ats vs. lobophora

[Donj]

recently, I started getting an outbreak of lobophora algae, it has spread to several of my live rock at an alarming rate,at first wasnt realy sure what this stuff was,its kind of like a brown leafy mat that will completely cover anything in its path on the top side of your rock,the top layers seem to peel off rather easily,but comes right back. I did some research on how to rid my tank of this growth, mostly on wetweb,seems the only way to rid your tank of it, is to either,take your live rock out and boil it or get a naso tang. SM, ive never seen on any post you mentioning this form of algae,and I do read daily, PLEASE tell me my ATS will rid my tank of this monster algae. I know youll want to know where my water params are, everything is good, exept, cant seem to get nitrates to 0,they remain between 20ppm and 30 ppm, my ATS has not lowered this in any way, still getting brown growth, I have done PWCs,increased flow,still brown growth since my last post, I just dont get it. help.

[SantaMonica]

Everthing is not good if N is 20+. Everything is bad. Your scrubber is failing.

Doesn't matter what kind of nuisance algae is growing in your display; it all goes away when you build and operate your scrubber properly. So let's see pics of all different part of the scrubber, and of the screen before and after cleaning.

When did you change the bulbs?
What's the real wattage?
When did you clean the pump in vinegar?
How often do you clean the screen?
How much do you feed?

[Donj]

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff371/djdawg/Pictureoffphone608-1.jpg

[Donj]

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff371/djdawg/Pictureoffphone618.jpg

[Donj]

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff371/djdawg/Pictureoffphone607.jpg

[Donj]

i built my scrubber to your specs SM,I bought the lights you recommended SM, I run lights on scrubber 18 on 6 off about 60 days old, as you recommend,I clean brown algae off every 4 days,all the way down to bare,it may be failing but its not because of the design,its the same as if i would have bought yours.. Im feedin a minimal amount of food to keep nutrients down,Ive got a tremendous amont of flow (mag 18 return, vortech mp40, a korelia 4) in display, I run a mag 9.5 to my scrubber, so flow is not the issue. your response seemed a little nasty to me, Ive been following your advice through this site since november 2010, with great intrest and faith this type of filtering WILL work,unfortunatly, its not, had to put my skimmer back up, had to run GAC to clear up the slimey brown algae in display,same as floydrturbo and some others experienced,left it in a week, water clead up took it back out,but will keep skimmer in,yes it is failing but its not because im not trying. Alls I ask you was if you have dealt with this type of algae (lobophora) and if a scrubber can sucsessfully rid a display tank of such,if I pissed you off sorry

[Donj]

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff371/djdawg/IMG_0450.jpg this is basically what im cleaning every 4 days, never turns green since november, ive not givin up just yet im going to try some different bulbs,maybe 6500k, patience,patience,patience. I Ive built my ATS just like yours,so,is it built properly? as far as operating it properly, well,Im trying to follow your advice to the T, im on this site daily,any sugestions on how to run it more properly?

[Donj]

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff371/djdawg/P1090917.jpg this is the algae im refering to, has anybody ever dealt with tis stuff?

[Donj]

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff371/djdawg/Pictureoffphone609.jpg

[SantaMonica]

When did you change the bulbs?
What's the real wattage?
When did you clean the pump in vinegar?
How much do you feed?

Your screen has a bad flow problem. Half of the screen is not getting flow.

Does not matter what kind of nuisance is algae in the display. Low nutrients will get rid of it.

[Donj]

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff371/djdawg/P1090939.jpgmy screen has 950 gph going over it,I dont think a 1 month old mag 9.5 needs a vineger soak,trust me, my flow over the screen is strong from one end to the other, with water pooling 1" on the bottom of my scrubber box (i should say flowing strongly) to my 1" bulkhead, I hope this photo shows this. AGAIN the lights are as you recomended on your post...2700k 24watt each with 2 units one on each side, 96 watt total( REAL WATTAGE), they are maybe 50 days old,I feed 1 to 2 frozen cubes of rods food. I can only assume youve never dealt with this kind of algae before,youve never spoke of it. IMO this type of filtering isnt going to work for everyone,it certainly is not working for me,and ive tried everything youve suggested to everyone, it will make baby copeods, and thats why I havnt givin up, my mandarins love them, maybe someday Ill get GHA, but obviously Im doing something wrong,just dont know what,could be I need to buy the SM100

[SantaMonica]

Are you sure the bulbs are on 18 hours, instead of on for 6 hours? This has tripped up a lot of people. Turn the timer by hand and check it.

Have you measured phosphate? Is there any other filter besides the skimmer and GAC?

When you clean do you take out the screen and clean the slot too? It looks like the slot is clogging very early and blocking flow.
Since yours is fed by the overflow, do you know if things are flowing down and getting stuck in the slot? Lay a light-shield over the pipe:

http://www.radio-media.com/fish/UserToddoOnAS-3.jpg

Also, the growth is not too black, so let it go 7 days. The main goal right now is to at least get the whole screen growing, instead of just half. When you clean next, remove the pipe and look close at the areas with no growth; see why it is not flowing. Either something is getting stuck on the inside, or growth is clogging from the outside.