gave up on scrubber on BC29

[like-fish]

Ok its been over a month and i am very dissapointed in my results using a scrubber on my BC29.

The scruber grew well and all appeared to be in order but each time i cleaned the screen and rinsed I would get massive polyp withdraw in my tank. Also my zoas have been receding since i implemented the scrubber.

No other parameters change din the tank. THe scrubber was the only change. Something about the screen or the effect of cleaning it did not play well with that tank. i rinsed well each time and shook any sink water off. I tried only cleaning half the screen to ensure that growth was maintained.

Even pulling the scrubber out to check its growth irritated the corals (sps and softies).

My scrubber on my 120 is performing like a champ! I wonder what is produced on the scrubber that irritates the corals? The biocube 29 actually hold about 25 gal of water. smaller volume of water is more sensitive to changes?

Just sharing my experiance!

[kotlec]

It can sound strange , but did you noticed that smell is different from algae on two tanks ? It is easy to notice if you clean them short one after another. Or just try to smeell.

I was used to natural ocean algae smell some time ago. Now it is more like sweetish almond smell. And everything in tank has same smell (small piece of rock that I tryon purpose :) for example )
Have hard times with zoas and some mushrooms too.

[like-fish]

did not notice a smell of any kind. Was actually quite clean smelling. With just weekly water changes, caeto, carbon and a filter pad from time to time, my BC run great for over a year! I wanted to try the scrubber because i was borred! Wish i had not, but thats how we learn new stuff i guess

[kotlec]

What filtration was before ATS?
I am not familiar with BC at all.

I suspect ATS stripping something what zoas need and release what other corals dont.

[mess7777]

I lost a ton of my zoas when I first started my ATS. Now they are coming back big time. I don't know your exact situation, but I believe in my case the rock was releasing bound up phosphates and this did not bode well for the zoas.