Question Algae Turf Scrubber

[nyc reefer]

Hello MR, need some advise from reefers that are running an algae turf scrubber. I recently purchased a new IceCap medium sized turf scrubber with 2 30watt lamps. I ran into a leak problem right out of the box, apparently Coral Vue does not glue the plumbing that comes with it and I installed it and left for work, later in the night I received multiple alerts from my Apex leak sensors that I had water in my cabinet and later on that I had water on my floor. I came home after work to find a large quantity of water on my floor. After inspecting it thoroughly determined the water was seeping from multiple places the main bulkhead gasket, the straight pipe (water fall) which does not come glued from the manufacturer.
Finally corrected all the leak issues but now am paranoid and constantly looking at it to make sure it’s not leaking again, seems very temperamental with the amount of water that goes through it, I’m using a small Sicce 1.5 Syncra Silent pump with 358gph output and that seems to cause a leak if I run it fully open so I have it dialed back which is odd since on the Coral Vue site it claims to require 500gph throughput, lol. I don’t really recommend it because of these issues seems like the more expensive ClearWater might be worth the extra money if they are made better than the IceCap ones.

*Now that I have it running the million dollar question - how long should I run the lights on it, I have a bad algae problem in the display tank from over feeding, and a heavy bio load with (4) 4-1/2 to 5” tangs the tank is 120ga DT with another 35ga in my sump. I’ve read that I should run it opposite my DT lighting for 12hrs a day to help with the PH and others say to run it 24/7?

Thnx MR

 

[mshur]

I run mine 24/7 . It all depends on how much nutrients you have in your tank and how much you want it out . Start slowly , like 12 hours a day and see. Don’t remove nutrients fast .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[homegrowncichlid]

Million dollar question answered
1. do not run it 24/7 the algae will weaken and stop growing. All life needs a rest cycle.
2. Start with a 12 hour cycle, you can go from as little as 8 to as long as 18 hours on per day. Lets say you have it operating at the max of 18 hours, you'll find the growth will slow down after a while as you strip all the available nutrients out of the water column and the growth seem to stop, as the harvest drops off. At this point you can use a Fe K2O, freshwater plant fertilizer. just add a random cap full, not the full strength does for a planted tank. That should produce another harvest from the scrubber. After a while you'll realize you don't need to use fertilizer anymore, once it doesn't get that extra harvest and the fertilizer has no effect. Once at this point, the nutrient level of the water is as clean as it's going to be. Then eventually you find that running at the max of 18 hours will not produce any more algae then running at 16, 14 or even 12 hours.
3A. light cycle, regular or flipped. This one is kinda tricky. I use to run my lights on the same diurnal cycle as my main lights. I found that whenever I scraped cleaned the scrubber out and removed 100% of the algae (left the screen in the main tank for the hermit crabs and tangs to make it really clean overnight), algae will start to grow both in the scrubber and in the main tank. It would take 4 or 6 days for the tiny hairs to grow back in the scrubber, and in that time, algae also grows outside of it. So to solve that problem, I don't scrape algae anymore weekly anymore, I hand pull it off twice a week, so that there is always algae on the screen.
3B. I have also started the light cycle inside the scrubber 6 hour before the main lights turn on. (not quite full nocturnal but at 6AM till 10PM. 18 hours. (My main actinic lights run from 11AM till 11PM, but the whites turn off at 10PM, along with the scrubber)). This way the scrubber gets the first pull of the previous nights feeding's nutrient release. By the time the main lights turn on, most of the nutrient's have been sucked in and on this cycle, I no longer have algae growing in the main tank. I actually tried starting at 8 AM, then 7 and finally settled at 6AM. Then lights then run in parallel with the main tank's lighting. At this schedule, the hair algae that did take hold in the main tank, has been dying off for the past couple of month, and is reducing in mass, as the crabs pick at it, and it doesn't grow back. (BTW, I have no one actively eating the long dark hair algae that is left in the tank, none of the tangs, crabs, urchins go for it anymore. it has simply stopped growing and is randomly falling off) Even coraline can't tank hold anymore and has died off.

So the reverse nocturnal cycle wont work, if there is light on in the main tank, the scubber light also needs to be on, otherwise algae will grow in the main tank, while the scrubber is off.

 

[5thChorseman]

Start at 8 hrs/day until your screen mature. The first few weeks will be mostly slime. Scrape it off until you have hair or other algae. Once you have hair or other algae that is when you want to cut or pull off the algae. At this stage you can increased the light period of the scrubber.

 

[5thChorseman]

With such a heavy bioload, you may want to consider adding some sulfur prills in a mesh bag to help get rid of nitrite and nitrate. It would be a
BADESS: Bioilogical Autotrophic Denitrification using Elemental Sulfur System, a Sulphur Based Nitrogen Management System. More can be read on it here

Makazi Baharini [en:badess:start]

www.baharini.eu

This is what I have in my sump.

 

[homegrowncichlid]

Oh right, there is a breaking in, start up of the scrubber, till the desirable algae grows in.

 

[nyc reefer]

Million dollar question answered
1. do not run it 24/7 the algae will weaken and stop growing. All life needs a rest cycle.
2. Start with a 12 hour cycle, you can go from as little as 8 to as long as 18 hours on per day. Lets say you have it operating at the max of 18 hours, you'll find the growth will slow down after a while as you strip all the available nutrients out of the water column and the growth seem to stop, as the harvest drops off. At this point you can use a Fe K2O, freshwater plant fertilizer. just add a random cap full, not the full strength does for a planted tank. That should produce another harvest from the scrubber. After a while you'll realize you don't need to use fertilizer anymore, once it doesn't get that extra harvest and the fertilizer has no effect. Once at this point, the nutrient level of the water is as clean as it's going to be. Then eventually you find that running at the max of 18 hours will not produce any more algae then running at 16, 14 or even 12 hours.
3A. light cycle, regular or flipped. This one is kinda tricky. I use to run my lights on the same diurnal cycle as my main lights. I found that whenever I scraped cleaned the scrubber out and removed 100% of the algae (left the screen in the main tank for the hermit crabs and tangs to make it really clean overnight), algae will start to grow both in the scrubber and in the main tank. It would take 4 or 6 days for the tiny hairs to grow back in the scrubber, and in that time, algae also grows outside of it. So to solve that problem, I don't scrape algae anymore weekly anymore, I hand pull it off twice a week, so that there is always algae on the screen.
3B. I have also started the light cycle inside the scrubber 6 hour before the main lights turn on. (not quite full nocturnal but at 6AM till 10PM. 18 hours. (My main actinic lights run from 11AM till 11PM, but the whites turn off at 10PM, along with the scrubber)). This way the scrubber gets the first pull of the previous nights feeding's nutrient release. By the time the main lights turn on, most of the nutrient's have been sucked in and on this cycle, I no longer have algae growing in the main tank. I actually tried starting at 8 AM, then 7 and finally settled at 6AM. Then lights then run in parallel with the main tank's lighting. At this schedule, the hair algae that did take hold in the main tank, has been dying off for the past couple of month, and is reducing in mass, as the crabs pick at it, and it doesn't grow back. (BTW, I have no one actively eating the long dark hair algae that is left in the tank, none of the tangs, crabs, urchins go for it anymore. it has simply stopped growing and is randomly falling off) Even coraline can't tank hold anymore and has died off.

So the reverse nocturnal cycle wont work, if there is light on in the main tank, the scubber light also needs to be on, otherwise algae will grow in the main tank, while the scrubber is off.
View attachment 306511

Thanks now that you answered my question it makes sense to run like you explained because you’re competing with the DT for the nutrients and want to get first crack at them to prevent the DT from getting algae growth in it. Thanks and happy reefing.

 

[nyc reefer]

With such a heavy bioload, you may want to consider adding some sulfur prills in a mesh bag to help get rid of nitrite and nitrate. It would be a
BADESS: Bioilogical Autotrophic Denitrification using Elemental Sulfur System, a Sulphur Based Nitrogen Management System. More can be read on it here

Makazi Baharini [en:badess:start]

www.baharini.eu

This is what I have in my sump.

I will do some reading into this method, since I have no intentions of getting rid of my fishes or to starve them, lol. I love my fishes.

 

[Jamesmost]

I run a cw300 24 hours..
First harvest takes longest

 

[nyc reefer]

I bought a Hanna HI713 PO4 low range colorimeter to test my water and get an idea of a starting point on my journey to win the battle against algae in my DT.

*Results = 0.41PPM

Help me understand how bad it is according to this reading, I will repeat in a week. I’m adding a large bag of Chemipure Elite 46OZ, been running the algae turf reactor for about 3 days now, and no lights for the last 3 days also. Give me so tips. Gonna perform another 20ga WC tomorrow.

•DT - 120ga
•Sump - 30ga
•Octopus Bio Churn Pellet Reactor w/600g of media
•NYOS 160 skimmer pulling dark foamy gunk consistently

 

[homegrowncichlid]

Once the algae starts to gown in, it's going to soak up all your nutrients, don't worry about that. If I recall correctly the scrubber will go though a few phases before it reaches the end point. You need to help it along as it moves towards the climax ecosystem. First the diatoms grown in very quickly, hours. That growth prevents the next colonizers. Then you may get some of those tiny green dots that are hard to scrape off your glass. I don't know what it is. Cyano may also grow in, all of which needs to be removed until you finally get to a hair or macro algae. The final algae will grow the 3D matrix that you can harvest. You can speed up the process by drapping macro algae on. See if you can clip it on place.
Personally I was growing red gracillias directly off the screen, till I scrapped it off and never grew back. The chaeto I stuck in there became clogged with hair algae, not the screen. (I assume the chaeto was already covered with hair algae spores, plus it would catch the free floaters as it filters the water. I would then dump half off, wash and reuse the other half) it got a little too tedious to do that forever, so I dumped that all out. Currently after a full cleanning, I get ulva, followed by a bright green hair algae both of which my fish eat. Anyway, go ahead and seed some algae in. Get some from the main tank. It will boost the secession speed and probably skip right to the climax community.

 

[nyc reefer]

Thanks

 

[nyc reefer]

It’s currently running 18 hours, looks great in my sump no leaks, using a Sicce Silent Syncra 1.0 as the feed pump. Now it’s just a waiting game. Thanks to everyone that commented and guided me through the setup process. I appreciate it guys!!