Transition plan

[AndyBlack]

Hi,

Today I finished my first algae scrubber and I was looking for a little advice on time frames for eliminating various pieces of equipment.

So, I'm running the typical protein skimmer, GFO reactor, and a little chaeto. I was thinking after 1 month of running the algae scrubber I would remove the GFO reactor. Wait another month and remove the chaeto. Wait one more month and remove the skimmer

Does this sound reasonable? Or would you recommend a slower approach?

Thanks,

Andy

[SantaMonica]

If your scrubber is sized and operated correctly, once you can clean a full screen or two, it will be good to go by itself. It's better to judge by the growth, than by a number of weeks. Only exception is wet/dry's: If you need a wet/dry for breeding or predator tanks, then you might want to keep the wet/dry so you don't depend on the scrubber for ammonia removal.

[King_Neptune]

Check out mudsharks ToTM thread. He had to ween his system off a skimmer. I think he did it slowly over a couple months. one day a week he shut off his skimmer, then 2,3,4,5 ect. I cant remember exactly the timetable, but look there for some ideas on how to ween to a scrubber only.

[SantaMonica]

True he did that, but most people just turn it right off, and get good results. Remember all a skimmer is doing is removing food, so you can compensate for this immediately by just feeding less. Cut your feeding in half, stop skimming, and your corals will actually be getting more food. This is, of course, after you have cleaned three screens of algae.

Note: Heavy bio loads like breeding tanks, retail tanks, and large predetor tanks, are different. Their main concern is ammonia, and it's probably a good idea to never remove the wet/dry filter.