My journey with the Rain2 Algae Scrubber and my 80G Tank

[MulletBoy]

Hey

So I setup a new tank nearly 3 months ago, its roughly 80G or 300L total water volume. I started with dry rock, cycled with Dr Tims and then added 2 small clowns and 2 Nassarius Snails. Obviously there was little bio-load or much of anything with a tank this size at first. Slowly diatom phase came, but was at best a light dusting. This gradually evolved into a bit of a red/brown film with some of the thicker areas having a slight hairy texture, but all in all, this has been fairly light and barely noticeable with the exception of 2-3 places where the flow make the conditions more ideal for this type of growth, certainly not out of control or anything.

I have a skimmer running which has only really started producing a small amount of skimmate in the last 2 weeks. I attribute this to 1. lack of bio-load for the first two months of the tanks life and 2. break-in period of the skimmer itself

2 weeks ago I increased the bioload significantly by introducing more fish, 2 small tangs, 1 royal gamma. I introduced a fair amount of coral mainly LPS consisting of mainly Hammers, Torches, Zoanthids, Goni's and a Scolymia. I added 2 small SPS frags for now as well.

2 weeks ago I also installed the Rain2 Algae Turf Scrubber. I would have preferred to install it earlier, but such is shipping times from USA -> AU and my lack of planning to order it early enough.

The Rain2 has been running with a single light for 18 hours on - 6 hours off, roughly on a reverse cycle with the display lighting (there is some overlap as the display lighting is on for more than 6 hours).

After one week there was no growth at all on the screen, so I did not clean it and just left it.

Here is what the screen looks like today at the 2 week point. Should I clean it or leave it longer? It appears to be growing the same brown film that is growing in parts of the display.

https://i.imgur.com/9JoULu8.jpg

[SantaMonica]

Welcome from Australia,

That's about the growth I'd expect on a new screen on a new tank. And even now, you can see the middle is over-lit compared to the very little nutrients in the water.

Just let it go another week, and then do a light brushing. After all the holes fill in, add a second light.

[MulletBoy]

So heres an update after week on what the screen looks like

https://i.imgur.com/BkXUdjE.jpg

As you can seen there is some more different types of algae growing on it now, some red, dark green, brown and a single strand of what appears to me to be green hair algae which has grown long and down off the bottom.

Should I wait another week before scrubbing?

Heres a full tank shot to give some context to my tank :)

https://i.imgur.com/aHBcvus.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/mAhcptX.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/43Bn68U.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ppvuT5b.jpg

[SantaMonica]

Moving right along. Leave it for another week and just let the green attach. Also you can double your feeding now if you want.

[MulletBoy]

So one more week and here is how it is looking, I still only have 1 light on, its shining on the side with the less filled section around the middle.

At this point should I clean it off? What about turning on the second light?

https://i.imgur.com/K715M3N.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/YTAYvVS.jpg

[SantaMonica]

Much better. Add a light on the other side, but don't clean yet. Grow one more week, then clean.

[MulletBoy]

Two days after turning on the second light, still running the 18 hour on 6 hour off cycle, here's the growth

https://i.imgur.com/bYaRAr5.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/9eN5ZDa.jpg

Got some new corals too, they are looking happy

https://i.imgur.com/PwagDkM.jpg

[SantaMonica]

Great. Another few days and scrape.

[MulletBoy]

Did my first scrape off last night. After squeezing out the water it was about 34grams. I mainly pulled the algae off with my fingers, then scraped it with the back side of a kitchen knife.

https://i.imgur.com/sxauRjT.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/afNWm5e.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Lmr6S6L.jpg

[SantaMonica]

Very nice. It will be tanks like yours that save the Aussie reefs.

[MulletBoy]

Very nice. It will be tanks like yours that save the Aussie reefs.

Lets hope so, I will post another full tank shot in a few days, I have made a number of new coral additions lately and am expecting a bunch of Acans and another Goni to arrive shortly.



On a side note, my test kit now reads nitrates as undetectable. I removed my filter socks completely about 2-3 days ago. I am still running my skimmer (Nyos Quantum 120) and am gradually setting it to run more dry. I am unsure if I have a goal to remove it or not at this point. Its pretty low maintenance now especially running it fairly dry, fills the cup about 1/3 full after about 5 days or so. I guess ill see how the tank responds over the next few months, if everything is doing well i wont make changes for the sake of it.... If i feel corals are suffering from nutrients being too low I might test out running the skimmer less or removing it. Although I would be surprised if this happened as I target feed my corals reef roids and red sea reef nutrition A+B twice a week.

[MulletBoy]

I think my tanks looking pretty good right now, so wanted to share :)

https://i.imgur.com/ky90nrD.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Qxa9UIv.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/LV8Un37.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/puU9YKd.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/xwhvUPW.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/XM0zuXI.jpg

[SantaMonica]

The frags gonna get big :)

Actually I hope the blue zoo's take over everything.

[MulletBoy]

So it has been another week and I have now done my second major screen cleaning. This time pulled off close to 50grams of algae (water squeezed out).

Not sure why the algae near the middle of the screens is yellow/light in color?

https://i.imgur.com/zi5qNN7.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/VcLVXKo.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/XmlMNKp.jpg

Bonus picture of my Hammer garden which I think is progressing nicely

https://i.imgur.com/RYfWoUL.jpg

[SantaMonica]

Wow I've not heard of a hammer garden before. Only zoa gardens. Nice.

The middle is yellow because of the very strong lights. Leave it, or if you want, dose iron or feed 2 to 3 times as much.

[MulletBoy]

Wow I've not heard of a hammer garden before. Only zoa gardens. Nice.

The middle is yellow because of the very strong lights. Leave it, or if you want, dose iron or feed 2 to 3 times as much.

I don't really want to feed more at this point as I believe the current feeding is sufficient for optimal fish and coral health

Regarding Iron; does this suggest there is an Iron deficiency that would have any type of impact on my coral over time? I do not wish to dose something purely to have green algae vs yellow algae.

I think I will just leave it and not worry?

[SantaMonica]

Algae consume a lot of iron if growing fast. And it grows faster in front of the light. So increasing water flow, or adding iron, will get more iron to that part of the algae.

Or just reduce the number of light hours by 2 or so.

Iron is not too much of a concern for corals.

[MulletBoy]

My third cleaning of the screen was done last night, roughly another 50 grams of algae removed.

I have found that for me it is easiest to wear rubber kitchen gloves and just use my fingers and the roughness of the gloves to scrape off the algae, works quickly and more easily than a credit card for me.

https://i.imgur.com/OX1YcuL.jpg

My tank is growing and evolving fast, heres some recent pics :)

https://i.imgur.com/qNjpyie.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/zt4Rj8Q.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ZmAnDob.jpg

[SantaMonica]

Yes as long as the slot is not clogged, that is the fastest. What other filters do you have currently?

[MulletBoy]

Yes as long as the slot is not clogged, that is the fasted. What other filters do you have currently?

Currently running a Nyos Quantum 120 Skimmer, pretty dry setting on it, after about a week its collection cup is roughly 1/3 full.

Also have a decent amount of marine pure blocks in one of the sections of my sump.

[SantaMonica]

Make a vid of the cleaning if you want to.

[MulletBoy]

Hey,

It has been a few weeks and the ATS has been going strong, averaging 50-60grams of squeezed algae a week after harvesting. My tank in general is doing fairly well too.

https://i.imgur.com/PjzEsfS.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/KO5ZlPi.jpg

I have been adding more SPS mainly and so far had a pretty good success rate with the notable exception of a scrolling monti that I introduced and it started rapidly bleaching from the base up (pictured above prior to bleaching). No idea why, it was super fast and you could literally see the wave of brown progressing up the scroll leaving white behind it. I was a bit slow to react and after it was maybe 70% bleached i took it out and broke it apart in an attempt to save some frags of it... those frags are not bleaching yet so well see how it goes... bit disappointed as it was a nice full circular scroll and now all thats left of it are 3-4 tiny frags that I could break off with no contact to the brown jelly or bleached areas :(

I have a question regarding the use of Kalkwasser in a tank with an ATS, does anyone have any experience with this? I am finding my ALK is dropping really fast and the Kalkwasser cant keep up, im running maximum saturated Kalk in my auto-top off and just yesterday I added some white vinegar and additional Kalk to over-saturate it and make it stronger... Is it that my tank is just too full now and I have outgrown Kalk? Or is something else at play here? I have seen pictures of tanks as heavily stocked as mine (or more) with people who just run Kalk... but for me it doesn't even remotely keep up? (I am manually dosing 7grams of Sodium Bicarbonate in a mixed in small amount of RODI every day to bring it back up)

Is it possible that the ATS is consuming too much carbon dioxide from the water and therefore preventing the reaction with Kalk that produces Alkalinity? Effectively drastically reducing the potency of my Kalk? I'm no chemist but I am struggling to understand how Kalk doesn't even appear to be making a dent in my Alk consumption. Its dropping roughly 1-2 DKH a day despite the ~3.75 Liters of Kalk being added a day.

I am eager to test tonight to see if the vinegar has made any difference or if my Alk is going to be super low again...

I have a 25L auto top off, and have been running 40g of Kalk in it, the 25L last exactly 1 week at my current rate of evaporation. Just yesterday I changed my dose to 50grams of Kalk, 200ml of Vinegar and 25L of RODI.

[SantaMonica]

Looking good. Monti is probably just a freak.

How has been the calcium?

[MulletBoy]

Looking good. Monti is probably just a freak.

How has been the calcium?

My calcium drops too, just slower, I think its dropping roughly 3-4ppm per day. Everytime it drops below 400 I top it back up to around 420. I am manually dosing calcium chloride roughly once a week.

[SantaMonica]

Well it does seem the alk is dropping much faster. A strong scrubber can reduce alk by 1 point per day, so it seems that is what is going on, even though yours is the most I've seen. If there were more corals and coralline growth, and if calcium usage was higher, I'd say it was calcification. But it seems it's just scrubber growth.

The scrubber is probably not slowing down the kalk; it's just that kalk is not the most/fastest way to get alk into the water. I like kalk whenever possible, but even with vinegar, it has limits. But since your calcium is not dropping much, I'd say the kalk is keeping up. Of course you could try over-saturating with more kalk; the excess just settles to the bottom. Matter of fact if you don't get settling then it's probably not saturated.

One thing I've been meaning to try is to put the baking soda into the kalk water. I don't know how much more alk that water could hold, if any, but if the soda dissolves then it's probably working.

Other than that, you can be happy that your scrubber is growing fast and is carbon-limited; usually scrubbers are nutrient-limited.

[MulletBoy]

Well it does seem the alk is dropping much faster. A strong scrubber can reduce alk by 1 point per day, so it seems that is what is going on, even though yours is the most I've seen. If there were more corals and coralline growth, and if calcium usage was higher, I'd say it was calcification. But it seems it's just scrubber growth.

The scrubber is probably not slowing down the kalk; it's just that kalk is not the most/fastest way to get alk into the water. I like kalk whenever possible, but even with vinegar, it has limits. But since your calcium is not dropping much, I'd say the kalk is keeping up. Of course you could try over-saturating with more kalk; the excess just settles to the bottom. Matter of fact if you don't get settling then it's probably not saturated.

One thing I've been meaning to try is to put the baking soda into the kalk water. I don't know how much more alk that water could hold, if any, but if the soda dissolves then it's probably working.

Other than that, you can be happy that your scrubber is growing fast and is carbon-limited; usually scrubbers are nutrient-limited.

Pretty sure mixing baking soda (Sodium bicarbonate) with kalkwasser (calcium hydroxide) will instantly give you precipitated calcium carbonate. Same reason why you cant mix standard 2 part solutions in a single container

Last night when I got home I tested my alk, 24 hours post mixing my first batch of Vinegar boosted Kalkwasser, it was 7.1dkh, edge of my seat to test again tonight and hopefully wont see a big drop as I previously have been :)

[MulletBoy]

Tested again last night, 48 hours post mixing my first batch of vinegar boosted Kalk

Alk 7.3
Ca 425
Mg 1365

Seems my Alk has gone from 7.1 to 7.3 (gone up) for the first time ever from Kalkwasser... I have no dosed any 2 part or sodium bicarbonate... yay!

Still early days, but very promising, looks like the vinegar pushed my kalk to meet or slightly exceed my consumption

Will continue monitoring closely this week but here's to hoping this means I don't need to invest in a doser and automated 2-part setup at this time.

[SantaMonica]

Also could use the old trick of putting a fan on the sump to evaporate more, so you can top-off more.

[MulletBoy]

Also could use the old trick of putting a fan on the sump to evaporate more, so you can top-off more.

Yeah thanks, I'll keep that up my sleeve if I need it. For now it seems this weeks dose of 50grams of Kalk, 200ml of Vinegar and 25L of RODI seems to be meeting my demand.

Sunday new batch of Kalk mixed as above for 1 week worth of ATO water. Alk manually raised to ~7.2dkh with sodium bicarbonate
Monday - Alk 7.1
Tuesday - Alk 7.3
Wednesday - Alk 7.0
Thursday - Alk 7.1

If my Alk is still in the low 7 range by Sunday when I need to mix a new batch I will run the same again next week. Looking promising so far.

Sunday is generally my maintenance day, I clean the algae scrubber, clean the skimmer run most of my tests (mag, nitrate, calcium, ph, salinity). Sometimes do a small water change (about 10%). But last night I did a small water change of about 10%, and I will probably do another on Sunday. Reason being I have noticed a few of my SPS have not had good polyp extension for the last week... I am not sure why, could be so many things... still adjusting to my lights, dont like the flow they have, don't like the vinegar in my Kalk, too much/too little of some trace element, chemical warfare from something else (I have a green devils hand leather on the other side of the tank and I have been told they sometimes irritate SPS), or maybe iv just had my hands in the tank too much...

[SantaMonica]

Also food particle availability.

[MulletBoy]

So its been about a month and I thought I'd post another update.

Overall tank has been doing okay, my 72 day Ich fallow period has come to an end and I have finally added the only survivor, a Blue Tang back into the tank! Over the next month I will quarantine and add more fish again which I hope will benefit the tank health overall with more balanced nutrient load, import/export with increased feeding etc...

My most recent harvest of the rain2 was ~75grams of squeezed algae, biggest harvest yet. The color has been pretty green lately with little to no yellow, I have also noticed the growth is denser/thicker with 'krinkled' wavey kind of pattern. More like 'turf' I guess. I have been feeding more and will continue to do so as I add more fish. My nitrates seems to be pretty stable at somewhere between 0.25 and 1ppm, but its hard to read, when my current test kit is finished I might change to another brand that has better resolution at the low end. Maybe the Red Sea Pro kit?

I have reduced the vinegar dose in my kalkwasser from 200ml to 125ml over the last 2 weeks as levels Alk and Calcium have been slowly rising. My Alk and Calcium has been pretty stable at 7.7dkh-8dkh and 440ppm-450ppm respectively for the last 2 weeks at the current dosing (kalk in ATO).

I have modified my lights spectrum a bit. I lowered overall use of 'whites' both in intensity and duration, and increased overall usage of 'blue' in intensity. I slightly lowered usage of the 'UV spectrum as well as I read reports of it being particularly strong on my particular brand of LED's. (Illumagic Blaze X)

SPS still doesnt like me, I am still not totally sure of the cause of most of my SPS dying, but I am working on the theory of it originating from instability ~2 months ago. From what I understand SPS lags behind the stress events for some time. Most of my wild colonies are dead and gone or dying and probably not going to recover but fingers crossed. I am hoping to see improvements in my surviving SPS in the next month. Some small glimmers of hope are
- green monti cap to the right hand side of the bridge in my tank has started returning from what I thought was totally bleached death in the last few days with new color and visible polyps
- green monti cap to the left is looking great and is growing
- forest fire digi frag has polyp extension again, although its general color is still 'dark' as compared to what its supposed to look like
- green dalas frags (I have 2) are both almost completely brown and have been for over a month now, but hopefully they recover - its supposed to be a very hardy acro...

Everything else, all my LPS is doing great!

https://i.imgur.com/jHSnEBI.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/7GaIGZS.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/dr4KL7A.mp4

[MulletBoy]

So I thought I would post an update. I now have 6 fish in the tank, 1 blue tang, 1 yellow tang, and 4 dispar anthias. In addition to the clam, coral banded shrimp, blood shrimp, snails and all the coral.

I have noticed for the last few weeks the algae harvest hasnt been as green and fluffy as it was, instead it darker and more 'dirty'? Also the total squeezed mass has been smaller, around 30grams a week when prior i was getting around 50grams+.

The tank looks great and everything is doing really well for the most part (even my few remaining bits of SPS are recovering and coloring)

One thing I have to keep my eye on is that my phosphate appears to be creeping up. Could it have something to do with the Rain2 not running optimally? Or is my nitrate the limiting factor to reducing phosphate or something?

My water parameters are averaging:
Alkalinity 8.6 dkh
Calcium 480ppm
Nitrate 0.25 mg/L
Phosphate 0.1ppm
Magnesium 1350ppm

https://i.imgur.com/vSNieqP.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ko9EDxL.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/CY2GelY.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/byborv4.jpg

[SantaMonica]

Typical progression. Nutrients in the water have come down, and there is less to absorb. Yes nitrate might be limiting phosphate, but instead of adding nitrate just double your feeding... probably coral food. If you have a good CUC then the sand should stay clean.

[MulletBoy]

So here is my final update for 2018. Its been a great journey and my tank is about 8 months old now.

This month I have
- biggest change is adding a T5 fixture to my existing LED's so now I have a hybrid of both. I used the 90cm T5HO Fixture from Fish-Street.com and 2 atinic bulbs
- added 2 mandarins (both seem to be doing great, I have plenty of pods, partly thanks to the RAIN2)
- added some more SPS, few different kinds, hopefully it does well this time, fingers crossed!
- added a frag of utter chaos (super cool zoanthid species)
- moved my sun coral from under the bridge to the front where its easier for me to feed
- moved the green torch as it was getting too big and stinging the duncans, its been pushed to the back corner sin bin for now lol
- moved some of the montiora around a bit, they are all doing well, but i think the new locations are better and more balanced in the tank, especially with the new sps

I have had no mortalities of fish or coral for a while now. I am still running kalkwasser and vinegar in my ATO And my paramters have been very stable averaging:

My water parameters are averaging:
Alkalinity 8.0 dkh
Calcium 450ppm
Nitrate 0.25 mg/L
Phosphate 0.07ppm
Magnesium 1350ppm

I am feeding more now, few pinches of flake a day, few pinches of pellets a day, ~4 cubes of mysis over a week, 3-4 small squares of nori over a week, reef roids ~3 times a week, LPS get target fed pellets ~2 times a week except the sun coral that gets fed every second day. I think as a result of my increased feeding my nitrates more detectable and my phosphates appear to have come down a bit. I also got a hanna phosphate test which is far more accurate that salifert tests which I cant read by eye.

My last few RAIN2 harvests have come back up again, to 60-80grams of the more 'fluffy' or 'krinkly' green hair algae.

Anyway here are some pictures!

https://i.imgur.com/EXiZxRs.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/jUsVQnL.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/XxRIR2z.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/o9FYRxg.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/AuRNjAy.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/n6gFVLl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/lhFmnz8.jpg

[SantaMonica]

Great to hear. The corals really stand out on the white sand.

[MulletBoy]

So here is my first update for 2019.

This month I have
- noticed better coloration and growth on my SPS, in particular check out the difference in the strawberry shortcake acro from my last update to this one, gone from basically white, to full coloured!
- re-arranged my torches, moved them a little lower down onto the sandbed and away from the orange hammers which were starting to sting them
- added some new SPS and re-arranged a couple of them
- changed nothing as far as tank chemistry, maintenance and lighting goes. Just tried to let everything stabalise further around the addititon of T5's from December

I have had no mortalities of fish or coral for a while now. I am still running kalkwasser and vinegar in my ATO And my paramters have been very stable averaging:

My water parameters are averaging:
Alkalinity 8.0 dkh
Calcium 430ppm
Nitrate 0.25 mg/L
Phosphate 0.06ppm
Magnesium 1350ppm


My last RAIN2 harvest was the biggest yet, to 99grams of the more 'fluffy' or 'krinkly' green hair algae.

Anyway here are some pictures!

Full Tank Shot
https://i.imgur.com/RirOkyH.jpg

Strawberry Shortcake Acro - check out the coloration improvement from the picture of it in my last update!
https://i.imgur.com/M0kCQxi.jpg

Zoa Garden
https://i.imgur.com/gbt1wtC.jpg

Top of the birdge is looking great
https://i.imgur.com/CqFUXr5.jpg

New Chalice that I added last week
https://i.imgur.com/f4k0f3y.jpg

Scollys are starting to crowd each other a bit, will likely need to move them soon to make space
https://i.imgur.com/6i0beXh.jpg

Hammers were stinging the torches which were stinging the duncan. So moved the torches to the sandbed below and put the new chalice in their place, which hopefully will sit underneath any tentactles from the hammers, ill watch it closely
https://i.imgur.com/HIV71P1.jpg

Side View
https://i.imgur.com/4m716Ee.jpg

Goni Garden - the one on the lower right has been slowely recovering for the last 2-3 months now, slowly but surely getting better
https://i.imgur.com/YKsWTL4.jpg

Most recent RAIN2 Harvest pictures, biggest harvest yet (it was 10 days from previous harvest)
https://i.imgur.com/y2uIqxk.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/knVnKEv.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ihYruA5.jpg

[SantaMonica]

Wow looks great. 2-lights correct?

[MulletBoy]

Wow looks great. 2-lights correct?

Yeah the RAIN2 with 2 lights. Didn't get the 4 light model as my tank is not heavily stocked with fish and not that big. The 2 light model is keeping my nitrates near 0 as it is and I think I feed a fair bit...

At some point in the future I plan to upgrade to a much larger tank (dont we all :P ) Might add another 2 lights at that point.

[reeftang]

Yeah the RAIN2 with 2 lights. Didn't get the 4 light model as my tank is not heavily stocked with fish and not that big. The 2 light model is keeping my nitrates near 0 as it is and I think I feed a fair bit...

At some point in the future I plan to upgrade to a much larger tank (dont we all :P ) Might add another 2 lights at that point.

i wish mine can grow like this how long did it take till you started getting good growth.

[MulletBoy]

i wish mine can grow like this how long did it take till you started getting good growth.

Mine went something like this with my tank which was basically just finished cycling with minimal corals and fish at the time, my starting nitrates and phosphate were also super low as well. So your journey might be different if you are starting a scrubber on an established tank with high nutrients.

started with only 1 light on, 16 hours on 8 hours off
end week 2 - bit of brown film
end week 3 - bit more brown, hint of green
end week 4 - thin coverage of green algae
at this point turned on my second light and a few days later growth really ramped up
my first proper scrape and harvest clean was somewhere around the 5 week mark and resulted in about 30grams of squeezed algae

From that point onward, i harvested weekly, with harvest amounting usually in the 50-60 gram range, and now (6 months later) in the 80-100gram range

[reeftang]

Mine went something like this with my tank which was basically just finished cycling with minimal corals and fish at the time, my starting nitrates and phosphate were also super low as well. So your journey might be different if you are starting a scrubber on an established tank with high nutrients.

started with only 1 light on, 16 hours on 8 hours off
end week 2 - bit of brown film
end week 3 - bit more brown, hint of green
end week 4 - thin coverage of green algae
at this point turned on my second light and a few days later growth really ramped up
my first proper scrape and harvest clean was somewhere around the 5 week mark and resulted in about 30grams of squeezed algae

from that point onwards, i harvested weekly, with harvest amounting usually in the 50-60 gram range, and now (6 months later) in the 80-100gram range

i dont know what im doing wrong but im not getting anywhere close to what you are getting im at week 9 or 10. my no3 is at 15 and my po4 is at 0.10 also running 18/6.

[MulletBoy]

i dont know what im doing wrong but im not getting anywhere close to what you are getting im at week 9 or 10. my no3 is at 15 and my po4 is at 0.10 also running 18/6.

I went and read you thread on your journey with the Algae Scrubber. From what I can tell, basically yours is still only growing brown algae. The thing with the brown stuff is that it 'lets go' from the screen much quicker than green turf style algae, so you need to clean it off, otherwise it just re-pollutes your tank with the nutrients it used to grow, maybe every 4-6 days, check it regularly to get a feel for it.

You will need to keep doing this until green algae takes hold. For me it happened at about the week 4 point. Once green algae takes hold it will dominate the screen and you wont have anymore problems. Just keep at it. Clean off the brown, hope for green.

Check you have sufficient flow to cover the whole screen but nothing crazy high pressure or anything. Don't do anything crazy with your lights (you have the rain4 i believe?) run them on a regular cycle like 12-16 hours or so, and maybe dont even run all of them, until you start seeing green.

Your nutrients are in a range most reefers would classify as 'fine', so dont panic.

[reeftang]

I went and read you thread on your journey with the Algae Scrubber. From what I can tell, basically yours is still only growing brown algae. The thing with the brown stuff is that it 'lets go' from the screen much quicker than green turf style algae, so you need to clean it off, otherwise it just re-pollutes your tank with the nutrients it used to grow, maybe every 4-6 days, check it regularly to get a feel for it.

You will need to keep doing this until green algae takes hold. For me it happened at about the week 4 point. Once green algae takes hold it will dominate the screen and you wont have anymore problems. Just keep at it. Clean off the brown, hope for green.

Check you have sufficient flow to cover the whole screen but nothing crazy high pressure or anything. Don't do anything crazy with your lights (you have the rain4 i believe?) run them on a regular cycle like 12-16 hours or so, and maybe dont even run all of them, until you start seeing green.

Your nutrients are in a range most reefers would classify as 'fine', so dont panic.
no i have the rain 2 not the 4. so whe i clean it every 4-6 days i should clean spotless or not? and why shouldn't i run 18 hours is it not good?

[MulletBoy]

no i have the rain 2 not the 4. so whe i clean it every 4-6 days i should clean spotless or not? and why shouldn't i run 18 hours is it not good?

I wouldn't say spotless, your not trying to sterilize it.... just give it a light scrub.... the purpose is to remove the bulk of the buildup of brown algae which if left would fall off anyway back into your tank.

While you are not growing green algae there is no reason to push the limits with the lights... run just one light for less time. I started at 18 hours, then reduced it to 16 hours... which is more than enough for my tank and keeps my nutrients near 0. Running all the lights for longer is only useful when green algae is well seeded on the screen and already growing and you want to further increase its nutrient export capability. But while your screen is still not even seeded with green, full lights can be too powerful and slowing down the process, maybe even prevent green from getting a foothold at all...

[reeftang]

I wouldn't say spotless, your not trying to sterilize it.... just give it a light scrub.... the purpose is to remove the bulk of the buildup of brown algae which if left would fall off anyway back into your tank.

While you are not growing green algae there is no reason to push the limits with the lights... run just one light for less time. I started at 18 hours, then reduced it to 16 hours... which is more than enough for my tank and keeps my nutrients near 0. Running all the lights for longer is only useful when green algae is well seeded on the screen and already growing and you want to further increase its nutrient export capability. But while your screen is still not even seeded with green, full lights can be too powerful and slowing down the process, maybe even prevent green from getting a foothold at all...

this is what it looks like now im only running one light at 18/6. Still no real hair algae.

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[MulletBoy]

this is what it looks like now im only running one light at 18/6. Still no real hair algae.

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Yea that is mostly slime algae, lightly brush it off.

Maybe take a short video of it for a few seconds, and get SantaMonica's opinion on your flow rate.... I find it weird that you have that bit of water shooting out in the top photo?

Judging by my personal experience from when my screen looked similar to those photos, I feel your close, once green starts growing it will take over the whole screen very fast and you'll be sweet

[reeftang]

Yea that is mostly slime algae, lightly brush it off.

Maybe take a short video of it for a few seconds, and get SantaMonica's opinion on your flow rate.... I find it weird that you have that bit of water shooting out in the top photo?

Judging by my personal experience from when my screen looked similar to those photos, I feel your close, once green starts growing it will take over the whole screen very fast and you'll be sweet

When i brush it nothing comes off its like hard to take off, it will only come off when i use a card.

here is a video of my flow lmk what you think, and how do i tag SantaMonica here?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/dqTYocbPKAtsvFrs7

[MulletBoy]

Seems ok to me, maybe slightly higher flow than what I have... although I am no expert. That screen looks pretty full of slime algae... I am surprised that your screen hasn't grown green algae yet.... keep running a single light and cleaning it, youll get there eventually and it will be worth it trust me...

[reeftang]

Seems ok to me, maybe slightly higher flow than what I have... although I am no expert. That screen looks pretty full of slime algae... I am surprised that your screen hasn't grown green algae yet.... keep running a single light and cleaning it, youll get there eventually and it will be worth it trust me...

Are you running ur lights opposite DT??? Because im running it along with the DT thinking it will outcompete the DT????

[MulletBoy]

Are you running ur lights opposite DT??? Because im running it along with the DT thinking it will outcompete the DT????

Yea that is not optimal... switch it to run at night when your display lights are off. There are a few benefits to this including stablising your PH. Your theory on out-competing the DT doesn't work 'in real time' like your thinking... it works more holistically over an entire day/night cycle and weekly cycle as you clean it and remove nutrients from the tank.

My Algae scrubber runs from ~ 1 hours before my main lights turn off at night to well into the next morning for total 16 hour photo-period. I could actually run a lower photo-period if i wanted at my nutrients are super low. Only reason I haven't adjusted it yet is I try not to make too many changes to the tank at one time and I just added T5's last month.

[reeftang]

Yea that is not optimal... switch it to run at night when your display lights are off. There are a few benefits to this including stablising your PH. Your theory on out-competing the DT doesn't work 'in real time' like your thinking... it works more holistically over an entire day/night cycle and weekly cycle as you clean it and remove nutrients from the tank.

My Algae scrubber runs from ~ 1 hours before my main lights turn off at night to well into the next morning for total 16 hour photo-period. I could actually run a lower photo-period if i wanted at my nutrients are super low. Only reason I haven't adjusted it yet is I try not to make too many changes to the tank at one time and I just added T5's last month.

So maybe this is my main issue???

[MulletBoy]

So maybe this is my main issue???

Its possible. Certainly moving in the right direction, clean the screen off of the slime/brown algae too. Keep running 1 light and move the photo period to be reverse to your DT

[reeftang]

Its possible. Certainly moving in the right direction, clean the screen off of the slime/brown algae too. Keep running 1 light and move the photo period to be reverse to your DT
Thanks i will do that...

[reeftang]

Its possible. Certainly moving in the right direction, clean the screen off of the slime/brown algae too. Keep running 1 light and move the photo period to be reverse to your DT

So i scrubbed the screen and this is what it looked like, very little.

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipPesWVDvbSOyC35hP1yerJZmaLB1KcF1xI_YEYo
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMEIbR6ZI953RQAKxxQqehlAZVSO01Hniuzp7Do
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipNUUWKm5ieXwb1zwWhxSY17i3bJ56SOufyvXjTG
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipOD9XvQPxRweZsAHIShmuyFLpWkJ9XLghl9CWhj

[reeftang]

this is 10 days in this new schedule running opposite display. Still getting the hard green growth not hair. and what are these orange spots???? also how do i stop this spraying that happens mid growth.

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[MulletBoy]

March 2019 Update

This month I have
- installed an Avast Marine K1 Kalk Stirrer
- upgraded my ATO reservoir to a 70L custom acrylic one inside a new cabinet next to my tank
- added some new SPS and re-arranged a couple of them
- extended my photo period on my LED's by 1 hour. Now they come on at 11am and turn off at 10:30pm

My paramters have been very stable averaging:

Alkalinity 8.6 dkh
Calcium 425 ppm
Nitrate 0.5 mg/L
Phosphate 0.08 ppm
Magnesium 1320 ppm


My last RAIN2 harvest is going strong, averaging around 80grams a week

Anyway here are some pictures!

https://i.imgur.com/u1b6ryk.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/BnStSE3.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/QQNHLqH.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/roa3xgC.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/e2D9CuR.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/VR8Aium.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ZZMY10I.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/AqVxG1n.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/88rqMfC.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/UkVzhKC.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/FczYq9E.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Da3EVak.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/SNC3DM4.jpg

[MulletBoy]

I also now have a youtube channel, Reef Nerd

So far I have done 3 videos

My T5 LED Hybrid Setup

https://youtu.be/O7Frjsbk-qU

My new acrylic ATO and Kalkwasser setup

https://youtu.be/cCxazW4IuiU

And a review of the dosing pump I use to drive the Kalk stirrer

https://youtu.be/5yRTgKbfImU

[reeftang]

Im still struggleing with mine, its growing lighter now but never got thick hair algae that can actually be used for filtration. Alsobevery time i harvest that little that did finally grow i get crazy spikes for about a week. Do you have high flow on the screen or on the lower side, whats better high or low? Also i did test my iron and it was on the low side.

Im so frustrated because this is not a cheap thing and i really had high hopes for this and i dono what im doing wrong. Few of my friends are loughting at me becsuee they made a diy version for under $100 and they are harvesting thick algae weekly.

[MulletBoy]

Im still struggleing with mine, its growing lighter now but never got thick hair algae that can actually be used for filtration. Alsobevery time i harvest that little that did finally grow i get crazy spikes for about a week. Do you have high flow on the screen or on the lower side, whats better high or low? Also i did test my iron and it was on the low side.

Im so frustrated because this is not a cheap thing and i really had high hopes for this and i dono what im doing wrong. Few of my friends are loughting at me becsuee they made a diy version for under $100 and they are harvesting thick algae weekly.

The flow on my screen is about enough to generate a solid sheet of water falling off the screen when its clean, that doesnt last long though as the algae starts to grow. I would say my flow is slightly on the low side, but still perfectly adequate ... im growing about 80 grams of algae a week

I am not sure why yours is taking so long to start growing hair algae... However any growth, even the oily or slimy stuff is still extremely dense in nutrients and therefore when you clean it off the screen you are removing nutrients from your tank. For whatever reason the green hair algae has not yet taken hold of your screen, its a complex ecosystem, for some reason other algaes are being dominant in yours for now... keep at it, will get there eventually

[MulletBoy]

May 2019 Update

Overall super happy with the tank, no deaths or losses, almost everything is growing and coloring well, and no algae issues except for a cyano outbreak I had in April due to phosphate rise; that appears to be under control now though.

This month and last month (sorry no update in April) I have
- swapped out the Illumagic Blaze X for 2x Kessil A360X - full review coming soon once I have been running them longer
- installed the Auto Aqua Smart AWC Touch system for Auto Water changes - absolutely awesome, recommend for everyone!
- added a frag rack to hold various existing and new frags more elegantly than just shoving them in the sand-bed :p
- begun running 50grams of rowaphos in a filter sock, changed weekly

My paramters have been very stable averaging:

Alkalinity 6.5 dkh - feel like I am coming to the end of what Kalk can do for me, as my alk has been dropping and I dont think it will keep up for much longer
Calcium 400 ppm
Nitrate 1.5 mg/L
Phosphate 0.07 ppm - although it rose well above 0.1 during April which led to a cyano outbreak which has only really gone away in the last week or so having now gotten phosphates back under control
Magnesium 1365 ppm

RAIN2 is still rock solid, about 80 grams a week harvest.

Anyway here are some pictures!


Full Tank Shot May 2019
https://i.imgur.com/eYtOTfw.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/oYOJBjf.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/jq43BgR.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Od6tw0S.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/xR6gJMF.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/7GNsnhB.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/eG0XgSs.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/JfoQIOn.jpg

[SantaMonica]

Very nice, AUS in the house.

[MulletBoy]

I made a video on my YouTube Channel, Reef Nerd, about the RAIN2 and Growing Algae in a reef tank in general


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGdO9lo81l8

[SantaMonica]

Lookin' great :)

[MulletBoy]

July 2019 Update

Everythings been doing great! SPS is growing super well, and I have added even more! Some eew fish as well, a pair of lyretail anthis (blue eye anthias), unfortunately the spotted mandarins I added did not get along with my existing pair, so I give them to my friend Billy who has a large established tank with no other Mandarins. They are doing fine in his tank :)

This month I have
- setup the Kore7th and KH Lab! Too early to give impression or review, but expect to see a video on that soon on my YouTube channel
- well and truely gone past what I can support with Kalk, I am currently dosing 3.5L of Kalk a day with 45ml of 2 part per day as well... calcium reactor cant come soon enough
- added some cool new SPS, a toxic green hammer and another clam
- started the Reef Anabolics Trace range, Coral Essentials Black Label range, and the Reef Anabolics and AquaForest Coral food range!



Unfortunately the Acans that were infested with boring clams have not done well and arent going to make it. So I will be adding some new acans soon to replace them.

My parameters have been pretty stable averaging:

Alkalinity 7.3 dkh - this has been a little unstable lately as I battled to meet consumption... with the new Kore7th I am dosing 45ml of 2 Part on top of the 3.5L of Kalk i do through the reactor.
Calcium 435 ppm
Nitrate 4.0 ppm/L - with all the extra coral foods my nitrates have increased a bit, but I am not concerned at this level.
Phosphate 0.06 ppm
Magnesium 1335 ppm


Anyway here are some pictures!

https://i.imgur.com/TzWf98U.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/g4qqvKy.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ZwBG0sS.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/t7FkORj.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/QZRrCiN.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/7ysOW0a.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/biFGXYQ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/c3WK8nu.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/yn5MyO5.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/e41oi6h.jpg

[SantaMonica]

Great to hear. Lack of alk dosing is a great problem to have. Have not heard of the boring clam problem in years though.

[MulletBoy]

August 2019 Update


Everything continues to do great! SPS is growing super well


This month I have

- flipped the Kore7th and KH Lab into auto control mode. Its now dosing my alk/cal/mag with Reef Anabolics trace automatically and adjusting the dose on the fly as it tests Alk.

- I lowered my Kalk dose to 3L a day, and allowed the Kore7th with 2part to pickup the slack, at time of writing its dosing ~115ml of each of the 3 components of my randys mixture per day.





Unfortunately my gold torch got brown jelly and died overnight :(


My parameters have been pretty stable averaging:


Alkalinity 7.4 dkh - this has been a little unstable lately as I battled to meet consumption... with the new Kore7th and KHLab in auto mode, testing 6 times a day and ajusting the dose to match, its been better and is honing in on real stability!

Calcium 435 ppm

Nitrate 4.0 ppm/L - with all the extra coral foods my nitrates have increased a bit, but I am not concerned at this level.

Phosphate 0.06 ppm

Magnesium 1335 ppm



Anyway here are some pictures! Top downs this month!


New blue digi frag, gunna be epic once it grows

https://i.imgur.com/199Oaq5.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/wpJPts8.jpg


These touched about a week after I took the photo and I have since fragged the green one back a bit

https://i.imgur.com/zu83clO.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/9cDjlzI.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/ErK2pON.jpg


Whats left of my acan garden after the boring clam infestation :/

https://i.imgur.com/xURdrOb.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/m1M3T8w.jpg


RIP Gold torch... why u get brown jelly!

https://i.imgur.com/mZUnEUQ.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/qSWqxJ7.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/NpjdBIs.jpg


https://i.imgur.com/AcyAsEr.jpg


Probably the best picture I have ever taken of my tank... its the new banner image of my YouTube channel :P

https://i.imgur.com/nLqAXsE.jpg

[SantaMonica]

Very nice. The jelly was probably just the result of another weakness, and not the cause of the weakness, of that coral.

[Marksfish]

What a beautiful system with some amazing corals. A real kick in the teeth to all the naysayers who say you can't keep sps with scrubbers :)

Unfortunately I can't find a way to pm you. I was going to ask if I could use one of your FTS for a banner on the page I admin please, to show what can be achieved by scrubbing? Full credit and a link to your journey of course.

Thanks

Mark

[MulletBoy]

What a beautiful system with some amazing corals. A real kick in the teeth to all the naysayers who say you can't keep sps with scrubbers :)

Unfortunately I can't find a way to pm you. I was going to ask if I could use one of your FTS for a banner on the page I admin please, to show what can be achieved by scrubbing? Full credit and a link to your journey of course.

Thanks

Mark

Yeah no worries, feel free to use my pictures,what page do you admin? I would love to join it. Just credit back to my youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/c/reefnerd/

[Marksfish]

Thank you, will do :) I will use it at the next refresh, which will be around the 6th September.

Didn't really want to advertise the group on here, as it is Santa's forum. But it is Marine Fish UK (https://www.facebook.com/groups/MarineFishUK/) Not very well participated in, but around 700 members now. It was a forum at one time, but the owner dropped it unfortunately :(

I'll go and look at your Youtube now :)

[MulletBoy]

Rain2 Harvest today, was a pretty big one, 80grams squeezed weight

https://i.imgur.com/hC70h7J.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/G1wcQaq.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vGewn55.jpg

Who ordered the vegan meal? There is always a home grown, 100% organic, vegan friendly option at my house

https://i.imgur.com/94Qx0mt.jpg

[Marksfish]

Nice growth. I noticed in your video that you still use Rowaphos in your filter sock, doesn't that affect your growth?

Mark

[MulletBoy]

Nice growth. I noticed in your video that you still use Rowaphos in your filter sock, doesn't that affect your growth?

Mark

I have not heard of anyone saying rowaphos affects coral growth? High phosphate on the other hand can....

But don't use rowaphos anymore, too much work replacing it and cleaning a filter sock... I instead use this


https://youtu.be/x5fk6pQsMLA

[Marksfish]

It wasn't coral growth I was querying, but your algae growth. Surely you would get more of a yield if all the phosphate was available for the algae, or is it just that you would really need 2 of the scrubbers on your system to keep it low enough? I thought the idea of scrubbing was to avoid using "extras" to keep the water good?

[MulletBoy]

It wasn't coral growth I was querying, but your algae growth. Surely you would get more of a yield if all the phosphate was available for the algae, or is it just that you would really need 2 of the scrubbers on your system to keep it low enough? I thought the idea of scrubbing was to avoid using "extras" to keep the water good?

Oh right, I see what you mean

The only thing that will limit algae growth is nutrient availability dropping below detectable levels...

In my case I used the rowaphos to correct an imbalance between my nitrate and phosphate, at the time, my nitrates were very low 0-2ppm and my phosphates were comparatively high at up around 0.1ppm.

The rain2 is sufficient to keep my nitrates down, phosphates creep up a bit in my case without the help of the resin that I now run, or like I used to, a bit of rowaphos. I may not be typical however as I feed copious amounts of coral foods like reef roids, the aqua forest coral food range, coral essentials black label, reef chilli, and others... most of them at 1-2 times the recommended dosage and I use multiple products simultaneously...


I now keep my nitrates around 4-5ppm and my phosphate around 0.06ppm which is a better ratio and more balanced. I harvest the rain2 every ~10 days, and I regenerate my phosphate resin once every 4-6 months

[Marksfish]

That makes sense, thanks for the explanation.

[MulletBoy]

Hey All!

Time for another update of my tank! This is to cover Feburary and March 2020.

I have tried not to make too many changes over this period, and everything continues to do great! SPS is growing super well! No significant losses and a few additions!

This last 2 months I have
- Calcium reactor - The Pacific Sun AC-Nano. Is now set to 1000ml per hour flow rate, despite this, I still dose 1.5L of Kalk per day and ~30ml of 2part per day. So the transition continues, it will prbably need to get to about 1500ml per hour before its accounting for 100% of my dosing.
- I used a fine scooper rack thing to sift and clean the sandbed in the back right corner of the tank, it was filthy and I pulled out heaps of snail shells and bits of gunk. I only did a small area as I dont want to disrupt too much at once.
- Replacing the screen on my Rain2 ATS which set the tanks nutrient levels back a bit higher while the new screen matures, I am still battling this and the new screen is mostly growing very dark slime algae at still, I am cleaning it twice a week. I am temporarily carbon dosing the Reef Anabolics NRS product to try and bring the levels down a bit. But if that hasn't worked by the end of March I will need to do something a bit more aggressive.


My parameters have moved a bit with higher nutrients following the swap of the algae turf scrubber screen averaging:

Alkalinity 8.0dkh
Calcium 405 ppm
Nitrate 10.0 ppm/L
Phosphate 0.1 ppm
Magnesium 1330 ppm

Full Tank shot for March 2020
https://i.imgur.com/jv4bicq.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/CcrxpjO.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/nQud1nN.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/3UVoNTp.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/geltzc2.jpg

[SantaMonica]

Very nice pics.

One trick with a new screen is to cut the old screen into strips and hang the strips on the new screen

[Marksfish]

Looking really good :)