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View Full Version : a long winded story on how ats helped get tank back on track



nrosdal
12-09-2009, 08:22 PM
hey, i have had an ats going for about 4-5 months and am finally happy with my design and the results that it is giving me so i figured that i would post a thread with pics from along the way. i would love to say that my tank clearing up is only due to the ats but there are other factors (vodka dosing/more water changes) that also did contribute. But i can definately say that the ats is the biggest contributing factor in my tanks successfully staying free from green and my N and P staying within a reasonable range.

i might as well take it way back and here is a pic of my tank when i first got it. about a year and a half ago i got a great deal on all my tank/rock/corals/mushrooms/ect.. from a fellow i knew. but didnt really know all that much about keeping them properly as i had only had FW tanks before. her it was:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/80Salt.jpg

couple months later i upgraded to a 120gal tank and things were still goin pretty well and i was figuring out how to keep everything alive ect...

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/PA140048.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/PA140054.jpg

a short while later this little guy came along... he seemed to be doing alright nipping a little but not doing any serious damage. until i went away on holidays for 2 weeks and had my sister stay and watch the fish while i was gone(and really underfeed them aparently). in that 2 weeks the angel managed to eat every mushroom/polyp/coral in the tank excluding 1 hard coral that he didn't touch.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/bluefacedangel.jpg

jumping ahead about 6 months of me discouraged and allowing the wife to overfeed the pretty much fish only tank daily and not doing the upkeep that i should have. Here are a few pics of what neglect will get you (a really big fish and a whole lot of algae):

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00032.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00031.jpg

around this time i decided that i was gonna get the tank back on track and started taking better care of it (water changes being done every 2 weeks started feeding myself insted of letting the wife overfeed). after quite a while with no improvements i was online and found a thread from santa monica about a turf scrubber and built one for myself. it was doing ok but not what i was hoping for. so i rebuilt with more flow and 23w cfl floods insted of standard cfls with dull aluminum reflectors. it was also around this time that i started dosing vodka to the system as well as beefed up clean up crew. here is a pic of my 2nd gen scrubber and the tank at the time

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00017.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00028.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00052.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00055.jpg

i was getting a little better growth of algae and doing 1-2 water changes a week also changed bulbs to 6500k from the standard ones and put the scrubber on its own timer so that i could have it on for 18hrs as opposed to 12. over the next few weeks i saw some serious improvements in growth on my ats and noticed that the algae in the display was not growing back after my snails/crabs cleaned it. here is the tank looking a bit better.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00055.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00056.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00058.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00075.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00074.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00077.jpg

fast forward to today and the tank has been clear of algae(except for on 1 coral that the snails dont like to touch) for about a month now and even has a slight purple hue to it as opposed to green. Corals are slowly popping back out of the rock... and i have my latest version of the scrubber up and running for a week now (same screen just new lighting/box setup). here are a few pics of the scrubber with its new diy acrylic box, polished aluminium reflector, and 42watt 6500k cfl lights. as well as new tank shots.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00081.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00082.jpg
one with a reflector off so that you can see inside
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00084.jpg
harvest time
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00086.jpg
tank shots
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00089.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00090.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00091.jpg

will post a few more up close pics tomorrow when the lights are back on. thanks for taking the time to read my senseless drivel, i hope i didn't bore you all to death...

Nick

Broder
12-09-2009, 11:48 PM
Hey Nick. Nice progress and good to see a picture history of the ATS at work. Well done! One thing I feel you should take care of though, is to remove the large tangs from such a small tank. They are not happy.

kcress
12-10-2009, 02:35 AM
Yes a very nice photo journal! Thanks for the effort to put it up.

I can't tell from your photos. Is your turf bright green or dark green?

nrosdal
12-10-2009, 10:50 AM
One thing I feel you should take care of though, is to remove the large tangs from such a small tank. They are not happy.

tangs are actually quite happy right now but if the vlamingi gets much biggger i am gonna have to convert my 133 long to sw for him cuz the footprint of my 120tall is not ideal for fish much bigger then 12"


Yes a very nice photo journal! Thanks for the effort to put it up.

I can't tell from your photos. Is your turf bright green or dark green?

it is a bit of a darker green. when it first started coming in it was all pretty much brown and has lightened up along the way. i am assuming that another little while and it will be lime color.

oh ya sorry for the pic quality, all were taken with cel phone.

SantaMonica
12-10-2009, 05:57 PM
Good job! Yes as the scrubber catches up, it will get lighter in color, and even stronger, since long gha has more surface area contacting the flowing water, and also since lighter colors block less light.

nrosdal
12-14-2009, 05:13 PM
a few more up to date pics

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00011.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00012.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00013.jpg