First tank build, W/ built in ATS up flow.

[afdanw]

This is my first tank build. Also my first time working with Acrylic. First time with an ATS. I used black acrylic since i thought it would look nice for the back, bottom, storage, and hiding the filtration. I think it turned out really nice. I just put in the water, and am waiting for algea to start to grow. when that happens, i will start adding fish. Unless there is a better way to do it? i normally do a standard cycle, but i have been reading that you dont need to do that with ATS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7poob4jNbcc


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7poob4jNbcc

[SantaMonica]

Welcome, and nice build.

It is a waterfall, isn't it?

Will there be rock and sand?

[afdanw]

Welcome, and nice build.

It is a waterfall, isn't it?

Will there be rock and sand?

Thank you. No it is not a waterfall, it is more like a HOG, just big and built in. I see why you would think it is a waterfall, due to the pipe at the top, but that pipe is just there to hold the mat that the algae grows on, and make it easily removable for cleaning. There are holes in the bottom of the scrubber were the air stone is, that pull water into it, and the water leaves out of the holes at the top. at 6-10 seconds into the vid you can see the pink light coming through the holes were the water to flow in and out. No sand at the bottom. the black acrylic looks really nice in person and i dont want to cover that up with sand, but i know that black is going to take a lot of work to keep clean looking. There will be a few rock sitting on the egg crate for now, and once i get a few frags grow large enough to call them colonies, i will start adding more rock fr them grow onto. I hope the combination UV and ATS works well. I tried to research, but really have not been able to find any information from others trying to do that combination. I just like the simplicity of ATS once it is up and running, and i really like how clear UV keeps the water, i just hope they dont fight each other, like the UV killing too much free floating algae to make the ATS work properly.

[SantaMonica]

Ok, so some live rock, and no sand. In this case your scrubber should be operating fully before adding many animals. Add things slowing, let the scrubber catch up, then you can add more.

A UV does not help anything nutrient wise. It only kills phyto and microbes, causing them to put nutrients back into the water. The water will be un-naturally clear, if that's the way you are wanting it, but corals will get less microbe animals to eat. You might try it without the UV to start, since you can always turn it on later.

[afdanw]

Ok, so some live rock, and no sand. In this case your scrubber should be operating fully before adding many animals. Add things slowing, let the scrubber catch up, then you can add more.

A UV does not help anything nutrient wise. It only kills phyto and microbes, causing them to put nutrients back into the water. The water will be un-naturally clear, if that's the way you are wanting it, but corals will get less microbe animals to eat. You might try it without the UV to start, since you can always turn it on later.

Good info thank you. I will let it run a while with no animals for now. should i just add a bit of food to help get that scrubber going, or add one cheap fish, i dont know what option is better? I know the UV does not help with nutrient, but i have seen some people with ATS get murky water so i was hoping to use the UV to prevent that. They may have just been doing it incorrectly, but the uv was more of a precautionary measure if that happens. Right now i have the UV set to run 12 hours a day, but you are right maybe i should just turn it off for a while, while the tank is getting ready to add fish, and just use it if i see algae blooms in the water. I still need to add what i have seen called a copod hotel, made out of corrugated plastic. I will keep this updated as thing progress, but as we know, tanks can take quite a bit of time to show real progression.

[SantaMonica]

Food won't do much unless there is an animal to eat it and make ammonia. Let the system run for a week and put in a little fish to start, then add a new fish each week. Clean only half the scrubber at a time, so the other half can still remove ammonia.

Any murky water in saltwater is probably from food particles, or not cleaning a waterfall scrubber before the roots die. Upflow scrubber roots usually don't die even if you don't clean it. Anything that a UV would kill has nothing to do with a scrubber; a UV just kills and "clears up" phyto. If nutrients are low enough, there will be no visible phyto.

[afdanw]

ok cool. well i guess i wont need the UV unless i screw up or bad things happen.

[afdanw]

Well it has now been running about a week. Have a thin brown layer of algae on the scrubber, but i am also getting brown algae in the tank as well. i hope soon that scrubber starts to outgrow the tank soon. should i try to clean out the algae from inside the tank and off the rocks? I do have 1 fish, 3 small hermits, and 2 small zoanthid coral frags in there. The frags are opening up huge and looking good especially for a tank that is 1 week old. The water parameters look good, but the algae in the tank just looks ugly.
6495

[SantaMonica]

Any new frags are introducing/cycling nutrients into your water because of the rock they are on. Is normal and will last until the cycle finishes. You can just clean it manually if you want.