I have a waterfall ATS which I had a good friend refurbish the LED lighting. He also added 4 more LEDs to each side making 12 LEDs on each side. This turbocharged the Turbo scrubber so much I have to harvest my Ulva intestinalis at least every 5 days and often 4 days.
Now, most will tell you the way to clean the ATS screen is to remove all the algae using something like an old credit card scrapping all but a minuscule amount of alge off to more or less reseed the screen.
I got to thinking about this and it occured to me this was perhaps not the best way to harvest the algae.
Consider, if you take all bar such a micro amount of algae off the screen the algae will take a couple of days to get going again and in the meantime will be doing little to remove the nuitrents we are hoping to reduce/keep in check.
Thise with a fuge or algae reactor don't remove so much algae when harvesting so why would we with our waterfall ATS.
PH may also drop during this period as the algae won't be removing CO2 from the water as it would when there is plenty of algae on the screen to utilise it. Rinsing the screen under a cold water tap may also reduce the time the algae can recover, however, most now suggest rinsing the screen in old tank water.
I decided to experiment with giving my algae a haircut rather than reduce it right back to the screen.
What I did and now do is, using a pair of long blade scissors I cut the algae back to within about 1/2 to 3/4" layering each length cut. Granted I grow mainly Ulva intestinalis which I have layered on the screen by cutting small holes in it and threading short lengths of the Ulva through in 3 rows into the screen. This allows the Ulva to help stay put on the screen instead of being washed away.
If you grow GHA then you can still trim it back to within a similar distance off the screen. I still rinse the screen quickly under the cold water to which does not seem to have a negative effect on the Ulva. I think this is due to the fact Ulva intestinalis is found in widely varying areas of salinity to all but freshwater and is a very adaptable algae which might not be the case for GHA of course.
Since I have been trimming my Ulva I have found it recovers far quicker so in turn is back doing it's job that much faster. I have a video of how I do this from start to finish. Might be worth those with waterfall ATS giving it a go.
Now, most will tell you the way to clean the ATS screen is to remove all the algae using something like an old credit card scrapping all but a minuscule amount of alge off to more or less reseed the screen.
I got to thinking about this and it occured to me this was perhaps not the best way to harvest the algae.
Consider, if you take all bar such a micro amount of algae off the screen the algae will take a couple of days to get going again and in the meantime will be doing little to remove the nuitrents we are hoping to reduce/keep in check.
Thise with a fuge or algae reactor don't remove so much algae when harvesting so why would we with our waterfall ATS.
PH may also drop during this period as the algae won't be removing CO2 from the water as it would when there is plenty of algae on the screen to utilise it. Rinsing the screen under a cold water tap may also reduce the time the algae can recover, however, most now suggest rinsing the screen in old tank water.
I decided to experiment with giving my algae a haircut rather than reduce it right back to the screen.
What I did and now do is, using a pair of long blade scissors I cut the algae back to within about 1/2 to 3/4" layering each length cut. Granted I grow mainly Ulva intestinalis which I have layered on the screen by cutting small holes in it and threading short lengths of the Ulva through in 3 rows into the screen. This allows the Ulva to help stay put on the screen instead of being washed away.
If you grow GHA then you can still trim it back to within a similar distance off the screen. I still rinse the screen quickly under the cold water to which does not seem to have a negative effect on the Ulva. I think this is due to the fact Ulva intestinalis is found in widely varying areas of salinity to all but freshwater and is a very adaptable algae which might not be the case for GHA of course.
Since I have been trimming my Ulva I have found it recovers far quicker so in turn is back doing it's job that much faster. I have a video of how I do this from start to finish. Might be worth those with waterfall ATS giving it a go.
