Air Injection

[nm983]

Since my ATS is not well aired, I would like to know your opinion about this idea - using the pump's venturi for air injection inject together with the water.

I found some artice claiming turf algae requires coupling with air http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_2/ ... ration.htm (http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_2/cav2i5/Filtration/Filtration.htm)

Altghouogh it's not very cientific it make sense since during low tide the algae exposed to the air.

"Poorly designed systems do not allow exposure of the screens to air. This generally leads to other species out-competing the turfs and overall poor performance. Such systems contributed to the undeserved bad rap that turf scrubbers have with some aquarists"

[SantaMonica]

This requires a multi-level answer...

First, the main thing to remember is that algae pulls CO2 from the water, and not the air. So the basic diy scrubber design (in a sump, or in a closed acrylic box) works great and usually grows a combination of green hair and brown slime. No air is needed, much less a fan, unless you want to cool the water.

Next is "turf", the red/brown, short, stiff, tough algae that only comes off with a razor blade, and so far is only available on pre-grown screens from IA. If you have one of these pre-grown screens, then the page you were referring to is correct: You don't want "other types" of algae growing on top of the turf, because they would shade the turf and cause it to die off. By exposing real-turf screens to air and/or rapid splashing, it helps kill/wash off things like brown slime and green hair (even though brown slime and green hair do great filtering themselves.) It's not a requirement, though, because all you really need to do is wash the brown slime and green hair off by hand in the sink during your weekly cleaning.

However, nobody yet has reported that they've grown real turf on their own, without buying it first from IA. Thus, unless you are using a pre-grown screen from them, it's sort of a moot point of worrying about brown slime and green hair covering any turf, because you are not going to have any (you'll just have brown slime and green hair).

Keep in mind the page you were reading is using previous knowledge, not the knowledge that was developed in 2008. This is also evident in their believing that scrubbers color the water (if only they know all they had to do was weekly cleanings in the sink.)

So, I don't think it's worth your time/effort trying to inject air. Spend your time/effort/money on stronger lighting, and figuring out how to get the lighting as close to the screen as possible while still being safe.