeding at least a cube of food a day; 0/0/0 in the big three; Plenty of pods all over the place; No other filtration except for the rock; Almost zero algae in the DT (Few bubbles remain); Zero water changes in over two months; Have to dose Ca & Alk now, since not being replaced by the water changes; Coraline is growing like crazy now. For all the skeptics out there, the science works. Truly a revolutionary idea on the home tank, if done properly.

 

Chip on the scrubber site: [pic of "before", nitrate = 100], [pic of "after", nitrate = zero].

 

RumpyPumpy on the scrubber site: "My 55 gal reef system has been running for 7 months (I'd been keeping freshwater fish for 20 odd years previously) using only my home made (and probably not very efficient) scrubber (ok, for the first 2 or 3 months there was a bit of Purigen in the sump too but I don't think it did much). I have made no water changes at all over that time (obviously I have topped up with RODI water to replace evaporation), and other than food, I've only added Alk, calcium and occasionally some Seachem Reef Plus (still on my first bottle). The tank is not heavily stocked with fish, (a Yellow tang, pair of clowns, a coral beauty and five chromis) but I feed quite heavily (I think), everything is growing, the water is clear and I have only lost one fish since the start (a small clown which I believe was attacked by one or more of the other fish when introduced them). All the corals have grown and the hermits and other inverts appear to be thriving (although I did lose a shrimp too)."

 

New2scrub on the scrubber site: "my reef aquarium has never looked so good! I have built a scrubber that looks much like the sm-100 for my 45 gallon reef tank and the results are out-standing! the only thing that i do differently is i change a little water once a month, but not much. I have crystal clear water, pods everywhere, and have raised baby shrimp in my sump without any intervention! to me that is proof that scrubbers work well and provide much more food for the critters we keep!"

[HecticDialectics]

links to said quotes?

[DPRoberts]

links to said quotes?

 

 

 

Here's a link to the Reef Central thread, where most of the RC quotes above can be found.

[HecticDialectics]

Intresting. All those quotes and no one put up any picturs.

[Llamaguy]

I like how most of them are "it's worked great for [2,3,4] weeks!" I could grab a new tank, through in a bunch of clownfish and I could say the same thing.

 

No one really cares for your solution as there is no problem. There is no RO shortage, nor a salt shortage. Any money you save in those areas you're just spending in supplements that you don't even understand in the first place.

 

 

Curious: Has there ever been a RC TOTM that used an algae scrubber?

[holdorf333]

SPAM.

[Deleted User 6]

tl;dr

[MorfiusX]

Curious: Has there ever been a RC TOTM that used an algae scrubber?

Not trying to arge for or against, but:

http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/cu...0-year-old-reef

 

It's not TOTM, but his tank has been around 40 years. The design isn't the same as SantaMonica's, but the concept is the same.

[DPRoberts]

Here's a great quote quotefrom Eric Borneman. The whole thread is a good read, even though it's quite long. Here's a section where he talks about the three "finest" aquariums he's ever seen:

 

"First, I want to describe the 40-gallon “box of water,” and two other examples to impress what can be done. I was intrigued by the Jaubert descriptions in the early 1990s and, humbly, I think the three finest tanks I know about or have seen to date have been this one, the mangrove tank Julian Sprung had, and the entire facility of Inland Aquatics. All three of these were operating at roughly the same time - the mid 1990s. Inland was the licensed facility for Algae Turf Scrubbers, and the owner, Morgan Lidster, had an enormous facility with some retail space but the majority was a breeding and culture warehouse filled with tanks. The entire system of countless thousands of gallons of water and tanks with critters and fish breeding on their own and propagated corals growing everywhere was run by a turf scrubbing system. Two 4m Archimedes screw pumps pulled water up and across the turf screens, so the water flow was totally non-traumatic. The huge fiberglass sumps that fed them were filled with rock and coral recruits (mostly P. damicornis) and sponges. The sides of the tank looked indistinguishable to staring at the substrate of a reef or a tide pool. Indistinguishable. Complete crusts of filter feeders, sponges, byrozoans, forams, corals, reproducing snails, coralline crusts, clumps of macroalgae. Morgan did get in livestock regularly which he quarantined before they were sold or used as broodstock, rarely selling anything brought in until it was bred or propagated, and even then, only after many months of holding and acclimating. This is such a good story, and I will tell you more about it next time we see each other because there is a lot to be learned here and it is impossible to type it all. Morgan also maintained huge vertical column cultures of rotifers, greenwater (phytoplankton), and Artemia that were literally poured into those systems. The amount of food going in was just crazy. The nutrient levels were below detection.

 

A lot of people complained that his water was yellow and his corals were brown, but it was logistical. Morgan used 5500K bulbs in the interest of cost and efficiency for so many tanks, knowing those corals would become or appear colorful again in the owners’ tanks. The yellow water came from the chlorophyll from the turf screens and the constant input of greenwater. He had one tank in the back where he used ozone, and even local application to this tank despite being a single water system clarified that water so that it looked like a display tank. The complaints of yellow water were flawed judgments against the system since Morgan was operating from a functional and not aesthetic mode, and obviously he or anyone could clear the yellow to crystal clear with carbon or ozone if desired. Some hobby leaders at the time wrongfully relegated the method of turf scrubbers to the ash heap of the hobby without ever using one, based solely on the yellow water and the brown corals which was an artifact of the practical function in place.

 

But here's the best part. He never did a water change. Ever. Seven years (at that time) without a water change in a facility with a flux of selling, propagating, breeding, and thousands of gallons. He remarked, "I had to have a system that could do this - I only have a handful of employees and they are busy breeding, selling, and keeping things running. How could I afford the time or the money to change water on this scale?" And that was absolutely true. Allegra Small (Walter Adey's grad student) and I analyzed the diversity of life in the water and benthos in the summer of 1995 and found it was nearly equivalent to a wild reef. She published it in Atoll Research Bulletin a few years later. I have photos, but they are on film (no digital cameras then) and are buried in a box. The point here is that you can have a low nutrient, high diversity system that is all but self-sustaining except for artificial lighting, the scrubber trays and dump buckets, and the water pumps.

 

Incidentally, the entire concept of refugiums in home aquariums came from Morgan based on Adey’s work and design. They were an integral part of the Adey turf scrubber systems that were sold, and the entire concept of a "DSB" that has since become a mainstay of the hobby also originally came straight from here as another integral part of the ATS system, predating Jaubert's DSB of the late 80's by almost ten years! Knowing history is really kind of cool, and to see the hobby today with really no idea of where these methods and concepts came from, now being discussed as common language, is very strange since we were all right in the middle of it - and it was Walter Adey who did it first at the Smithsonian, and then licensed it to one facility in the world for the aquarium trade - Morgan Lidster at Inland Aquatics. He was the first to offer aftermarket HOB refugiums, and was the first to sell refugium starters with critters. He was the first to offer beautiful decorative macroalgae for refugia. He seeded turf screens with 50 species for successional growth. He largely introduced the concept of phytoplankton that formed the basis of bottled phytoplankton and phytoplankton reactors. It was all right there, and how many people know this or credit this to him or Adey? Amazing, huh?"

 

 

Personally, I've bought detritivore kits from Inland Aquatics on several occasions, and I've always been happy with them. Eric Borneman is a very knowledgeable and highly respected person in this hobby/field/industry. Others, such as Dr. Ron Shimek, also endorse the idea. That's good enough for me.

 

As a caveat to all that, Morgan Lidster will be one of the first to point out that an ATS needs to be designed correctly in order to function like it should. Dr. Shimek would say the same about DSBs. This is true of protein skimmers & every other filter or piece of technology in our aquariums.

 

Finally, as to the "TOTM" issue, there's an easy answer to that - sample bias. People on this forum generally approve of the same maintenance methods. If you disagree, you generally get flamed (or at least a stern talking to). If you don't agree with most of what people say on this forum, you're generally not going to participate much. Instead, you'll go to a forum where people will generally agree with you. Similarly, the ATS forum is filled with... people who use turf scrubbers. And Dr. Shimek's forum is filled with people who promote DSBs. People would prefer to hand around with those who agree with them. It's human nature.

[HecticDialectics]

I still remember Bonerman's "sabotage" story lmao. Good times.

 

Finally, as to the "TOTM" issue, there's an easy answer to that - sample bias. [...] Similarly, the ATS forum is filled with... people who use turf scrubbers.

 

Do they have a TOTM at the "ATS forum"? Link?

[MorfiusX]

Do they have a TOTM at the "ATS forum"? Link?

Here's a link to the ATS Forum:

http://www.algaescrubber.net/forums/

[HecticDialectics]

Here's a link to the ATS Forum:

http://www.algaescrubber.net/forums/

 

I see a whole lot of nothing and a few sales pitches for teh "Santa Monica 100"

 

This is all you guys have to show? Is there nothing else?

 

Wow.

[Deleted User 6]

Bonerman, lol.

 

I have a 3g pico. Someone build a turf scrubber that won't burn my house down, send it to me, and I'll run it and give an honest review. I'm not paying for that #### though.

[Llamaguy]

People would prefer to hand around with those who agree with them. It's human nature.

 

 

Then why does SM keep coming back?

[HecticDialectics]

Then why does SM keep coming back?

 

he thinks he's a revolutionary

[herranton]

I encorage everyone to read about his 100 gallon over at Algaescrubbers.net.

Tank thread

I will post an exerpt:

 

I tried adding an iron supplement for many years, but never saw any affect. I always followed the instructions, such as Kent's Iron+Manganese "Add two teaspoons per 100 gal, per week". It had no visible effect. But after I started to read the literature about algae and iron, and after I realized that I now have much more algae in my system that the average tank does, I went out on a limb and poured in 8 ounces of Kent's. This is 24 times the recommended dosage for 100 gallons. But I reasoned that it's not the gallons that matter, it's the amount of algae. And it worked. The algae in the scrubber, that previously was yellow and hard (due to lack of iron), turned solid green and fluffy. Growth was much faster that week too.

 

So if more was better, much more should be much better. So I poured in a HALF GALLON of the Kent's. This is 225 times the recommended dosage, and over 9 times more than what I put in before. (coral-wise).

You will have to go to the thread yourself to find out the outcome, if it isn't obvious.

 

In all fairness, his tank does look pretty healthy. But it is hardly revolutionary.

[Rufessor]

Can't say its been entirely an interesting read what with all the stale oysters flying. I will say this, the dude has some interesting points. Its not useless, unless you think you can go a few years without water changes while feeding a turkey dinner 1x/day and grow anything but sulfur producing sludge...

 

Do I want a scrubber in my living room... not so much. It would appear that at least one person has tried this long term. I think in the end it comes down to commercial availability, ease of care. Two strikes. I use a skimmer and Cheato. Takes me about 1 minute to toss my filter floss 2x a week, dump the cup, and I made a simple idiot proof gravity feed ATO with automatic shut-off using a glass jar and some tubing, that takes 5 minutes to fill less than 1x/week. Dealing with assessing colors of algae, designing a water lift, lighting, and cleaning something that looks to be a PITA to clean (hack saw blade?) seems more work than I want to sign up for. BUT... its a cool idea, if I had no wife, no kids, and lived somewhere were I did not worry about water spills I might even try it for the hell of it. Give him some credit, don't discard his ideas. If you don't like it- don't use it. My reasons are stated and I won't be using one, but its a good idea.

 

I pose a question to the OP...

 

In the 10 minutes it took to think about this and wade through the oysters... could you figure out a way to work it into a in-line flow "reactor" with a removable insert that you could toss in sections so that it would be seeded by the remaining sections?

 

What if this was available, a small hang on 20x20 super thin acrylic backing for your tank that your return pump was partially diverted to and you just removed 1/3 of the screen, bleached, washed, and returned each week? Now that would be cool... would it work? I have no idea, but hey- this is interesting now? Or is it? If it replaced my skimmer, and cheato I would seriously think about it.

 

You could have a 20x20 acrylic box about 1/2 inch thick (internal) built with a recess and rubber gasket along the top and screw in some clamps so the top, 1 inch wide and 20 long- which could be built with a offset to fit into the recess on the top of the box, could be pulled out and be water tight when clamped . Then you put three (or something) plastic mesh screens (or whatever, thin granite slabs) into the top and have the inlet water plumed so that it disperses across the entire 20 inch height and flows across to the other side where it is collected and returned via a Y-fitting to the main pump return... would it work to pull and discard screens replacing with a 4th that was awaiting return after its bleach/sanitize cycle?? Would the screens repopulate fast enough to work, would the bad algae or whatever just reseed? I have no idea.

 

If THAT was available, it sat on the back of my tank (or under it or whatever) and it replaced my skimmer, cheato, and everything else and allowed me to feed until my fish puked... wow. super cool. And all I would need to do is clean a 6 x20 screen once a week. who the hell knows, but don't kill the idea (not my half arse cooked up lame flow reactor, the OP's idea).