Semi-New ATS Not working properly. Please help.

[demariners]

Hello,

I own a Clearwater CW-300 algae scrubber. I got this for my FOWLR 300 gallon tank. I am running this with a protein skimmer as well.

I have it currently set to 24 hours a day. I originally had a smaller pump on this setup thinking that my flow was too little. I ended up replacing the pump on this with a higher output. I have had this setup now for over 2 months. I have the following issues. First, my nitrates are still consistently between 50-70ppm and my phosphates are .25-.35. Second, I get a "burn" circle in the middle of the unit with no algae growth. Third, most of the algae is very slimy and watery and not exactly turf algae.

So now it is running 24 hours a day and I am using a 912GPH (Sicce 4.0) pump instead of the original 612 GPH (sicce 3.0) pump. I reduced the Sicce 4.0 a little on it's flow so it is more like 700 GPH now. I am not seeing any results. My tank does have a very high bio load in that I have a lot of fish in the 300. The skimmer is a Reef Octopus Regal 250 BTW. I am also running roller mats instead of filter socks.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[demariners]

Also I wanted to mention that I have also already had it leak out the sides and cause a puddle on the side of my sump. The water shoots everywhere most of the time after algae builds up in the slits.

[Marksfish]

The burn mark is caused by leds? If so, they are too strong and you should look at moving it away from the screen or trying to diffuse it. Is it possible to put a driver inline to reduce the output? If the slot is blocking, it could be that you need to cover the slot to prevent algae growth in that area. I have a similar problem with mine, but I was vodka dosing and the excess bacterial growth blocks mine. I seem to recall a 18 on, 6 off period is recommend instead of 24 hours.

Mark

[demariners]

Mark, thank you. Yes I changed it to 16 hours based on some research. Going to see if that helps a bit. As for the LEDs being to strong this is a "Pre-Built" unit so I can not diffuse it to my knowledge. It is a Clearwater CW-300.

[Marksfish]

I'm not familiar with the scrubber, but have had a quick Google and can't find the answer I am looking for. My screen suffered burn marks, but I had a 10w chip which I had to move away from the screen about 4" each side. I can't see from the pictures on the website i'm looking at how many chips are on the lights, I would assume again it is only 1 and what wattage are they? Not sure how you are going to stop the screen burn if the chip is too strong.

[demariners]

I agree with you completely however I doubt this company would sell an entire kit that is "too strong" to support it's screen! Eitherway I still have the slimy issue, no reduced nutrients, etc.

[SantaMonica]

Welcome.

A photo of the screen, in regular white light, would help.

The bald mark in the middle is not bad in and of itself, but the large width of the light of that model, compared to the narrow lights in our Rain units, means that your growth ring is going to be large. Here is more info:

http://algaescrubber.net/forums/showthread.php?3713-Growth-Rings

[demariners]

I am not sure how to attach an image.

[SantaMonica]

When you are replying, click the 3rd button from the right, on top of the text area.

[demariners]

That isn't working for me.

But here is a link to it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/h9jnmb9f4c2cpw0/IMG_4039.jpg?dl=0

[SantaMonica]

Ok this is just a case of high nutrients needing stronger light. The middle had actually already grown, but detached because waterfall screens don't hold dark slime very well. Do this:

Clean/brush all the growth away, including the slot and box, and inside the screen holes.
Run the light 24 hours (no timer).
Slow the flow a bit so it does not wash away the slime; all you need is some type of flow across the screen.
Do any other filtering you can to bring nutrients down.
Clean as soon as the screen fills in, which might be every 3 days.

As more nutrients get pulled out of the water, growth will be greener and will start attaching more to the screen. Then you can go an extra day longer for cleaning, and start doing less of the other filtering.

[demariners]

Yes my nutrients are very high In this tank due to it being a fish only tank. I got the ATS to hopefully eliminate the need for consistent panel cleanings. Which on a 300 can be quite cumbersome weekly.

I have set the unit for 24 hours. How long should I do that for? I have reduced the flow as it was causing some leaks and other things since the flow was so much which I mentioned previously. I cleaned the screen very we this time and replaced the zip ties and cleaned the slot real good.

Once I see growth I should clean it right away? I did notice a bunch of algae fell off into the bottom of the unit. Probably from the middle section.

I will give all this a try and see what happens. I do not experience this at all in my smaller reef tank one.

[SantaMonica]

Clean as soon as black slime fills the screen holes. Black slime cannot hold on to plastic screens like it can with rocky textures. Leave 24 hours until you get green growth that is turning yellow from too much light, which may not happen though with your high nutrients and that low-output light which is mostly heat. You could consider replacing the lights with stronger wattage, or get an additional scrubber. But see how the changes so far work out in the next 4 weeks. Water changes will help green grow faster, by lowering nutrients.

This is a good example of why I rate scrubbers based on feeding instead of gallons.

[demariners]

I will give this all a go.

Unfortunately this unit was gigantic as it is and I doubt I have enough room for another one or a larger one.

I will keep at it. I will also look into other options as well. I don’t know if it’s a good idea to do any carbon dosing or anything that may effect the scrubber.

[SantaMonica]

Carbon dosing will help reduce nutrients, which will help. GFO too. The idea is to get nutrients lower so green can grow, which will then attach and not fall off. Once the growth is not falling off you can go longer between cleanings.

[demariners]

I just bought some Chemipure Blue. Going to try that for the "GFO". I could also carbon dose as well. I have NoPx. I am afraid if I do that however I will have some sort of cyano or diatom bloom.

[demariners]

Would Red Sea NoPx have a negative effect on the scrubber? Also if I use the Chemipure which is essentially Carbon and GFO anyway would that have a negative effect on the scrubber? Once I get nutrients down is my main goal should I then take out these forms of reduction such as the Chemipure?

[SantaMonica]

As long as dosing or gfo brings down nutrients to a lower level that allows green to grow, it will help.

[demariners]

Hello again. Been doing the dosing for a few days now. Not a lot of growth yet. I was wondering if I use something like Chemipure Blue (GFO, Carbon, Etc) would that hurt the Algae scrubber in anyway? I would like to use it combat the phosphates a little more and keep them in check while using he scrubber as my bio load seems to be quite high.

[SantaMonica]

If growth is still black slime, you need to continue to reduce them more until growth turns green.

[demariners]

Here are some progress pictures after about 6 days. Still experiencing similar issues.
7845

[demariners]

Here is my smaller one. Same days gone by.

Both units not really performing as of yet to reduce the nutrients (the whole point of this). Both tanks exhibit higher then normal nutrient levels.

Large tank has a decent amount of glass algae and surface algae while the smaller tank (reef) has a ton of Cyano, diatoms, and Hair algae now since I got the scrubber.

7846

[SantaMonica]

Focusing just on the larger tank, just need to clean everything off that screen when it looks like that.

[demariners]

K, but the small one looks like it is going in the right direction?

When you say clean it you mean just with a credit card. Do not get it to white I presume?

[SantaMonica]

Seems fine to me. Clean with a brush to get all dark stuff out of the screen holes.