My ATS

[Samper]

I had this stuff laying around so I built an algae turf scrubber. Basically there is an acrylic box with a drip plate in the bottom of it. I attached fine extruded pvc mesh screens to three outlets with slits cut into the bottom edge of each with an air tool. Each outlet can be removed for screen cleaning. I am gravity feeding this from the display and again gravity feeding to the sump. I have three clip on reflectors attached. One aimed down on the screens and one on each left and right side. Each reflector houses an 18w Bright effects daylight spectrum 65k bulb. These are all on a timer. I plan to attach a fan to this aimed down on the drip plate to maybe cool some water passing through. My temperature has not increased as these bulbs aren't that hot. These are super bright lights that don't consume much energy. The pics I am attaching were taken I believe on day 5 of operation. The screens are getting covered pretty quick. I don't know what effects this will have on the system other than it's a bit unsightly but it's not gonna hurt anything. I do still have some tweaking to do. My slits that I cut are not perfect and the water isn't running evenly down two of the three screens. Never the less algae is already growing on the majority of each screen.

[charlie]

Is this in addition to your refugium? I am just wondering how the 2 will compete with one another.

[Samper]

Hey Charlie. This is in addition to my refugium. I really don't know what this thing is going to do for me. I wonder if pods will grow in it or if the pH will be effected once these screens are covered in turf. Will my refugium growth slow or will it starve out anything? I don't know. Each screen is 12X12" doubled up extruded pvc mesh.

Industrial Netting - Extruded Plastic Mesh
Part Number: XN 6080
Hole Size: .021" x .027"
Thickness: .014"
Strands (per inch): 27.5 x 25
Nominal Open Area: 35%

I removed my sandbed when I moved and went bare bottom in both of my 75 gallons. I've enjoyed not having sand for these past two months. Of four Fungia sp. and two Herpolitha limax that sit on the bottom only one Fungia has acted like not having sand bothered it. It bleached quite a bit and I've begun feeding it more often with rods food and cyclop eeze soaked in selcon. I think the others prefer to sit on the acrylic pieces I siliconed in a long time ago in case I ever went bb. I've had two types of alga appear since the move in my main display that have been somewhat invasive. One forms almost what looks like white chicken foot shaped roots with serrated very thin and delicate leaves. It grows very dense very quick. I can remove most of the leaves but these roots get a good firm hold even on pvc pipe. The other is a hair algae for sure that has appeared on a very dense rock. This rock is heavy but actually floated when I put it in. It has always collected a ton of deitritus evident when I baste it out. I may just remove it but I really like the shape. I don't measure any NO3 or PO4. I can keep these two alga at bay by manual removal and the Turbo fluctuosa snails eats the feathery leaved alga.

I've been told my scrubber is ugly...and it is a bit unsightly I'll admit but I'm keepin it for a while to see what happens. Can tear it down in prob under a minute if I wanted.

I may do a much larger version of this at school. Have about 600' X 35" of screen left.

[charlie]

I bet that your refugium growth is gonna slow down. That said, what do you think you will do if one or the other is really adversly affected? I don't think your pod growth will suffer at all, either way they have to thru the big propeller on the way back to the display.
Soooooooooooooooooo, you joined the BB club, now I don't feel so alone anymore.

[Samper]

The scrubber doesn't really please the eye like my refugium which I actually like to be seen. If it came down do it and all my macro algae died in the fuge I don't know what I'd do. The scrubber would be working extremely well for that to happen. I only have the lights running during the display photoperiod because it is too bright to run in the same room at night...I mean it's really bright. Since I moved my pH has been staying between 8.0-8.2. If I ran both the fuge and scrubber simultaneously at night could I raise my pH and further minimize the swing if the macro algae doesn't suffer? I'd have to put some sort of shroud around it but I want to test it out.

I did join the bb club......I wanted to for a long time and moving that sandbed wasn't an option...nor was buying a bunch of aragonite. I don't see any problem with it. I can siphon the bottom come wc time and to be honest very little deitritus settles there anyway. I added some powerheads and don't have any real dead spots at all. Only the one Fungia has shown any sign of a problem since removing the sand which may not even be related. My skimmer pulls out more skimmate now too.

The majority of the people that have seen it say that they really like the bb looks in that the display appears "cleaner". . . but that they prefer the sandbed. Who cares what they like .

[charlie]

That may be a tough choice my friend!!!

By the time the bottom of the tank covers over with coralline, no one will notice. It is actually a nice change for bright sand!!