Finally! 90g scrubber - 40sq inches

[mess7777]

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.

I don't know if I ever mentioned it before but I am also running Phosban to keep phosphate down. I did this as my corals were suffering from hgih phosphates and couldn't wait. Once nitrates are gone and phosphates show none then I'll think about experimenting with taking it out. For now though, it stays!

I also ran carbon this week, which was obviously needed as my water cleared up significantly in the 2 days i ran it, to the point I might have to move some corals around.

[mess7777]

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 I actually need to pay attention to calcium levels as the tank is capable of using some.

[SantaMonica]

Let's hear it for no N or P in Canada

[Garf]

Mess7777 - Have you tried it without phos media yet?

[mess7777]

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.

[mess7777]

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 setup/lighting on my scrubber, but I am getting a lot of green algae starting to grow on the glass in my sump and on the rocks as well. I pulled this out with the cleaning, likely a cup or more total. I don't mind to do that, just surprising to find it growing off the screen in lower lighting, lower flow areas. It was fun to grab the amphipods 1 at a time off the algae clumps and throw them up top as the fish gobbled them. Free fresh live food!

[iiluisii]

no offence floyd, but i hope that doesn't happen to mine! Maybe other people can chime in to say if they experienced anything similar with frogspawn, hammers, etc.

i dont have that problem with my L2

[mess7777]

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 happy about that! Couple corals are showing signs of faster growth, this I like too!

[mess7777]

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, and don't think i will have to again. I have been holding back a bit on feeding all the way until my nutrient levels were under control.

I went on vacation to Italy for two weeks and had a friend feed the tank. I gave him directions to feed roughly double what I have been feeding and cleaned the screen just before leaving. I got around to checking P today, and still reads 0.00 oh my Hanna! The beauty of the scrubber is that it is ready to grow more if you feed more. I had been scared to test it out but I now have my proof. My mandarin will surely be happy about this!

On the topic of PODs, as we all know there are insane amounts produced when using a scrubber. However, I don't find this leads to more in my display tank, they are just in the sump. I still believe I need to get some pod condos or something similar going to get them up to the main tank for the mandarin to chew on.

I have also been reading up on the skimmer thing, as I am going on 1 year without a skimmer. At some point along the way I lost PE on a lot of SPS and have not been able to get it back. There have been many changes along the way, so during the summer months where there is more things to do outside I am going to leave things more on autopilot and make only small changes 1 at a time to see what happens. I also added a doser recently to stabilize my levels of Alk and Ca as usage has gone up beyond what water changes are providing.

It is fun to actually have a nice looking tank with fat fish(except the mandarin) and most corals flourishing.

[SantaMonica]

Nice results.

The pod thing is one of the benefits I'm looking forward to with the floating surface version; the pods just flow right into the tank. Also some yellow tangs have been seen sticking their noses into the drain holes to get some food.