ATS - Algae Turf Scrubber

Touch the "coralline" the next time your are cleaning. If it feels soft, then it's actually the beginning of red/brown turf.

 

turff algae scrubber

well algae like all other living organisms need food to survive. i would suspect not enough nitrate/DOC's, or not the correct spectral data on the bulbs. u cant grow corals with incandesent bulbs for lack of spectral variance or intensity... same is for algae, micro or macro, each species will react differently to all conditions... maybe play around with differnt colors...
Good to see you all, ill be posting some, cant wait to tell my story on the fish tank gone bad...
HaHa hate to say i told ya so... I knew this subject would Rise again! its to good not to... nothing shy of Miraculous IMO...


MadCat12
EVERYTHING has its Limits!

 

i'll be building this one tomorrow

 

I have purchased what I believe are all of the supplies I'll need to build a 2g bucket setup for one of our 14g BioCubes. I even bought a dremel and three pipes in case I screw up with it.

Once I've started building (hopefully over this weekend!) I will take pictures and possibly video of my sad attempt at DIY. I'm supremely confident that algae will grow on the screen and less in the main display -- in my nano, that benefit alone is worth my time and small investment.

 

your screen should be kinda wide,with lots of flow over it with plenty of light.make sure the screen sits in some water to kill the noise.I clean mine every 5-7 days.one time i went 2 weeks and the scrubber was full of pods.millions of them.you can see were they eat the alge(bald spots on screen).anyone with alge issues should at least try this,it works plain and simple.

 

you can see a really cool ats in action at the branch harbor institute in martin or in ft pierce. it was one of the large expensive ones with mulitple racks, but might be good for some ideas. link around here somewhere to an article on it for those of you living hundreds of miles away...just have to find it....okay be back in a few i guess...

 

So as an update, I still got the coraline bloom on the ATS. But its only happening on the lower section of the screen (mine is about 8 inches in height) so it prolly is a lack of light. Making a new ATS this weekend thats 3x the width so there is only about a 2 inch screen that hangs so more light can be focused right at the water line.

 

You will need one bulb for every 12" of width, unless you use T5's.

 

As soon as my silicone dries, I'll be done with the ATS and ready to connect it to my tank. I was feeling hasty and didn't take pictures of the setup along the way, but I will try to capture pictures of the screen at specific intervals to note the growth -- I can always setup another one and take pictures of that as a "How I Did It" kind of thing. It probably won't work the way one should, cause that slot ain't easy to make for a first-time dremel-user. I am very happy that I purchased a dremel kit, though, because, man, that thing does everything but make me sushi and get me a Kirin. WELL worth the ~$60 investment.

Some things to note if you're going to build one per SM's specifications:
1) Bulkheads are not at the common hardware store, at least not here in San Jose, CA. I'd have to go to a specialty shop to get one, which I tried to do, but they closed 5 minutes early those jokers. If you do use bulkheads and buy them from the site SM referred to, don't buy two to use the washer on the second one -- The same site sells the washer separately for around $0.65, much cheaper than another bulkhead.
2) If you don't have easy access to, or see a benefit in using a bulkhead, you can buy a simple connector for pocket change that goes from slip on one side to FIPT on the inside of the other end to connect the thread-to-hose piece to. I traced the end that will go in the hole on the bucket and used a dremel to bore out the bucket hole and sand it smooth, and then used silicone to make sure it seals properly. (I don't have that bore attachment to make a nice purty circle.)

 

So, how are the ATSs going for everyone? I just "built" one for my sump and this is day two. It looks like some small amounts of algae forming, but it's hard to tell. It might just be me wanting it there...lol. Guess we'll see in a few days. I'll be posting pics soon of my setup to see what everyone thinks, unless it's not really growing algae on it....