I am a little new to ATSs just waiting for parts to order to set one up in my sump. But is it possible to setup a scrubber on a quarantine tank? I always wanted to setup a QT tank but didn't want to deal with ammonia spikes. If the medications used and or copper didn't harm the growth of the algae I think this would be an awesome solution for new arrivals and speedier recoveries/ adjustment.
It would only work if you kept the QT going all the time with animals and feeding. Algae absorbs a lot of nutients and needs heavy feeding to keep it growing. So if you could just keep a heavy eater or two in there, the scrubber would stay grown and ready for new arrivals.
Would the same sq inch of mesh be used in a QT? 1 per gallon with a light on each side as a normal reef tank. Or with such a small bio load could that be reduced? My thought would be to use a seeded canvas from the main tank trimmed down to size.
I have a 30 gallon tank that will be used and a magnum250 canister filter that will feed the ATS and that will then drop into the QT tank.
Use the feeding guidline:
Each cube of frozen food you feed per day needs 12 square inches of screen, with a light on both sides totaling 12 watts. Thus a nano that is fed one cube a day would need a screen 3 X 4 inches with a 6 watt bulb on each side. A larger tank that is fed 10 cubes a day would need a screen 10 X 12 inches with 60 watts of light on each side. If you feed flake, feeder fish, or anything else, you will need to blend it up super thick, strain out the excess water, pour it into a cube, and see how many cubes it is.
I just built one using a Magnum canister. Camera batteries dead, but here's a ghetto sketch. Saw you reading my thread. Hope this sketch helps.
Basically, my scrubber is a 5.5g tank with dual 18w CFL curlyq bulbs. 7.5" x 8.5" plastic #10 mat. I switched my intake/outlet tubes around on the Magnum. The fuge is full of water, so I just spun the short bendy tube around and stuck it in the water - thats my new intake tube. The long J-tube is now my outlet tube. The 3/4" ID vinyl slips right over it with a bit of force. The rise is about 9" and the hose length is about 18". The spraybar is 1" pvc with a cap on one end and then a few fittings to change it into a 3/4" hose barb nipple. I already had a 1" hole saw and bulk head in my plumbing spare parts box, so I just popped a hole in the back of the little tank and used a 90* to drop the water back into the fuge. There's about 1.5" of water in the bottom of the scrubber tank.
Yeah after reading that you were using a magnum for your ATS got me thinking about the one I have stored away from a past freshwater setup. With money being tight anything that I already have will get utilized somehow.
Thanks for the advice. ATS are still all new to me but very excited that I don't have to spend money buying skimmers and can put that towards more important things.
Originally Posted by SantaMonica
Couldn't you just dose some ammonia or leave something in there to rot every now and then, like with a fish-less cycle?
No, algae grows best with urea, which is different than pure ammonia. You need live animals.
Ah well, I shall resist suggesting the obvious :roll:
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