Hello all
Well its been almost a week now and not a sign of green anywhere on the screen!! lights are on for 18h a day...tested ammonia, its at 1g/l ... could it be the lights or the screen? lights are 2 CFL lights (with internal reflectors) at 24w each...
Hi again
SM is this article ( http://algaescrubber.net/forums/show...rs-and-Cycling ) still applicable?
Yes it applies to the new UAS scrubber as well. I have started three tanks with a waterfall scrubber and never seen any typical nutrient spike. I started my new 150G build with my HOB UAS and never seen the nutrient spike with that type as well.
150G. Reef/Mix
125G. 3 Regular Oscars/1 Jack Dempsey
75G. 20+ Africans
40G. Fish/Reef. Algae Scrubbers on ALL my SW
10G. SW Fish/Reef.
10G. SW Hospital/new fish quarantine/pod breeder tank
6 stage RO/DI system 200 GPD.
Changed bulbs today.
Put in two 2700K CFL floodlights (25W each) to replace the 6500K ones.
also added one linear CFL at 30W (2700k) and one red LED floodlight (10W - its chinese so no indications as to wavelengths or Kelvin ratings).
this is what the red LED looks like (http://www.surelight.com/images/rota...lood_light.jpg) -- got the pic by gooling it on the web..will take a pic of the actual light tonight.
total watts on scrubber ==> 90W.
screen size (covered in water) : 8.5" x 13". there are about 2" that are above water level, constantly...I installed an ATO system that refills the sump anytime the water level goes down to evaporation (its around 27 degrees centigrade these days in Beirut and I have a computer fan blowing on the sump constantly to cool things off).
SG is at 1.025. Temp a constant 80F
Total LR (cured and live): 24KG for a total volume of water being approx 200L. its been in the tank for almost a week now (5 days I think).
Tests: Ammonia @ 0.5mg/l and Nitrite @ 0.5 as well. didn't test NO3 yet...more concerned with those two for the moment...
This morning I was able to see some brown spots forming all over the screen so I must assume that we r in business at last I will try to get some pics tonight. lighting is on for 18h and off for 6h.
almost forgot: got 3Kg of crushed coral from my LFS's aquarium...according to him, its been there for a couple of years so I'm kinda hoping I will get something along with it :P
am I missing out anything? was thinking of dropping in a clown fish (maroon) since ammonia and nitrites seem to be low...might wait for the weekend if they test out to Zero, I'll go out and buy it.
LFS was trying to talk me into a damsel fish but from what I have read, I don't want to add any fish that I would want to remove later on...but this is another story all together...
Some updates as well as some pics
Sunday 1st July: cleaned the screen...some yellowish brown slime...cleaned it under tap water leaving some traces on the screen. wasnt able to take pics though
Today there are nice green patches all over the screen...took some pics...hopefully they can be seen. there is some GHA on the sumps wall though between the lights and the screen...should I remove it or leave it as its also doing some filtering?
Water params:
Ammonia = 0
Nitrites = 0
Nitrates = 10mg/l
Feeding: around five pinches of granules per day...three times a week I put in a 5ML of phytoplancton solution.
current tank inhabitants:
1- One Maroon clown
2- One blue and yellow damsel
3- Two long spined sea urchins
4- an assortment of snails (around 12 in all)
5- one cleaner shrimp
6- one RBT anemone
7- got some rock which had four purple tipped anemones on...came in last night to see that they doubled in number (weird!!!)
8- two Goniopora
pictures:
My own "chiller" - fans are hooked to same timers as lights...they go on when lights are on to compensate for heat...very effective.
the big fan goes on with the scrubber lights.
the smaller fans are arranged in a matrix: two blow in air and one blows out. they go on with the DT lights
my scrubber lighting system
Green color starting to show....dont mind the algae covering the screen
a FTS
sorry for poor quality...using my cell.
1. Remove all lights except for one CFL.
2. Remove the screen from the airstone.
3. Cut the screen down so it is 5 X 5 inches.
4. Rough the screen up with a hole saw or wood saw so that the holes are almost filled in with plastic pieces.
5. Attach the screen to the back of the airstone so that the bubbles flow up the front of the screen.
6. Put a light-shield in front of the airstone to keep the light off of it.
7. Tape up the ends of the airstone that are not in front of the screen.
This will give the UAS a chance to work.
Thanks SM
I finally found some screen material that is similar to the ones you guys are using only its Circular. Its around 23.5 cm diameter...So I guess I will cut out a square from it...I already roughed it up using a bread knife and a circular saw blade...
your advice got me thinking of attaching it to egg crate for support and using some of the blue plastic material (we call it here carto-plast: it looks like cardboard but is plastic) as a light shield, behind the egg crate.
you say the airstone should be in front of the screen...but wouldnt the air bubbles be blowing parallel to the screen without touching it? I mean there would be around 0.5 cm gap between the screen and the stone
a drawing to show the new screen design as per SM
Circular Screen
One more thing: 5"x5" would give an area of 25 sq inch...since its one sided, it would be sized for around 1 frozen cube a day feeding correct?
and since one CFL = 25w it would mean running the lights on for 18 hours a day?
SM...regarding the current screen setup: it is not as per the initial pictures whereby the screen was wrapped around it...I changed that a while back to this:
http://algaescrubber.net/forums/atta...9&d=1340261168
is this what you meant by putting the screen behind the airstone or is it another kind of setup?
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