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Couple months later and i would have to say my scrubber is finally "up to speed". My phosphates got down to 0 and since then have never gone above .07. I haven't changed my GFO in well over 3 months,...

I moved my phosphate remover from before the scrubber section of my sump to the 'after'. I tested the phosphates again this week and they are moving in the right direction. Down to .09 now, I am...

water change, scrubber clean, phosphate media changed monday. phosphates still at .15 tonight. I'll check again in a couple days to see where it goes. Still not there yet.

I know it is my...

no and I don't think I will just let. I got a Hanna checker and my real reading is .14, so still some work to do. It is more accurate than the crappy API I have been using.

well well, 1st time ever I have 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates on API. Guess it's time for that hanna checker now that it will be of value!

Things are looking better than ever, and for the first time...

Did my nitrate test again on Sunday night. Best results yet, nitrates are way low. Before was between 10-20 in color, now I am definitely less orangey and down to 5-10. Hoping for bright yellow soon....

:) - you may be right, these are not the most accurate!

They beat the living crap our the API Phosphate though, this is just a waste of money!

I don't want to reduce the screen, because I ultimately want to feed a lot more to have more fish and feed corals aggresively. However, with the higher nutrients, I cannot get myself to feed that...

It's been a long time since I posted, but I continue to still get brown/yellow growth that I clean every 2-3 weeks. I have seeded with HA from other places in my sump but it just doesn't take. My...

My scrubber is sized using the new guidelines. I am good for 4 cubes...I am interested to feed a lot to my tank and would prefer to have more fish if I can get my parameters in check.

I am...

SantaMonica,

I do believe I am underpowered, unfortunately my bad sump design doesn't allow me to get a real nice scrubber going. The reflectors take up a lot of space and I can't get them...

Not much to update here. I am still fighting off nitrates, others have posted that once the phosphates are gone that this can happen. I believe due to the bad shape of my system, that equilibrium is...

Well I decided for my mental sanity to remove the corals that were nearly dead to get them outta my sight. I have to admit it feels a lot better looking at the tank without those (mostly) skeleton...

Well as my euphyllia have continued to die off.....the nitrates still hang around 20ppm. I have tried leaving the algae to grow thicker. It's gotten really red on one side and starting to see some...

Well cleaned off the dark brown/black gunk again this week. I have some nice GHA growing on the glass on one of the sump baffles and on a couple rocks in the sump. I pulled it off and stuck it to my...

I don't actually disturb the sandbed, I just get the siphon close enough that any crud sitting gets sucked up. The sand pretty much stays in place, the water doesn't cloud or anything. I don't think...

After the last cleaning, my screen has gone back to dark brown/nearly black covering in a couple of days.

The one difference is that the flow has increased substantially after cleaning the tubing...

Decided to do a cleaning today, just because it's been nearly 2 weeks.

http://i1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb464/mess7777/May9.jpg

I have some actual green on there now. As always it looks a...

Alright! Back on topic!!!

I decided to not do the early clean last week to see what would happen. it seems that was a good plan as I am starting to get some green growth. There also seems to be...

My sand bed is not nearly that deep, it's just a covering on the bottom, when I say less than 3" we are talking more like 1-2". I can't even see the sides of the sandbed as it is not deeper than the...

I have some strands of green this morning, I guess leaving it was a good plan! Hoping to see more and more!

very interesting, I never thought about it. i do have a SSB, less than 3". Come to think of it my tank looks the best after a water change when I have actually siphoned some of the sand bed up trying...

I am at the point where I should probably clean again. however this time I see a few pokes of green coming through. I am going to let it play out a couple days and see what happens.

did a 10 gallon (10%) water change last night. Got the nitrates down below 20, screen is yellow to brown. I'll keep cleaning it as soon as I see it can't handle more sliminess. The brain coral is...

Thanks Floyd, you may be right. Just as good of an explanation is turning off the skimmer unfortunately. It's just unknown at this point so I have no choice but to carry on and keep testing...

Tank is up since March 2011. The brain that died this week has been there since April.

Alk - recently dropped to 7 from 10, now back to 8. This is a decent swing, but is it really enough to...

I made it about 3 weeks with ATS and scrubber. I had one side running without a reflector. Once I put the reflector on I don't have room for sump and skimmer. My skimmer is a piece of crap though, it...

Freakin nitrates still going up, well over 20ppm again. I though the increased flow and roughing up the screen would help, but it appears I was incorrect.

I have all but lost a few corals, zoas...

Decided to do a quick clean this morning as it was developing some of the rea dark slime.

http://i1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb464/mess7777/ATS/April25.jpg

Things are looking good since...

Finally got around to switching out my return pump. As I mentioned earlier I was able to switch to a different Maxi-jet 1200 for the ATS.

HUGE difference! I wasn't getting anywhere close to the...

thanks Floyd, nothing good happens fast right!

I just am so tired of that orange nitrate test and though I was on my way. I am ready to see some of my euphyllia corals come back to life after...

Thanks Ace. We'll see what happens, I only did the extra roughing up yesterday. It looks a lot rougher now. The nitrates going up above 20ppm is a concern for me as I know phosphates are going up at...

Grrr.nitrates are back up above 20ppm. I am not there yet by any means.

The screen had gone half white by the time I got home from work, either the pods or lack of roughness caused it to all...

I still have algae kind of pond scum that forms on surfaces in the sump. This happened before the ATS as well. So I can't say definitively that it let go. This will be my fourth week now, the algae...

Hi all, can you take a look at this picture and tell me what you think. It seems that the algae on the bottom has either let go, become lighter, or pods are eating it? I don't know why photobucket...

http://i1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb464/mess7777/ATS/April17.jpg

For some reason this picture is only showing the top half at the moment.....but last time it all showed up after a while....

Nitrates are still hanging around 20ppm. I tested Ca today and it's at 400ppm, so good to see the system is starting to use some again. Most of my corals seems to be looking decent. However, I do...

That is my worry as my nitrates and phosphates are already high. I wanted to get them under control before amping up the feedings.

Good info, maybe I will try to feed more and see if it grows greener. I figured since my numbers are high I would feed less at first so it uses the N and P already in the water. Maybe that isn't the...

Looks like my pods are hungry. Are these circles from pods eating away at the algae?

http://i1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb464/mess7777/ATS/Apr13.jpg

Also, the growth looks so dark outside of...

Thanks. I wonder why I am conincidentally losing one type of zoas. Everything else seems business as usual and these zoas have been going strong for over a year now.

Are you talking about zoas or parameters? Did you lose them all. For the crash thing, are you referring to Ca and Alk?

Did some water testing again today. N at 20ppm +, P somewhere between .25-.5

Screen is certainly less black than the past 2 weeks, mostly browish with some yellow and even hints of green in...

I have kalk ready to go for starters. However, no opportunity to use it yet since my Ca and Alk are always good....too much N and P for my corals to grow very well and use it!!

tested nitrates and I am closer to 20 now, hopefully some day i will have a yellow test instead or orange or red!

algae definitely starting to lean towards brown again, but I am patient.

Well I went ahead with the cleaning a couple days early because of the slimy growth. I am going to give it another week with the lights that I have right now. Great news, underneath the slime there...

Thanks. I have the standard light socket with clamp to the side of my sump(29g standard tank). The 42w CFL are very large and expensive($10 each up here), does anyone have experience to know if the...

I am not sure exactly what you mean by that. Do you mean that with more light the nutrients will get "soaked up" more quickly because it will get me green growth?....or do you mean that we can't tell...

Thanks Floyd, I will give it a rinse tonight, that darker slimy crap comes off really easy anyway.

Doesn't it also mean high nutrients? I have 40+ on nitrates and .25 on phosphates. My 40 in screen has 46 total watts of CFL, which should do the trick aside from the positioning being a little off. ...