my homemade ATS acrylic box

[SantaMonica]

How many full screens have you cleaned off?

[dota]

About 3- 4 times so far

[SantaMonica]

Let's see a pic before and after cleaning.

[dota]

Let's see a pic before and after cleaning.

ok i will post few pics tomorrow.
as my NO3 very high( 50mg/l), do i need to do the water change first ? or just leave it to the ATS to eat all the no3 ?

[SantaMonica]

Any way of lowering NO3 will help.

[dota]

first of all let me introduce my ATS

PH = 3600 lph (i think im going to upgrade it to 4500 lph) [color=#FF0000]should i[/color] ?
i use 2 screen (32.5 cm x 20 cm)
light was on 13 hours, but i just changed 2 days ago to (18 hours on)
14W x 4 FL bulb (each side)
and my aquarium is 150 x 60 x 60 Cm

It's look like this...


The first few weeks..


2 months later (NOW) BEFORE Cleaning


AFTER cleaning


i didnt clean it every 7 days, sometimes maybe 10 days ( if im lazy). i always clean one screen each time.
but the thing is, in that 7 days the algae wont grow that thick.. dats why sometimes i leave it to 10 days..
[color=#FF0000]On the bottom of the ats box there are some dark green hair algae, should i clean it?[/color]

my No3 was high.. about 40 - 50 mg/L ops: , and now... still about the same (i just tested it couple days ago)
[color=#FF0000]why..?[/color]

this is the cover of my overflow box, [color=#FF0000]does this algae do any good for reducing the no3?[/color]


btw, i feed my fishes quite alot 3 -5 times a day (small portion) with pellet (most of times) , sometimes Nori.
[color=#FF0000]is that too much ..?[/color]
[color=#FF0000]how many % of algae should i leave it ?[/color]
Please help me out boss

[SantaMonica]

PH = 3600 lph (i think im going to upgrade it to 4500 lph) should i ?
i use 2 screen (32.5 cm x 20 cm)

If your two screens are end-to-end, they are about 32 X 2 = 64cm wide (25 inches). Flow should be 25 X 35 = 875 gph = 3325 lph. So if the screens are single layer, you should have enough. More flow can be better, if your screen is rough so that the algae can hold on.

i didnt clean it every 7 days, sometimes maybe 10 days ( if im lazy). i always clean one screen each time. but the thing is, in that 7 days the algae wont grow that thick.

Dark growth won't get thick.

dats why sometimes i leave it to 10 days. my No3 was high.. about 40 - 50 mg/L, and now... still about the same (i just tested it couple days ago) why..?

Because you are not cleaning it enough. High nitrate means dark growth. Dark growth needs to be cleaned ever 3 or 4 days, until nitrates come come down. Then it will be more green and you can go more days.

this is the cover of my overflow box, does this algae do any good for reducing the no3?

If you clean it at the same time as the screens, yes.

i feed my fishes quite alot 3 -5 times a day (small portion) with pellet (most of times) , sometimes Nori. is that too much ..?

14W x 4 FL bulb (each side)

112 total watts. You should be able to feed about 10 cubes a day. Not yet though, until it starts growing green.

how many % of algae should i leave

Clean all of the dark stuff off. Don't leave any dark stuff on the screen. Later, when it's green, you can leave some green on, but not much.

[dota]

is my algae still consider as a dark growth ...?

on the pic " AFTER cleaning" should i clean the screen more..? i mean should i get rid that bit of dark stuff off or is it clean enough ?

Oke, i will clean in every 3days for the moment

And thank You a lot !

[SantaMonica]

It is still dark.

Your cleaning looks good.

[dota]

hey bos, i just curious how long do u think my " dark growth " will be turn greener..?

last week i've been cleaned the screen [color=#0000FF]twice[/color] ( every 3 days both screen at a time), which is usually i cleaned one screen only at a time.

today, i saw the screen still hv dark growth, i will be cleaning the screen again on thrusday. i know my nitrate is still high, dats y it grew dark.

so, im just curious how long does it take ? coz at the moment i dont hv time to do the water change at all.