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My ATS from turning off the supply pump removing and cleaning the screen, putting it back and switching it back on takes me no more than 10 mins if that a week.To add, in my experience, chaeto trapped a lot of detritus. Ripping it apart was a lot quicker than cleaning ATS though, but messier as it splashes saltwater everywhere.
My ATS from turning off the supply pump removing and cleaning the screen, putting it back and switching it back on takes me no more than 10 mins if that a week.
Once a month.Rip chaeto apart... about less than 10 seconds
If you're going to export algae, a major question is how much do I want to remove for the ~12hrs of light applied to it. If chaeto is exported once a month whereas ATS is exported around 1-2wks, doesn't that imply that growth rate is faster? Harvesting is usually driven by space constraints and/or die off caused by growth. Nutrient uptake can vary but structurally they appear very similar which leads me to believe nutrient uptake relative to growth is similar. Fwiw, I don't care what I grow with my light. It's green, thick, stringy and I pull 2-3 cups out per week on my 360g. I also supplement with skimming, socks, GAC, and the occasional carbon dosing as well as Lanthanum Chloride. For me, it's more about overlapping redundancy in case one facet of my life support system fails, encounters a spike in waste, etc.
Science has shown turf algae to be very efficient at removing po4 and no3.
http://www.algalturfscrubber.com/
That sounds exactly like the algae I grew in my Seabreeze. I never got long light green hair algae just this thick dark compact algae growing on the screen. The pic above it of 2 weeks growth. I increased the LED grow lighting considerably and got faster the turf like algae but never GHA. Having said that there is probably many different species of turf algae of which the type above may just be one.
If chaeto is exported once a month whereas ATS is exported around 1-2wks, doesn't that imply that growth rate is faster?
Interesting but when your science link shows me this and an example of a reef tank solely maintained by a ATS...
I know looks pretty gross. That was an experiment back in the 80s iirc. And they didn't supply calcium supplements. Neither did they use carbon or ozone to remove gelbestroph, which results from bacterial decay. They also didnt scrape their screens. That said, here is a better example of a tank run with an ats:
http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/155-tank-of-the-month
Does this tank even have an ATS? or is that just an example of a tank with a fuge?
I know they work. I was even looking into these earlier this month.Yes it has a small one. Im not saying ats are necessary to be a stand alone filter, the more the better, but what im saying is they will drop no3/po4 very well.
My comments were based on observations of various sized tanks and algae export methods and associated harvesting rates. One reason I anecdotally believe ATS may be more efficient per watt is that the strands of algae in an ATS have to compete amongst each other (and the tank) whereas chaeto only has to compete with the tank. Asked a different way, how big of a chaeto ball and nutrient load need to be to export 2-3cups per week in my 360g? I'd gladly trade my 2week / 10min maintenance for 10 secs a month. Has anyone tried aerating a chaeto ball? That would appear structurally similar to an upflow ATS.
One question I've always wondered about with ATS is that I frequently hit oxygen saturation levels in my tank as bubbles get produced from micro algae during peak DT lighting intensity. I know corals can experience O2 poisoning with heavy lighting but without adequate flow. I wonder if elevated O2 caused by heavy ATS may be detrimental to corals during peak DT lighting hours...