Ultra-High Nutrient Tank - No Scrubber Growth

[Ace25]

I have made those as well. But they kind of balked at the cost. A 40B is a cheap alternative for now. They currently just dump in 5g of RODI whenever the sump gets low. Plus an built-in ATO chamber would likely be on the end of the tank opposite the pumps and quite difficult to access. Still a possibility though.

Something I have always thought of doing later in life when I get my dream tank is to have a built in ATO section, then put a 'gas cap' on the side of the stand with a hose going to the ATO section, then you can use a new gas container with RO/DI to fill up the ATO easily from the outside.

[kotlec]

Introducing GHA to the tank might create a bigger problem though...the tank might turn into a forest!

I thing since screen will start somehow growing something on it , algae will be introduced anyways. Prepare chain saw.

[Floyd R Turbo]

Since your scrubbers are identical, have you thought about taking a screen from another tank, that's halfway through it's growth/cleaning cycle, and putting it in that scrubber? That way you jump to a fully functioning screen instead of a screen ramping up and hoping to stay ahead of whatever might spread from a seed rock throughout the tank.

I don't have 50 scrubbers LOL...I have sold 50 of the Rev 1 and 40 of the Rev 2 L2s plus a dozen+ L4s and a few L3s, all together over 100 units in use...no one with this issue in particular (because most people TRY to keep nutrients under control LOL)

Something I have always thought of doing later in life when I get my dream tank is to have a built in ATO section, then put a 'gas cap' on the side of the stand with a hose going to the ATO section, then you can use a new gas container with RO/DI to fill up the ATO easily from the outside.

Yeah I had thought of that too! So would you have a "fuel gauge" on the outside too, so you knew when to stop?? LOL

I thing since screen will start somehow growing something on it , algae will be introduced anyways. Prepare chain saw.

You know, it's always been said that the dark slime growth occurs in high nutrients, and that taking a screen from a scrubbed, low nutrient tank and putting it in a non-scrubbed, high nutrient tank would result in the GHA dying. So why is it that the next tank that I sort-of maintain (Chinese restaurant with no extra $$, but a 125 filled with algae) has N even higher, P who knows where, yet the tank is literally a forest of GHA? I mean, strands in the DT so long that they braid together to form 2' ropes, and the overflow teeth get clogged so badly that the water fills up to the tank lids before spilling over the top of the overflow boxes. No problem with GHA in that environment. Why is the scrubber different? Ok that's off topic. But anyways, I might strap a few scraps of screen to another scrubber for a few weeks and see if I can't seed the screen and/or system.

[Nick28]

Well I have 50 of the exact same scrubber out there being used by customers (original Rev 1 L2), and none of them have had zero growth like this. It's not the LED intensity specifically that is wrong. It has to have something to do with the nutrient levels, or lack of specific algae.

Initially when I re-started the tank, there was an on-and-off cyano bloom on the sand bed, mostly red, but some green. I was doing small PWCs and vacuuming the gravel bed for a while. Then I decided to leave the bed alone and let them just turn over the top layer when they cleaned the glass with the mop, and after a while it just went away. So there is a strong possibility that the tank is lacking the algae needed (no GHA). Even the display tank has never grown any GHA. Just this layer of red that is mostly picked off by the Sailfin Tang.

the bio-balls are there because, well, that's what they had, and the original owner was not interested in re-doing the entire filtration system. He just wanted the tank cleaned up and scratches taken out, and better fish. I put a bunch of fish in after the tank stabilized originally, then there was some unanticipated aggressiveness and the fish population dwindled down. I have wanted to get rid of the bioballs but for lack of any other initial filtration, I left them in to keep a cycle from happening and just haven't had the time to remove them.

The sump itself is a POS and the seams are starting to show signs of failure so the plan is to take a 40B and drill it for the pump bulkheads, then build an insertable acrylic intake chamber on one end which will overflow into a filter sock chamber (right now there is a filter pad & drip plate over the bio-balls), then the skimmer and scrubber. Unfortunately there is little room for an auto-top off system or a storage bucket, at least without modification to the wall surrounding the sump area.

However, the customer (new owner) is a former reef tank owner and is willing to really dump $$ into the tank. They actually get many positive comments now (from non-reef folks LOL)

The plan is:
Fix nutrients
Replace sump
remove non reef safe fish
replace PC lighting with LED (perhaps a couple of DreamChips)
Add a bunch more LR
Add corals and reef safe fish

But first things first. Why the problems with the scrubber....

makes sense since cyano is airborne. tank is sterilized of basically everything from the ocean.

some green algae is airborne like chlorella sp. but not sure if the stuff that grows on screens is.

even if you have one working with the same specs. Since there is little filtering, I would still try removing leds or turn off one side of the screen to see a different pattern.

could there be any medication or copper being dosed? Just giving you a few ideas.

[Floyd R Turbo]

I tore the tank down myself in April of 2010, sanded deep scratches out, then set it back up and I have been the only person to do anything to the tank since then - so unless there is copper bound in the rock, no. I also tested the tank before tear-down for copper using API and Salifert kits, so there was no indication of either forms of copper treatment.

[celtic_fox]

I don't have 50 scrubbers LOL...I have sold 50 of the Rev 1 and 40 of the Rev 2 L2s plus a dozen+ L4s and a few L3s, all together over 100 units in use...no one with this issue in particular (because most people TRY to keep nutrients under control LOL)

I thought my reply might be taken the wrong way. ;-)

I know what you were saying about the number of units sold. I simply meant that you probably have access to the same model on one of the other tanks you upkeep. (Your own or ones that you're paid to take care of.)

With a fully seeded screen you can eliminate to possiblity of no GHA spores (or whatever they use to propagate) in the tank, while hopefully limiting the possibility of an algae explosion while the scrubber is ramping up and still weak. (Might even be a good oportunity to test only scaping one side of the screen till the nutrients come down.)

If the then algae dies, then maybe we chalk it up to "high nutrients can limit or kill GHA", or we continue to try to come up with other theories.

[Nick28]

With a fully seeded screen you can eliminate to possiblity of no GHA spores (or whatever they use to propagate) in the tank, while hopefully limiting the possibility of an algae explosion while the scrubber is ramping up and still weak. (Might even be a good oportunity to test only scaping one side of the screen till the nutrients come down.)

yea try that

[Floyd R Turbo]

Good point...

[RkyRickstr]

High nutrients will slow scrubber growth.. inst that proven somewhere?.. what you have is LUDACRISSSS!!!!..

I would do water change after water change till I get nutrients within reach.. then run scrubber 6-8hrs a day to get going.. but thats just me what do I know.

[Floyd R Turbo]

Yep...I was hoping to somehow avoid the need for the huge PWCs so get the N and P to below insane levels.