Marc's HOG.5 UAS

[mtbeeson]

The UAS should produce more coppapods than what, a refugium? Also, while I have the HOG 5, I am also still running my protein skimmer. I haven't decided whether or not to turn my skimmer off after I add another UAS. Will that affect my coppapod growth?

Here are a few photos of my tank. The algae is not perfect but much better than before. I attribute the HOG 5 and more water flow to the biggest differences in my water quality improvement. Thanks for all your advise. I'm sure I'll have many more questions as time goes on.



Happy Holidays.

[SantaMonica]

A scrubber will make pods, not remove them. A skimmer will remove them.

Tank is off to a good start... lots of rock. Don't move them or change flow; you want the most periphyton possible to grow the most pods.

[sabbath]

A scrubber will make pods, not remove them. A skimmer will remove them.

Tank is off to a good start... lots of rock. Don't move them or change flow; you want the most periphyton possible to grow the most pods.

Oh Boy, So are you saying that blowing stuff off of the rocks is bad. As I use a turkey baster once a week or so to blow out the detritus and the slime algae that starts up in spots. Is this the smoking gun of my HA troubles? The guys on RC say to mix up the flow and do the turkey baster thing....?

[SantaMonica]

Blowing stuff off is a different issue.

Changing flow, or rock positioning, is what kills perphyton.

[sabbath]

Blowing stuff off is a different issue.

Changing flow, or rock positioning, is what kills perphyton.

How do you fell about wave makers or I have heard of people running one head power during the day and a different one at night?

I think that you might be onto something with this. I used to hit the rocks with a turkey baster and did not hit one area at the back right. Ironically this area is the one area that did not have algae on the rocks. I started to hit this area a while back and now I'm starting to get algae there as well.
Have you found my algae troubles smoking gun?
Thanks

[SantaMonica]

Wave makers are alternating flow, which are fine. Moving a powerhead to a new location, or removing the power head entirely, is changing flow which will starve the periphyton in the old location.

Blowing off the rocks simply gives algae a place to attach to that is not so dusty.

[sabbath]

Wave makers are alternating flow, which are fine. Moving a powerhead to a new location, or removing the power head entirely, is changing flow which will starve the periphyton in the old location.

Blowing off the rocks simply gives algae a place to attach to that is not so dusty.

Sounds like we want dusty rocks to me. Do you have any Periphyton info for dummy's links. I would like to read more on this as it is sounds interesting and important.

[SantaMonica]

Just google it... lots of info.

[mtbeeson]

Thanks for the info. I want to get a Mandarin but want to make sure I have sufficient pods in the tank. I know the protein skimmer takes them away but I am so leary of not using the skimmer. First, I don't have a big enough scrubber for what I'm feeding, plus I'm just someone who has always used a skimmer. It is like my security blanket. Other than removing pods, are there disadvantages to using my skimmer along with my scrubber?

[SantaMonica]

Removes food, and does not remove ammonia. There is no security.