I placed a white 1" adapter onto the bulkhead where water drains out of my new Santa Monica ATS. I did this to see if raising the water level up a bit would result in even faster or thicker algae growth. Not that I really needed it as the nitrates are always 0 nowadays; I was just curious if raising the water level would result in increased algae growth. Sure enough it did. With just 4 days of growth on a clean screen, the chamber is now filled up extremely thick with algae. The stuff grows from the screen right across to the clear acrylic 3/4 inches or so away. When you look down into the ATS, you can see that the light is shining deep into the algae.
I'm still feeding heavy 3-5 times a day, no longer have a protein skimmer, I have removed about 7 gallons of sand from my former DSB, and yet here are my latest water test results.
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
92 gal corner tank