Ruddybop's UAS test

[alex leblanc]

Wow, hope mine would look like that someday. The algae seem the same as mine but yours are alot longer then mine!

[ruddybop]

From what I have seen it seems fresh water takes longer to grow and it doesn't grow as thick as Salt Water.... Yours should fill in after a while...

[kerry]

I had super fast growth with my FW but it was very thin as you say and very weak strands compared to SW.

[ruddybop]

I had super fast growth with my FW but it was very thin as you say and very weak strands compared to SW.

Let me say this differently.. It took my fresh water scrubber longer to get it started... Yes once it got started it grew fast...

It took mine a long time to grow (Meaning getting it started in the beginning stages. Took mine a couple of months or more until it was established.)

[kerry]

Mine was growing awesome in well under three weeks. I did have huge nitrate numbers though, like 80-160PPM in less then 4-5 days time. Maybe the high nutrients helped mine.

[ruddybop]

Mine was growing awesome in well under three weeks. I did have huge nitrate numbers though, like 80-160PPM in less then 4-5 days time. Maybe the high nutrients helped mine.

You know now that I'm thinking about it no wonder it took so long to grow. On a 9x14 canvas I started out with a cheap 1ft x 1ft grow light(standard leds) for a while then made my 6cfl/13w 6500K 78watt light.

Then changes the cfls to 6cfl/23w 2700K 138Watts. I forgot I did a lot of messing around until my light was complete... Mine is now growing in 4 to 5 days also...

[kerry]

You are doing just as I was then. Mine was on the low side of wattage but seeing that it grew like crazy I left it like that for a long time, after not being able to get the nitrate down to where I wanted I boosted up the light to where it needed to be and still didn't see any noticeable improvement.
I have an oceanic 150 trickle filter sump under my 75G African tank with a crap load of bio balls in it to keep the ammonia and nitrite under control with the 20+ fish it has in it. I thought that maybe on the pump side of the sump I could put a screen and LED's there. Maybe I can get better results with LED's?

[rleahaines]

Kerry,

Bio balls are notorious nitrate factories. Trickle filters are as well. They work to convert nitrite to nitrate, but then seem keep the nitrate around.

So then you need to use a algae scrubber to get rid of the nitrate. It may be that you would need even more wattage, flow rate and surface area to overcome the nitrate converted from the bioballs and trickle filter than what you would have to have for live rock and so on.

Thinking about the basics here

you convert ammonia to nitrite and then nitrate via the bio balls and trickle filter, then the nitrate builds up so you need the scrubber to get rid of the nitrate by exporting it in the form of grown algae taken out of the tank. Of course, water changes do this as well.

seem to me you have to balance the amount of time, flow rates of filters, lighting in the DT and scrubber and a bunch of other things.

Is running with bio balls and a trickle filter worth it?

[kerry]

I understand how bad the bio balls are but I dont have any other filter right now that would handle the bio load I have. By the most accurate count I have 26 Africans in a 75G tank to keep the peace and it pretty calm in there with all the over crowding. I will soon have a Screen on the FW and slowly ween the bio balls away.
I have 6 scrubbers running right now on my salt tanks. I have had a dual screen FW scrubber on my 150G before I swapped it to salt. I have had a tank since 1978 and know about the nitrogen cycle and understand the carbon cycle as well.
Thanks for the info and concern its well respected.

[SantaMonica]

Algae prefer ammonia over nitrate. So the growth of the algae will be less effective if the ammonia is already taken up by the bio balls.