Algae filtration

[berkdog]

I'm sure most of you have read something about algae filtration. Using saltwater plants to soak up nitrate and phosphate from your tank reduces the need for other types of strong filtration.

Last night, I visited a few LFS which were frequented by local reef club communities. Many of the tanks had algae filtration and protein skimmers in their sumps, and that's all! They said this was the best type of filtration ever as it left many good nutrients in the water, and the upkeep was getting rid of the extra algae (it grows) and topping off the tank (due to evaporation). Frequent water changes become less necessary, and your whole system finds equilibrium that is much closer to what is found in nature.

There are many do-it-yourself setups for this type of filtration and it is relatively VERY cheap. What are your thoughts? Thanks!

[berkdog]

Here's a decent writeup about this: Mega-Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover Replaces Skimmer, Refugium, Everything - UltimateReef.com

[charlie]

The guy that started that thread there, started that thread on I don't know how many boards, and was 86'd from a bunch of those same boards. The algal turf method has been around a long, long time. Just do a search on it, nothing new really, just a different method. JMHO

[berkdog]

I see. What about plants (planted) in saltwater tanks (ie: Turtle Grass http://www.sustainablereefs.com/?q=node/45)?

[charlie]

Alot of folks like turtle grass in there tanks, it is all personal preference. If you can control it, it makes a beautiful tank.

[Ninong]

The link you provided takes us to a thread discussing a type of ATS (algae turf scrubber) system. There are various versions of this method of filtration. I have seen a couple of tanks in action using the more common tray type of ATS that dumps the water from the tray directly into the aquarium, providing a nice intermittent surge. I thought it was a little clumsy and way too noisy for my taste.

ATS designs of one sort or another have been around for a very long time, especially some of the very large commercial systems employed by public aquariums. I don't think I would want to get into that for a 72-gal aquarium. It would be so much easier to simply keep some Chaetomorpha growing in your refugium set up with a photoperiod opposite that of the display tank. Then you simply harvest some of the chaeto every couple of weeks instead of having to scrape the ATS screen every couple of days or whatever.

Maybe when you graduate to your 700-gal dream tank you can rig up a really nice ATS system and then you can tell us all how you managed to isolate the sound and deal with the regular maintenance.

[Ninong]

The various marine grasses are nice for a dedicated tank designed as a lagoon with a sandy bottom and very little, if any, live rock. As Charlie said, you might have a hard time controlling turtle grass in your little 72-gal aquarium. It might take over in no time at all.

The Waikiki Aquarium has a nice tank with grass and mangroves. It was really cool. I had some pictures on here but they were lost during one of our many improvements to the board's software.

P.S. -- I used to have a link to a guy in Hollywood who had a really nice lagoon tank set up just for garden eels. I believe it was a 180-gal tank but I could be wrong about that. This was about nine or ten years ago. I tried finding his site several times over the past few years without success. He also had a larger, very beautiful reef tank.

[berkdog]

Does Chaetomorpha help with nitrates? Anyway, i think it might be illegal in CA

[Ninong]

Yes, keeping macroalgae in the sump/refugium helps with nitrates because it is harvested regularly, thus exporting nutrients from the system.

Chaetomorpha is not illegal in California. Only nine species of Caulerpa are illegal.



P.S. -- Here is a list of the Caulerpa spp. that are banned in California. The City of San Diego bans possession of ALL Caulerpa species within city limits. There are about three or four dozen species in the Caulerpa genus but only a few of those are regularly imported in the trade.

We have discussed this topic dozens of times in the past, starting even before California started considering this law. At first they wanted to ban the entire Caulerpa genus but we all wrote letters and emails to Sacramento asking the legislature to ban only C. taxifolia and those species that looked like it. They added C. racemosa only because it would be able to survive in Southern California waters. The reason they had to ban other Caulerpa species that looked like C. taxifolia was because the inspectors would not be able to tell the difference between them and C. taxifolia.

[berkdog]

Interesting Ninong.

When you said:
It would be so much easier to simply keep some Chaetomorpha growing in your refugium set up with a photoperiod opposite that of the display tank.

Does photoperiod mean when the light is on? For example, if my display tank lights are on 8a-5p, then put the refrugium lights on 5p-8a? Photoperiod?

[Ninong]

Yes, photoperiod means the time the lights are on. For example, you might have your lights over the main display tank come on at 9 a.m. and go off at 9 p.m. Then, if you have a lighted refugium, you might have those lights come on at 9 p.m. and go off at 11 a.m.

Most people run their refugium lights when their main display lights are off. That way the algae in the refugium are producing oxygen while the algae (e.g., zooxanthellae) in the main display tank are producing CO2. That helps to reduce the swings in pH.

There are various opinions on how long the lights over the refugium should be on. I would recommend anything from 12-18 hours but some people prefer to keep them on 24/7, especially if they have Caulerpa in their refugium. There are reasons why I recommend 18 hours or less just as there are reasons why some people prefer 24 hours. You can easily google for why this is so. I don't feel like writing a book about it just now.