New ATS

[Smitty]

Howdy,

So I finished putting together a simple waterfall style ATS. Unfortunately I can't seem to get even flow over the entire screen. I have a youtube video to show what I have. I will be picking up a second light just like the first later today. Be nice! Thanks!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZEU0dU-qJY&feature=plcp

[Garf]

I've got a piece of screen mesh folded into a "v" shape inserted into the slot pipe ( entire length ) to even flow out by causing a bit of restriction in the pipe. Don't know if that would help you or not, worked on mine. Have you the appropriate flow Smitty ?

[Smitty]

It should be very close to the correct flow. It is nice and even down the screen. I can turn it up but it just starts spitting water everywhere.

I didn't think about adding the plastic wrap around the top... I may try to do that as well to help.

I'm not sure I understand your V description. Do you have a picture?

[Garf]

Piece of screen ( length of slot pipe ) about 1 inch wide, folded down the centre (length) to make long channel. I put this in the pipe. Sorry no pics of it. ( i think you've got a larger diameter pipe than me, so don't know if it's feasible for you ).

[Smitty]

I understand what you are saying.

The pipe is 3/4" inside diameter.

[Garf]

Maybe worth a go then, if you got some spare screen.

[kerry]

It will flow better when the algae starts to grow, nothing to worry about yet.

[Smitty]

Ok, I have both lights up. I picked up CFL bulbs that have a 2700 color temp and they are 23w each. I think the idea of having the screen inside the pipe worked because it is flowing down the whole screen nicely now.

Here are photos with it all set up:

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z278/cwhfsr/ATS1.jpg

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z278/cwhfsr/ATS2.jpg

Thanks for looking!

[Garf]

Glad to see my mod worked. Eventually you will need to find a way of making the lights more perpendicular to the screen, but a great start.

[Smitty]

Right now the only way I can think of to get the lights perpendicular is to raise the height of the system. If I raise the height of the screen then the water would fall into the sump and not nicely go in as it is now and I'd be dealing with splashing which I'd like to avoid. The only way to avoid that is to make the screen much, much longer. Is that bad?

[Garf]

It's the lit area that's important, if you got an area of screen partially lit, I would consider this a biodiversity benefit. Others would not agree. You will get some growth on the lower bit, but nowhere near as much as under the lights.

[Smitty]

I increased the height by 7" in order to get the lights horizontal to the screen today. I did increase the screen length, but that is more to keep everything from splashing, the bottom of the screen won't have much light hitting it.

Here is an update after 1 week. Starting to get something on the screen which is good. I know it takes a while for things to really heat up. I'm guessing about a month before I see any noticeable growth but sooner would be nice.

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z278/cwhfsr/08-25-2012Update.jpg

[SantaMonica]

You can try squeezing the reflector so that it fits the shape of the screen.

[Smitty]

Well, I did have to take the skimmer offline in order to fit the ATS into the sump and now I'm having an explosion of hair algae/bryopsis. I'm hoping the screen starts kicking in soon to help reduce this (which is one of the reasons for me putting in an ATS to begin with).

[Floyd R Turbo]

Your screen will not filter much until it's mature. The explosion of HA and bryopsis indicates that you have some high nutrients or it is leeching from the rocks, or both. Ask Srusso about the bryopsis issue, if it really IS bryopsis, you need to get N and P down to rock-bottom zero to choke it out.

[kerry]

You should address the light reflector issue to as SM mentioned, you want all that light on the screen. I like the smaller ones for a skinny screen.

[Smitty]

It isn't excess nutrients. I only feed about 1/2 a cube every other day and the fish all devour it within seconds. I've always fought P in my tank but N has been zero the entire time (but I do have issues with algae so it could be consuming it).

I'll work on the reflectors.

[Smitty]

Ok, I know I don't want to have macro algae in my sump at the same time as the ATS but I'm affraid of what will happen in my DT if I take everything out of my system (already had to take the skimmer out, but If I remove the macro I can probably move my ATS and put my skimmer back in). Thoughts?

Also, when do you want to try and clean the screen for the first time? It has been almost 2 weeks running and I see the beginning of algae forming but not a lot.

Thanks!

[Floyd R Turbo]

you need to clean weekly, but at the start it is very light. run room temp tap water at slow-medium flow and pass the screen under it, and rub it gently with your fingertips, that's it. Scrub the top edge where the screen goes into the pipe to keep that clean and scrub the slot itself.

[sklywag]

Tanks always get ugly before getting better. This is where most people who try scrubbers give up and think they're a bunch of hype and don't work. Blame the ATS for all their problems. When in reality those problems were always there lurking and waiting for the opportune time to show themselves. As Floyd stated, nutrients are starting to leach out of your very pourous rock.
If you manage to hang on and be patient through the change. You'll be very satisfied with the results.

[Smitty]

I did my first cleaning this morning. I can tell it is growing something. When I cleaned it there was a fish smell and it was a bit slimy but not much.

I'm hoping this is normal.

Oh yea, I decided to remove the macro algae from my sump and expect this to help with the growth. I pulled out about 1/2 of a 5 gallon bucket worth of chaeto (uncompressed). There was a lot of floating debris in the chaeto which may also be a reason for my excess nutrients.

[kerry]

Mine sometimes had/has an odor too, nothing to worry about. Without competition your screen will grow much faster.

[Smitty]

So, I'm thinking my lights are too close to the screen but I don't think I can move them out any farther the way it is currently set up. I can see green growth at the bottom 4" of screen, where there is little light but right were the light hits it has almost no growth, or only slimy growth.

Thoughts? I really don't want to re-do my entire sump for this but it is getting to that point...

[SantaMonica]

Less hours.

[Smitty]

Ok here is an update: Not good.

I realized I had the 23w bulbs in there and they were very close so I'm guessing that is why it wasn't growing right next to them-it was getting burned. So I switched over to 13w bulbs.

Now there is growth, but it is all brown and slimy. What else can I do?

[Floyd R Turbo]

Rinse the brown stuff off a little more frequently. If it is what I think you are describing, it's kind of like dinoflagellates? long hair-like brown strings, that disintegrate if you touch them? You can take the screen off every couple days and give it a rinse in tap water to get rid of them, this lets the GHA below stay alive longer. then still do your every 7 day cleaning, making sure to leave any hair algae in the holes.

[Smitty]

So I finally started getting green growth. It looked like I had enough flow but I guess I didn't and when I cranked it up higher, the greed started coming out.

That being said, I'm going to start with a new screen. Right now I have two put together because I started with the right sized screen, but it was several inches off the water and I didn't like the splashing, so I zip-tied a second section on for smooth flow to the water. Well, I find that cleaning it like that is a PITA so I'm going to start over with a full screen that goes all the way to the water in one piece.

So I finally start getting green growth and I'm beginning again.... what do they say? One step forward two steps back?

On the up side, I rearranged my sump so I can put my skimmer back in if I want. The skimmer would be before the ATS. I'm not sure if I want to put it in or not.

[SantaMonica]

Two forward, one back.

[Smitty]

Yea.... Well... if you saw my tank you would know why I said one forward and two back :)

[Smitty]

Ok, I'm looking for help because I'm just not getting any growth. I've changed the location and it was doing good, but now it has stopped and I'm getting yellow in the middle and small green along the sides outside of the light zone. Also, it seems to be nothing but slimy growth. I'm going to put up some pictures. I have one 12w bulb on each side and it is lit for 14 hours at a time currently (from 6 AM until 8 PM). I have good flow over the screen although it does have more flow on one side than the other and I haven't figured out why (I've turned the screen around, I've adjusted how the screen is held, and I've changed the angle of the slot). This is showing 10 days of growth (or I should say no-growth).

Thanks for the help.

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z278/cwhfsr/Scrub2.jpg

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z278/cwhfsr/Scrub1.jpg

[SantaMonica]

Screen is burning. Try pointing one light up and one down. Add iron.

[Smitty]

Ok, I'll try it.