Side effects of Turf Scrubber

[Treefer32]

O.k. Wow, I've seen some major changes in water quality as my Turf Scrubber takes off. It's growing hair algae now within 2 days of cleaning it. And full of hair algae within 5 days! Huge massive changes there! It's awesome to see! I see Cyano starting to die off in the tank as well, which is awesome!

Another side effect is the PH! I've looked at my logs from my Apex and I see that on average my PH was running down to 7.85 at night and 8.1 during the day as the high. Which sucked for coral growth.

However, now with the transition from slime algae to hair algae on the scrubber and adding in some Chaeto. System visually shows the low increasing and the high increasing. It's increased daily now for the past five days. yesterday the high was 8.3 (I've never had it that high since starting the tank 5 months ago.) The new low as of last night, was 8.03. Which used to be close to my high. . . .

I'm amazed at how powerful just growing some hand fulls of algae is!!! This seems huge for fish health and coral health!

Really exciting to see the money being well spent!

 

[Treefer32]

Proof is in the pudding. the trend continued lower prior to the 6th.

 

[ca1ore]

Would call those direct effects …. not side effects LOL Side effects would be the leeching of coloring agents or chemicals, which is why I always run GAC continuously with my ATS.

 

[Treefer32]

Interesting, I was just going to ask about clarity. My tank is deep - around 36 inches wide and 31" tall. I can barely see the MP40s on the back wall. I've taken several pictures and the MP40s don't show up at all. Not that I want to see them, but that tells me the water is cloudy....

I'd like the water to be clear as possible. I'm even running a UV sterilizer to keep it clear. But, it's definitely got a cloudiness to it!

 

[ca1ore]

ATS can impart a slight yellow/green tinge to the water. Cloudiness is something else. UV will help with biological source of cloudiness, but not particulates.

 

[eggplantparrot]

Is it possible to dry a little bit of the algae in a sheet to feed fish? Will they eat it?

 

[Treefer32]

Is it possible to dry a little bit of the algae in a sheet to feed fish? Will they eat it?

Ha! That'd be awesome, what I'm getting now is true hair algae. I don't know of many fish that eat hair algae (dried or otherwise.) Maybe fried with some greese, some seasoning, and breaded? Ha!

I'm pretty sure the hair algae is garbage... Could maybe be thrown in the garden as fertilizer. Though, my concern would be the salt content. Even if dried out, I would think there'd be some salt residue. Not sure how well plants would grow if salt mixed with the soil....

 

[eggplantparrot]

Ha! That'd be awesome, what I'm getting now is true hair algae. I don't know of many fish that eat hair algae (dried or otherwise.) Maybe fried with some greese, some seasoning, and breaded? Ha!

I'm pretty sure the hair algae is garbage... Could maybe be thrown in the garden as fertilizer. Though, my concern would be the salt content. Even if dried out, I would think there'd be some salt residue. Not sure how well plants would grow if salt mixed with the soil....

Actually after trying to remember for a while, i do recall someone collecting batches of the algae, drying it out and making algae wafers.

You could rinse out the algae with tap water for a bit too, that should take care of the salt.

 

[dansreef]

I have run an ATS on my 200+ gal system for a couple of years now. I love it. Water clarity is pretty good...maybe a bit of a yellow tint... not much. I notice it when I do water changes into white salt buckets...

Are you also running a skimmer? I am ...and I am pulling a ton of gunk from the system even though the guy I bought the scrubber from swore I didn't need to... Also, are you dosing carbon in any way... It looks like you either have sediment or bacteria that is causing cloudiness. Sediment could be sand particles, detritus, or even precipitation of calcium or alkalinity...perhaps. The one other thing that is a frustration, I have a basement sump... and with the skimmer, ATS and then the return back upstairs... I get some microbubbles. Not too bad... but at times it can be annoying. It doesn't look that way in your tank.

 

[ksed]

I wonder if chaeto has a similar yellowing effect to the water?

 

[Treefer32]

I am running a 38 watt uv sterilizer as well. I would doubt it's bacteria. But, could be detritous / fine sand particles. Etc. Would something like chemipure clear it up. Or would that hinder the scrubber as well? I see such clear tanks and mine is so far off from that level of clarity.

 

[FlyPenFly]

Which one did you get and how noisy is it?

 

[MrObscura]

I wonder if chaeto has a similar yellowing effect to the water?

Algae in general can tint water.

 

[Treefer32]

Which one did you get and how noisy is it?

I got the Turbo Aquatics L4. Bud includes a home made splash guard attachment that can easily be attached to the drain on the scrubber to direct the water so it makes less noise. That said, my sump and scrubber are in the furnace room behind a couple walls and a solid core door. So, I don't hear the scrubber at all and I"m not using the splash guard. It's got a nice cover that seals up the noise pretty well. And really there's not a on of noise. It's well built to make sure water flows over the canvas, there's room for about an inch of water to pool inside the scrubber that prevents some of the splashing.

 

[FlyPenFly]

Nice.

I wonder if Purigen can help with the tint

 

[scriptmonkey]

What about a carbon reactor?

 

[Treefer32]

Yeah, I was wondering about Chemipure actually. I don't know if that just removes phosphates and nitrates. or if it removes suspended materials in the water column. I know Carbon removes discoloration and smells. Wasn't sure about undissolved solids.

I'm tempted to get a giant freshwater filter with the filter floss and carbon in it. just hang it on the sump or something like that. I suspect it's tiny sand particles that won't sink and won't go anywhere.

 

[Dugless]

That’s looks bacterial to me.

 

[michaelstevenbrice]

I impulse ordered an ATS last night and today I am reading about how happy everyone is with theirs. Looking forward to new toys!

 

[Treefer32]

I impulse ordered an ATS last night and today I am reading about how happy everyone is with theirs. Looking forward to new toys!

The biggest advice I can give you is patience. Everyone told me that but I was impatient. I had a club member give me some hair algae to rub on the screen about 3 weeks in. Finally at the 6 to 8 week mark I had nothing but hair algae growing on the screen. Now, every 5 days I'm removing close to a softball sized ball of hair algae and various colors of algae too. Light green to dark green. It's a ton of algae I'm removing every 4-5 days. I love it. And to think all that would be growing in the display somewhere without it.

(I actually have a few tufts of hair algae that started in the display now, but, I think they'll die off eventually, just giving it time. If they grow and get large enough where I can pull them I will.