Finally! 90g scrubber - 40sq inches

[robotech]

just a quick thought on sandbeds and mess7777,s prob, 3 inches or less only have aerobic bacteria which just turns nitrite into nitrate, 3 inches and more then has both aerobic and anaerobic which turns it from nitrite to nitrate to nitrogen gas. if you have less than 3 inches and never clean your sand then your going to get a build up of nitrate there which sounds like what mess7777 has going on since he said all his dying corals were on the bed. this stuff about never cleaning the sand bed is for deep sand beds, granted its not a good idea to do the whole thing at one time but doing a quarter of it each time in shallow beds will take out nitrates and stir new growth of aerobic bacteria. to many people are misled about sand beds, shallow and clean- deep and dont.

[mess7777]

just a quick thought on sandbeds and mess7777,s prob, 3 inches or less only have aerobic bacteria which just turns nitrite into nitrate, 3 inches and more then has both aerobic and anaerobic which turns it from nitrite to nitrate to nitrogen gas. if you have less than 3 inches and never clean your sand then your going to get a build up of nitrate there which sounds like what mess7777 has going on since he said all his dying corals were on the bed. this stuff about never cleaning the sand bed is for deep sand beds, granted its not a good idea to do the whole thing at one time but doing a quarter of it each time in shallow beds will take out nitrates and stir new growth of aerobic bacteria. to many people are misled about sand beds, shallow and clean- deep and dont.

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 to clean out detrius. I am going to research this a little more, but you might be on to something which both makes sense for dying corals and nitrates that just won't go away.

[robotech]

even if you do have a deep sand bed it can still only do so much, so if the prob is detritus causing nitrates in your bed from being over loaded but you strictly never clean it then your gonna be in for a lot of water changes and always putting a band aid over the prob rather than getting to the root of it cleaning it and solving it.

[mess7777]

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

[Garf]

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 to clean out detrius. I am going to research this a little more, but you might be on to something which both makes sense for dying corals and nitrates that just won't go away.

The problem with cleaning your sand bed is that you never end up with these which eat detritus

Or this which transforms nitrate into nitrogen

This sand bed is 5 years old and never cleaned.
In my opinion the grain size is critical. In picture two, this denitrification is taking place at a depth of less than 2 inches.

[mess7777]

The problem with cleaning your sand bed is that you never end up with these Attachment 2237 which eat detritus

Or this Attachment 2238 which transforms nitrate into nitrogen

This sand bed is 5 years old and never cleaned.
In my opinion the grain size is critical. In picture two, this denitrification is taking place at a depth of less than 2 inches.

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 black frame around the bottom.

[robotech]

The problem with cleaning your sand bed is that you never end up with these Attachment 2237 which eat detritus

Or this Attachment 2238 which transforms nitrate into nitrogen

This sand bed is 5 years old and never cleaned.
In my opinion the grain size is critical. In picture two, this denitrification is taking place at a depth of less than 2 inches.

i woud say its nots happening there its just the nitrogen gas has rissen to that point working its way out to float to the top and in the air.

[Garf]

i woud say its nots happening there its just the nitrogen gas has rissen to that point working its way out to float to the top and in the air.

It has no deep bed to rise up from in this section of the bed

[mess7777]

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 some red in there too, which I haven't seen before. It's about 10 days growth right now, need to test parameters to see if it's starting to help.

I think my screen is starting to mature and I according to others' builds it looks like I am near the point where results start to show!

[mess7777]

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



I have some actual green on there now. As always it looks a heck of a lot darker than it did in the sump. I had by far the largest amount of algae harvested yet. Under the sump lights there was actual a lot of red.

After the cleaning the screen was a nice emerald green that I have seen others refer to. I think I am close to getting results, although my friggin nitrates are still testing 20. Another 20% water change this week should help.

I also cleaned about the vinyl tubing that feeds the ATS as it was getting some algae build-up as well. I will definitely need to add this into my routine as the flow increased substantially after clearing out the gunk. If I can find black 1/2 inch tubing I will switch to it to avoid this problem.

THE VERY MOMENT that I see a nitrate test not come up orange I am going to post a picture of my soiled pants as this will be a breakthrough moment for my poor tank. (I wont really do this, don't worry).