Finally! 90g scrubber - 40sq inches

[mess7777]

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 dissapearing, open brain coral suddenly falling apart, couple euphyllia nearly dead(deader than before), and even GSP that aren't opening up. Basically there are two possibilities I can think of. The skimmer was helping a lot, or the scrubber is pulling something out of the water that these corals were enjoying......but not Nitrates or Phosphates since these are virtually unchanged since starting approx 5 weeks ago. Unfortunately, I cannot put the skimmer back online and still run the ATS due to space, so I am stuck now.

I'm very frustrated, nothing goes right for me in this hobby.

[Doompie]

Dark growth usually means more light is needed.

High nitrates turn your screen dark. But I was wondering while reading trough this topic, did you replace your skimmer with a scrubber (on an existing tank) without the transition period?

[mess7777]

Dark growth usually means more light is needed.

High nitrates turn your screen dark. But I was wondering while reading trough this topic, did you replace your skimmer with a scrubber (on an existing tank) without the transition period?

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 is surprising if not running it caused this problem. It pulled out only a couple tablespoons of light green liquid every few days. However, it is the only real explanation.

[Floyd R Turbo]

There could be many other factors contributing to this. More info is needed.

how long has tank been up and running?
What is Alk, Cal, Mag, temp?
How do you adjust these levels?
How often do you adjust them, and how much do you adjust them?
Have you tested these parameters on a frequent enough basis to establish long-term (3 months) stable levels?
Have you tested these (particularly Alk) frequently since installing the scrubber?

Long term stability is by far and above the key to a successful system. If you are constantly meddling with things, this is where you start to get into trouble.

[mess7777]

There could be many other factors contributing to this. More info is needed.

how long has tank been up and running?
What is Alk, Cal, Mag, temp?
How do you adjust these levels?
How often do you adjust them, and how much do you adjust them?
Have you tested these parameters on a frequent enough basis to establish long-term (3 months) stable levels?
Have you tested these (particularly Alk) frequently since installing the scrubber?

Long term stability is by far and above the key to a successful system. If you are constantly meddling with things, this is where you start to get into trouble.

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 destroy a coral in a week
Ca - never varied between 400-440ppm
Mag - 1200-1300, don't test often
I try to keep Alk around 8, Ca 440ppm and MG high 1200s. Mostly water changes to replenish, but have also used seachem buffer for Alk and Seachem complete for Ca to keep levels where I like.

Maybe this is a case of getting worse before it gets better, but holy crap it is not fun to watch.

All corals doing poorly are near or on the sandbed(except zoas), so I am going to give it a nice vaccuum on my water change this evening to see if that helps.

It's so hard not to react too hard to these problems when things start dying, but I also know overreacting could kill even more. I just wish my N and P would start to get lower so I could definitely say it is not that. These two things have plagued me since inception.

[Floyd R Turbo]

unless you have an undergravel filter, you should never heavily vaccuum the sand bed. This disturbs the bacteria in the sandbed and can cause all kinds of problems. I just read this article http://www.aquaworldaquarium.com/Art...er_Changes.htm look at the 'myths' and 'tips' on the left of the article.

your rapid drop in Alk is not desired, and is probably the scrubber sucking that up after CO2 is depleted. I would suggest daily testing of Alk and daily minor adjustments as necessary to your dosing regimen. Write down all test results, the time of day, and the amount you dosed afterwards, then test again 30 minutes later to see how much that increased the level. Also don't adjust Alk to fast and monitor pH to make sure you don't jump it more than 0.2pH in a 24hr period (I will extend my Alk dose over a few hours as pH will immediately jump after dosing, then slowly drop back down allowing me to dose a little more). Once you establish the screen with good green growth, then nail down your dosing regimen and technique. Water changes are not going to be enough to keep Alk stable if you have a 10 to 7 drop like you experienced.

This fluctuation in Alk will likely stabilize over time as the scrubber matures.

I have found that even a seemingly harmless swing can cause problems. I had a colt coral that was doing great, getting huge, then I switched to Kalk in the top off water and was having a hard time maintaining Alk at anything but 6.7 and the colt completely melted down. I switched back to BRS Alk in the ATO and got it back to 8.5-ish and then dialed in the dosing regimen and the remnants of it are coming back strong.

If you system was long-term stable, and everthing was 'used to that', then a swing of one parameter can indeed cause problems. Whether that was the root cause of your loss (which I am sorry for) or not is hard to say, but it seems like a strong candidate.

[mess7777]

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 faithfully. As for vacuuming the sandbed, I mean more picking up the loose debris, old crab shells, snail poop, stuff like that which isn't fully cleaned by my crew. The bottom of the tank has less flow than the top, so there is more chance of accumulation of nasties(at least that is my current working theory). I can't really beef up the flow because my euphyllias don't appreciate huge flow.

[Floyd R Turbo]

Check Ace's comment on this thread

http://algaescrubber.net/forums/show...-Mg-and-Alk-ok

I think your 10 to 7 swing is the cause

[mess7777]

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 pretty much dead. I moved it to a different location in case placement was a problem...but pretty sure it is too late. If it lasts the weekend I will be lucky.

Alk stead today at 7 after the water change. I intend to start using Kalk sometime this week due to that drop in Alk and seeing my Ca go from 440 to 400. This should also help to bring my pH up a bit from the 7.8-8 range(possibly below sometimes) which has plagued me for a long time too.

Although I can see that some of my corals have grown I look forward to the day where I actually see the new white growth that I see in so many photos. I'll get there......just gotta be patient.

[mess7777]

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.