My "Santa Monica 100 Scrubber"

I used to clean my ATS every 7 days but I have backed off of that schedule a bit. Nowadays I only clean the screens about once every 10-14 days. When I do a cleaning it is always just one half of the system too. I don't clean the box that often. I also don't try very hard to remove all the algae. Just the dark algae. I primarily gauge the need to clean by the kind of algae build up I'm getting. If it's a nice clean bright green algae, I will usually leave it alone. If the algae is dark and/or slimy, like pancake syrup covering the algae, I will clean that stuff out sooner. I don't worry about algae growing or sticking to the acrylic glass. The more algae the better if it is a healthy bright green. If I happen to feel like giving the ATS a really good cleaning to remove all that ugly stuff against the clear plexiglass, then it looks great but my water quality drops a little because there is less algae working. I have learned not to bother with it if I can help it.

On a side note, the Santa Monica ATS chamber is great for holding an inch and a half of water right up close to the lights. Just place a 1" piece of PVC pipe in the bulkhead so that the water level raises up a little. Your algae grows and floats in the water right in front of the light. As the happens, the growth rate shoots up even more. I added a second bulkhead drain to help with the drainage needs. This little customization was well worth it. With the ATS setup this way, it makes tons more algae and keeps my water quality up even better. Of course I assume that more, faster growing algae in a shorter time period translates to "better" but I really don't have any evidence. I haven't been able to get an ammonia, nitrite or nitrate reading above 0 in months and I have a happy puffer that's always pooping and 14 other fish in the tank that are all well fed daily.

Hope that helps!

does the algae grow on the windows too..? because the light go through the glass fill with water.. i just wondering if ur windows full of algae n blocking the light, coz, u know green algae dat grow on the glass, its a bit hard to get it off :(
i hope u understand wat i mean (my english bad) :roll:

Hi Dota, The light makes its way past any algae growing on the glass without a problem. The algae is literally suspended in water. I'll take a couple of pictures of that for you and will post them.

I recently installed a small cabinet outside of the house. That's the gray cabinet on the right. The tank is just inside the window and the plumbing is run through the window using a piece of drilled 4"x4" and silicone in the window cill area. I moved my ballasts, timers, RODI, and ATO valve inside of the cabinet and the project was a success. After a few weeks, I decided to mygyver the setup one step further by moving the scrubber out from underneath the tank and into the freezer chest on the left. I was going for a quiet and easy to maintain setup and the effort paid off. It didn't cost much to do either so I recommend it if you live in a warm climate where this is possible. If you look closely, you can see that my ATS drains into a 14 gallon rubbermaid container. I installed a 1" bulkhead in the rubbermaid container and a 1" hose is used for the return, which is gravity fed back to the sump inside.

The light gets by the algae on the glass without being a problem. It cleans off easily enough too. Here is a close up of looking down into the chamber. Lots of algae!

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Here is another view. Notice I added a small piece of 1" PVC pipe. I just slipped it into the bulkhead opening and that is all I had to do to raise the water level. I later added a second bulkhead just in case the algae were to plug up the exit.

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Here is a picture of my tank and sump area underneath as of today. I still run a skimmer but it's not really a "must have" anymore. I have left it off for weeks at a time but prefer to have multiple systems in place "just in case" I run into a problem. I bit of redundancy is a good thing.

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Cheers,

What would the skimmer be redundant for?

Oh boy, I knew I'd get a reply from you about the protein skimmer :-) My ATS, actually your ATS, is a powerful system but there have been a couple of times where I ended up over cleaning the screens and the water quality would drop off a bit until the growth came back. That hasn't been a problem since I've learned how important it is not to do that. I've also thought about the possibility of the ATS lights failing for days on and me being out of town. I travel alot and my wife wouldn't notice... Things like that. It's just a form of backup to the ATS, that is all.

I honestly feel that more people would own an ATS if it was viewed as a supplement, like having a DSB in your sump area or keeping a huge sump full of cheato like some folks like, or using a reactor, rather than a 100% "either/or" protein skimmer replacement. It is in my opinion the best "green" method out there for maintaining water quality at its best, otherwise, I wouldn't be on your site!

Ok but just remember that the skimmer does not remove what you want removed (ammonia, nitrite, etc.), so it will not help save anything if the scrubber goes out, if that is what you want it for, other than dumping in a box of food by accident (which it would be very good for).

You can do a test... one week of no-scrubber with skimmer, and one week of no-scrubber without skimmer.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SantaMonica

Ok but just remember that the skimmer does not remove what you want removed (ammonia, nitrite, etc.), so it will not help save anything if the scrubber goes out, if that is what you want it for, other than dumping in a box of food by accident (which it would be very good for).

You can do a test... one week of no-scrubber with skimmer, and one week of no-scrubber without skimmer.

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good point. later, when my ATS as good as your one, i think i would like to try turn off my skimmer forever.
as long as the Nitrate n Phospate is 0, we dont need the PS right..?

@ chrissu Thanks for showing the PIC. ;)

Does not matter what the phosphate is. Skimmers don't remove any phosphate... they only remove food. A reef tank needs all the food it can get. Fish-only tanks, however, don't.