60 Cube with Algae Turf Scrubber

[LouieP]

These photos were taken on 8/16/16. Here are some shot of my tank after 1 year of having an ATS. Things Ive learned eventhough you have an ATS you can stil get GHA in your tank if you run your lights too intense & for too long. You have to clean the ATS weekly or you still can get NO3 & PO4.

I was trying to remove the dead stuff. It didnt end well I broke the entire colony. you can't see it in the photo buts its very pink & hairy coral.

I have a little bit of algae in my tank its on the left side I probably would get starfish or goat fish
to stir up my gravel

 

[LouieP]

These photos were taken on 8/19/16.

I put the clowns in the acclimation box becaue they were attacking the other clowns & the Bfly is the box becasue I was treating him & trying to fatten it up but it dead a few days later.

Heres some macro aglae that just started growing out of nowhere.

 

[NJHC]

This is a great Thread, thanks for sharing!

 

[SantaMonica]

A sand sifting goby would also be good.

Must be the most frag racks I've ever seen in one pic. I'm a fan of racks.

 

[LouieP]

So lately I have been getting NO3 & PO4 readings higher than normal.

96 ppb for phosphorus and
10-25 ppm for NO3.

I have very little algae in my tank...i have green macro algae growing on some rocks & snail shells which I kind of like and some green hair algae on some plugs.

So after speaking Bud w Turbo's Aquatics I made some changes In running the LED at ~90% for 24 hrs a day for a few days to a week. As the algae grows in the chamber I will back the flow down as the aglae grows to increase the density of the growth.

I also made some changes to my lights I replaced my Hydra 52 w 2 Hydra 26HDs & removed the 4 24" T5s. If I realized that the HDs weren't APEX ready I would have just purchased the regular versions.

I went w 2 lights to space out the lights more because I wanted more light on sides of my tanks.

Last week I picked up 2 little Heniochus Bflys & last night I picked up 3 Dispar Anthias.
Something that I'm really excited about is I just got a Red Sea Regal on Wednesday and it's picking at the rocks & glass. As I type this up I'm watching it pick at seaweed that I have rubber band to a frag plug.

 

[xanderfish]

How things progressing... more or different growth? How's the heniochus in same tank with your corals/ frags ? Is it eating your corals/frags ?

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Great read, and a beautiful tank!! I am just starting out in the hobby and super interested in using a ATS as my primary nutrient removal system. Thank you for documenting..

 

[LouieP]

How things progressing... more or different growth? How's the heniochus in same tank with your corals/ frags ? Is it eating your corals/frags ?

@xanderfish sorry for the very slow response.
For the most everything is going good. I have 3 3D printed frag racks & I believe they are causing my problems in my system & I have gotten a little lazy. The Heniochus dont pick on my SPS corals and I still have them both in my tank.

 

[medusala]

What do the TCK frags you got look like now? Can you post photos?

 

[vlangel]

I read the beginning of your thread and the end. It looks like the Algal scrubber has really worked well. I could see a huge difference in your sand. I may consider one for my seahorse tank which is a really high nutrient system.

 

[LouieP]

What do the TCK frags you got look like now? Can you post photos?

I lost a bunch of them because of a magnetic went bad & I also think my 3D printed frag racks are leaching so Im working on getting everything back in order.

 

[SantaMonica]

Plastic won't leach, or absorb, any nutrients.

 

[LouieP]

Plastic won't leach, or absorb, any nutrients.

Are you 100% sure some plastic doesnt leach? Im hearing mix reviews regarding 3D printed plastics. My buddy & I both have 3D printed racks and we both had the same problem. He has a SantaMonica ATS and I have a Turbo's Aquatic ATS, when he removed his racks his problem started to go way. I had 3 racks full of frags and was very slow to get rid of the frags. So I decided that I will go back to acrylic or injected ABS plastic frag racks and inspect my magnets more often.

If you do a google search "can plastic leach into water" you may think differently.

 

[SantaMonica]

Leaching normally means phosphate, as in live rock. Plastic does not do that.

If you mean any of the other things in plastic, which do not pertain to reefs, then it's a different meaning.

 

[LouieP]

Its been a while since I've updated.

I had some set backs, I found a bad magnet on 1 of my frag racks, which I believed killed a bunch of my corals. I was having problems with both PO4 & NO3, so about 2 weeks ago I completely cleaned my screens to start over with and I will go back to "harvesting" every week but only 1 side at a time. I reduced the photo period to 12 hrs, the intensity to 50% and have been working the photo period back up, Im currently at 16hrs. I have been dosing vinegar for the last 6 days add Ive been slowly increasing the dose.

I made some other changes to hardware, I replaced my Reef Fanatic regulator with a CarbonDoser regulator and the pH in my CaRx is stable at 6.71 +/-0.02.

Today, I replaced my 2 Hydra 26HDs with 1 Radion XR30w Pro G4. I replaced the lights because the "child" would always drop the connection to the "parent" light and have to reconnect it on the app. Also a number of reputable stores in Central FL are using them and getting great results so I figured why not!

 

[LouieP]

I did a light cleaning to the screen!

 

[LouieP]

I did a light cleaning of half of the screen. My PO4 was at 0.15 ppm & NO3 was at 2. I have been carbon dosing daily. Ive been slowly increasing the amount of the last 15 days I did notice a ph drop when i dose so i have it broken up into 3 doses 6am, 12 & 6pm.


See post#100 for photos!

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

No pics showing up?

 

[LouieP]

No pics showing up?

they show up on tapatalk???

 

[LouieP]

I did a light cleaning of half of the screen. My PO4 was at 0.15 ppm & NO3 was at 2. I have been carbon dosing daily. Ive been slowly increasing the amount of the last 15 days I did notice a ph drop when i dose so i have it broken up into 3 doses 6am, 12 & 6pm.

After cleaning 1 side