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Thread: Semi-New ATS Not working properly. Please help.

  1. #11
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    Ok this is just a case of high nutrients needing stronger light. The middle had actually already grown, but detached because waterfall screens don't hold dark slime very well. Do this:

    Clean/brush all the growth away, including the slot and box, and inside the screen holes.
    Run the light 24 hours (no timer).
    Slow the flow a bit so it does not wash away the slime; all you need is some type of flow across the screen.
    Do any other filtering you can to bring nutrients down.
    Clean as soon as the screen fills in, which might be every 3 days.

    As more nutrients get pulled out of the water, growth will be greener and will start attaching more to the screen. Then you can go an extra day longer for cleaning, and start doing less of the other filtering.

  2. #12

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    Yes my nutrients are very high In this tank due to it being a fish only tank. I got the ATS to hopefully eliminate the need for consistent panel cleanings. Which on a 300 can be quite cumbersome weekly.

    I have set the unit for 24 hours. How long should I do that for? I have reduced the flow as it was causing some leaks and other things since the flow was so much which I mentioned previously. I cleaned the screen very we this time and replaced the zip ties and cleaned the slot real good.

    Once I see growth I should clean it right away? I did notice a bunch of algae fell off into the bottom of the unit. Probably from the middle section.

    I will give all this a try and see what happens. I do not experience this at all in my smaller reef tank one.

  3. #13
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    Clean as soon as black slime fills the screen holes. Black slime cannot hold on to plastic screens like it can with rocky textures. Leave 24 hours until you get green growth that is turning yellow from too much light, which may not happen though with your high nutrients and that low-output light which is mostly heat. You could consider replacing the lights with stronger wattage, or get an additional scrubber. But see how the changes so far work out in the next 4 weeks. Water changes will help green grow faster, by lowering nutrients.

    This is a good example of why I rate scrubbers based on feeding instead of gallons.

  4. #14

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    I will give this all a go.

    Unfortunately this unit was gigantic as it is and I doubt I have enough room for another one or a larger one.

    I will keep at it. I will also look into other options as well. I don’t know if it’s a good idea to do any carbon dosing or anything that may effect the scrubber.

  5. #15
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    Carbon dosing will help reduce nutrients, which will help. GFO too. The idea is to get nutrients lower so green can grow, which will then attach and not fall off. Once the growth is not falling off you can go longer between cleanings.

  6. #16

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    I just bought some Chemipure Blue. Going to try that for the "GFO". I could also carbon dose as well. I have NoPx. I am afraid if I do that however I will have some sort of cyano or diatom bloom.

  7. #17

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    Would Red Sea NoPx have a negative effect on the scrubber? Also if I use the Chemipure which is essentially Carbon and GFO anyway would that have a negative effect on the scrubber? Once I get nutrients down is my main goal should I then take out these forms of reduction such as the Chemipure?

  8. #18
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    As long as dosing or gfo brings down nutrients to a lower level that allows green to grow, it will help.

  9. #19

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    Hello again. Been doing the dosing for a few days now. Not a lot of growth yet. I was wondering if I use something like Chemipure Blue (GFO, Carbon, Etc) would that hurt the Algae scrubber in anyway? I would like to use it combat the phosphates a little more and keep them in check while using he scrubber as my bio load seems to be quite high.

  10. #20
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    If growth is still black slime, you need to continue to reduce them more until growth turns green.

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