Santa Monica Filtration UAS 1.4 Not Working

[BringingThatDottyback]

Has anybody had one of these and not been able to get it to grow algae? If so were you able to find a solution?

I run it for 18 hours a day, the display tank is going 10 hours a day on blues only at the lowest setting. I do not understand how the hair algae in the display tank is outgrowing the UAS (which has not grown any algae in several months). I manually remove it constantly, have turbo snails, mithrax crabs and an urchin and use RODI water. I do not feed heavily nor is the tank overstocked (55 gallon with 6 fish). All I want is the thing to start delivering on its claims but I feel like I just paid a pretty decent amount of money for a box that takes up some space in my sump.

 

[Dan_P]

Has anybody had one of these and not been able to get it to grow algae? If so were you able to find a solution?

I run it for 18 hours a day, the display tank is going 10 hours a day on blues only at the lowest setting. I do not understand how the hair algae in the display tank is outgrowing the UAS (which has not grown any algae in several months). I manually remove it constantly, have turbo snails, mithrax crabs and an urchin and use RODI water. I do not feed heavily nor is the tank overstocked (55 gallon with 6 fish). All I want is the thing to start delivering on its claims but I feel like I just paid a pretty decent amount of money for a box that takes up some space in my sump.

I will assume that you have already confirmed the light is working in the device and there is proper flow.

Things to consider. Light is too bright. Lighting period too long. Algae scrubbers grow photosynthetic slime rather than algae. The hair algae you have likes blue light but is not reproducing and populating the algae scrubber. Algae can grow in the aquarium and algae scrubber at the same time. It does not cause the tank algae to move into the scrubber.

 

[BringingThatDottyback]

Thanks, so I have been using the provided shade screen in the scrubber. I can try messing around with the hours but I assumed more was better. I hooked it up to an air pump for flow. I could upgrade the pump but it seems to be a pretty decent flow.

I know it wasn't magically supposed to get algae to migrate but I wasn't expecting it to just not grow algae at all while over time a hair algae outbreak develops in the display tank. The hair algae problem didn't exist when I initially added the scrubber.

 

[homegrowncichlid]

max out the light, don't shade it, I do not notice any significant reduction in growth due to sun burn.
You need to seed the scrubber with the specific algae you want to grow. Since it is relatively new, doesn't matter if its days or months in, there are probably "slime" species growing in there, forming a flat, single layer of cells, much like what grows on your glass, which you scrape off. That slime layer is preventing the macro algae from growing in. Take a clump of your "macro" algae of choice and anchor in to the bottom of your scrubber. it will spread.

 

[Dan_P]

Thanks, so I have been using the provided shade screen in the scrubber. I can try messing around with the hours but I assumed more was better. I hooked it up to an air pump for flow. I could upgrade the pump but it seems to be a pretty decent flow.

I know it wasn't magically supposed to get algae to migrate but I wasn't expecting it to just not grow algae at all while over time a hair algae outbreak develops in the display tank. The hair algae problem didn't exist when I initially added the scrubber.

Yes, photosynthetic organisms vary in the amount of light they can tolerate. Photosynthesis is actually inhibited when the light is too bright. You will have to experiment some to get the light right.

 

[BringingThatDottyback]

max out the light, don't shade it, I do not notice any significant reduction in growth due to sun burn.
You need to seed the scrubber with the specific algae you want to grow. Since it is relatively new, doesn't matter if its days or months in, there are probably "slime" species growing in there, forming a flat, single layer of cells, much like what grows on your glass, which you scrape off. That slime layer is preventing the macro algae from growing in. Take a clump of your "macro" algae of choice and anchor in to the bottom of your scrubber. it will spread.

Thanks, I just smeared hair algae on interior of scrubber. They should hire you to add that tip to the manual.