Finally! 90g scrubber - 40sq inches

[DennisC]

Same here mate. I have had my ATS running for 2 weeks. I have removed my skimmer and phos reactor after 1 week so hoping everything will be ok. My mesh hasn't been through the brown or oily stage, just straight into the green and will be doing my first 'clean' next week (week 3).

As you say 'very scary'after years of doing the accepted methods.

Dennis

[kerry]

Its a huge leap!!!! I have been doing is for over a year and still have a hard time feeding to the screen size but when I do it grows thick algae!!!!

[mess7777]

Well couple days of no skimmer and no ill effects. In fact, one of my crappy euphyllias looks better than it has in a couple weeks. I'll test nitrates tonight to see if they are creeping up. If so I will do a water change to help out while the scrubber takes hold. So far it is looking really good, screen is nearly covered in two days, looks more yellow/green than the brown stuff I had last week. We'll see in a couple more days I suppose.

I have a positive feeling about the whole thing though, first time I have felt that way about my tank in a long time.

[gmoney243]

Glad to hear things are comming along. Soon as your screen is green ur problems will go away fast. I had a friend who was in same situation gha and diatoms was everywhere and his skimmer was junk. So I got him to add a acrubber and since new sizing guidlines I was just in process of making my screen smaller so I had a big 6x8 piece he used that was alrdy developed and the algae was all gone and his tank looked great after just a week or so.

[mess7777]

Thanks gmoney. Screen is filling up quick, I wasn't able to do any water tests last night as family showed up unexpectedly. Maybe tonight. Growth still looking yellow/green and quickly going to brown as it gets thicker. This may be due to not having perfect light placement....I will have a better idea by the end of the week on that.

[mess7777]

Tested tonight, nitrates are not coming down after skimmer removal. My growth has turned from yellowish to brown slimeyness now. Should I clean sooner or still wait the full 7 days?

[gmoney243]

I would clean it everytime it gets thick brown slimy stuff. when u get green then u can go longer. Also it wont really export much as brown slime. When it gets green then it will work good then eventually u get light green hair algae which is the best.

[mess7777]

That's what I have since Saturday. The "ring" from light is not so apparant in person, but the blackberry phone is junk. It's pretty clear I need to find a way to get my lights lower and perpendicular to the screen. Not too sure how i am going to do that at this point, I am not the DIY type so these types of solutions don't come easy. I am going to be doing some water changes (10% or so) this week as well to help keep the nitrates down while the ATS is doing it's thing.

[kerry]

Dark growth means you need more light. Looking good so far, you can improve on this.

[mess7777]

Dark growth means you need more light. Looking good so far, you can improve on this.

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.

I am more interested to know if I should clean sooner or wait until SAturday(1 week) based on this growth.