My Algae Scrubber Experience

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by Money pit

You might find it a good idea to stop the GFO until the niyrates come down. Just thinking it could become a limiting factor.

im going to leave the gfo for now i mean after a couple weeks if im not getting any results then i have the option to haul the gfo and see if its the cause but right now im just curious if it will show me results for nitrate(which i have no doubt it wont) if they are dropping as the mesh ages then ill feel a bit better about pulling the gfo.

so i tested tonight and my nitrates are around 40ppm (high) besides the scrubber im only running a fuge for nitrates its a good size fuge so we will see if the ats is more aggressive than my fuge.my nitrates have been from off the chart from the move(was expected as i kept everything the way it was and did a fast move)that was about three mths ago i got them down to 40ppm pretty quick and thats where we sit at most times.

[ALang]

Denny, that light fixture...you got that at HD??
Nice fisherman's knot, btw.

[Proteus]

I went to hydro light on fort road just north of red coral. They have lots of lights in the proper spectrums for plant growth. I picked up some 24 inch t5 HO from there

[jagermaier]

What if I were to run the screens down the inside walls of my display tank overflow. It gets plenty of light from my main light and seems like I have some growing in there already anyways. Would that be a good idea or not?

[pirate]

Originally Posted by jagermaier

What if I were to run the screens down the inside walls of my display tank overflow. It gets plenty of light from my main light and seems like I have some growing in there already anyways. Would that be a good idea or not?

I was thinking the same thing. So has anybody tried it this way yet? Or will I be the first?

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by pirate

I was thinking the same thing. So has anybody tried it this way yet? Or will I be the first?

algae will grow if theres nutrients and light, the idea is to get as much growth as possible. in the link above its recommended to keep the lights 4" away and 20hrs on and 4 hrs off. i have my refugium light only 12" away but i didnt think it would be strong enough to get the full effect so i now have 2 lights on the ats alone both 4" from the surface.

[lastlight]

Originally Posted by reefwars

18hrs on and 4 hrs off

That's a total of 22 hrs just a really friendly heads up =)

*cough*mvp*cough*

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by ALang

Denny, that light fixture...you got that at HD??
Nice fisherman's knot, btw.

no this was a light i had here, ive decided with the small amount of room i have ill be using 2 (clamp lights??) that ways i can clamp it onto my sump and curve it over the clutter lol


day 1 and there is some small blotches of brown algae.....was expecting a perfectly clear screen by the time i got home today as i only started it last night lol at this rate ill have algae in no time