Upset with this Algae Scrubber

[bgmac]

So far I have been running a DIY algae scrubber for a little over 3 weeks. When I started, my N was hovering around 15 to 20 and my P was around .25. You see, I have always done a 10 gallon water change every week for my 60 gal display and 20 gal sump. Now, with my algae scrubber, I stopped doing the weekly water changes, N so far has dropped bellow 2 ppm and P is 0! I expect N to be 0 by the end of the week. I have also doubled the amount I feed the fish. Coraline calcium is starting to pop everywhere along with tube worms, sponges, hitch hiker soft coral, and countless other wild creatures.

I am upset with this algae scrubber because I went for over 2 years constantly battling High N and making trips to the local salt water well, trucking buckets of water back and forth. Buying multiple skimmers and wasting hours of time and $ trying to dial them in with no real luck. You see, so far I am upset with this algae scrubber because I didn't set one up earlier. What was I thinking. After going through all of the ups and downs of this salt world hobby. I am truly amazed at how unbelievably great this simple and extremely cheap contraption is working! I am still going to do water changes in the future but think I will wait a few months and just top off with my RO/DI to give myself and my back a deserved break for a while.

Thank you to all that posted on how to setup a scrubber. This has been one of the simplest things to do to my tank....

[SantaMonica]

Pics! :)

[ModernMailing]

I hope mine goes as well. Just set it up in my 150 gal DT. If it works out well, I will put one in my 46 gal reef tank where I constantly fight with GHA!

[Floyd R Turbo]

Too funny. Yeah I stopped PWCs a while back since N and P are under control, now with some new info coming out I will probably start again, 10%/month which is pretty minimal, just to replenish what food can't. So I would not stop completely, but going to 1/4 the frequency for you is pretty easy!

[Garf]

I could sense the minimal waterchange theory coming soon. Makes sense, that's why I am carrying on skimming and just replacing the skimmate.

[SantaMonica]

No new info on my side. Hundreds of no-water-change people can't be wrong :)

[Garf]

ELEMENT
ROLE


Nitrogen
General constituent of photosynthetic apparatus; NH4 inhibitory.


Phosphorus
Energetics; translocation of end products.


Potassium
Stomatal movement, transport of end products; balance between photosynthesis and respiration.


Calcium
ATP synthesis


Magnesium
Constituent of chlorophyll; catalyst in phosphate transfers.


Sulfur
Constituent of proteins.


Copper
Constituent of plastocyanin.


Iron
Essential for chlorophyll synthesis; constituent of cytochromes and ferredoxin.


Manganese .
Essential for O2 evolution


Chloride .
Participates in O2 evolution


Zinc
Carbonic anhydrase.


Sodium
C4 photosynthesis.


Boron
Unknown.


Molybdenum
Unknown.


Problem is that all the above are required for photosynthesis. Some are obviously also present in food that we put into our tanks, but not all ( don't think so anyway ).

[SantaMonica]

If you dig up some micro-nutrient analysis of food, I think you'll be surprised :)

Also, remember that photosynthesis is having no problem so far. But most important, is that people that have not done any waterchanges (including myself, for 4 years) are having great growth (I just threw away a 1-pound, 8-inch chunk of monti caps, and gave another handful to Reefski).

[Floyd R Turbo]

I agree that photosynthesis can happen with a nutrient limitation present. It just might be that it happens much better without that limitation, and doing the occasional PWC might still make a difference, which could mean better results for everyone, meaning more people will be apt to try algae scrubbers. I think there are still a lot of people that scoff at the scrubber 'community' because so many people brag about not doing PWCs, when there might still be (and most likely is) a benefit to them. So I do not believe we should be promoting stopping PWCs at this point. JMO.

[Garf]

Looks like OYSTERS and NORI cover just about everything. Glad I feed both of these regularly. Don't know about the proportions though;
http://www.orthomolecular.org/nutrients/micronutrients.shtml

[SantaMonica]

Taken from "It's In The Water", by Ron Shimek
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-02/rs/feature/index.php

[Aquarists have] the feeling that organisms somehow "use up," "change," or "consume" many of these [trace] chemicals, and in doing so, forever remove the chemicals from the reef aquarium system. This assumption is not completely false, some chemicals are "used up" and removed from the system, but most are not. Organisms are dynamic entities, and while some chemicals are temporarily sequestered away, such chemicals generally remain available in the system due to metabolic turnover. The only real exceptions to this as far as organisms are concerned are those chemicals, such as calcium, which get incorporated into an insoluble matrix.

Several trace elements are found in elevated concentrations in aquarium water [Table 2; Figure 2]. Some of these metals have extremely high concentrations relative to NSW; tin has already been mentioned as having concentrations over 200,000 times above normal, but Thallium, Titanium, Aluminum, Zinc, Cobalt, Antimony, and Copper all have concentrations of over 95 times normal.

Several of the trace metals varied in concert, particularly Cobalt, Tin, Zinc, Titanium, Copper and Vanadium, and lower but still positive correlations with Nickel and Aluminum are found. All of these metals are found at concentrations far above those of natural sea water. Some of these concentrations are almost unbelievably high. Tin has an average concentration in our systems of over 200,000 times greater than in natural sea water.

Increases in many of these same metals are correlated with the age of the tank. One explanation for that pattern would be that they may build up with the passage of time.

The older tanks also have more ammonia, nitrate/nitrite, phosphorus, iodine and copper than younger tanks.

Many of the trace element concentrations are lower than they are in freshly made up artificial sea water. Whether this indicates organism use, or abiotic chemical reactions, is unclear. Even though these levels are lower than in "fresh" artificial sea water, they are still very much higher than in natural sea water, and may still indicate a cause for concern.

[scrubbers remove metals; skimmers do not]