Mega Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover - DIY!
- Thread starter SantaMonica
- Start date
Update:
The cyano stage: Some people, who start using a scrubber for the first time, get rid of their nuisance algae but then get some cyano that they never had before. The reason for this is that cyano is able to "fix" it's own nitrogen, which means it is good at getting the last nutrients that are available. However, once these last nutrients are removed, the cyano will go away too. And the more powerful the scrubber is, the quicker this happens.
The cyano stage: Some people, who start using a scrubber for the first time, get rid of their nuisance algae but then get some cyano that they never had before. The reason for this is that cyano is able to "fix" it's own nitrogen, which means it is good at getting the last nutrients that are available. However, once these last nutrients are removed, the cyano will go away too. And the more powerful the scrubber is, the quicker this happens.
santimonica i got some catching up to do lol, my turf scrubber been going for about 2 weeks now and i got some algea growth at least so i know i've done something right lol. but mine is just in a rubbermade container that i drilled out and just standard 3/4 inch pvc pipe. it's a 1 sided screen with a single cfl and reflector. and it's attached to a 30 gallon tank. but as of now the algae is a super dark green and pretty thin, guessing that is to be expected this early in the start up. but thus far it's at least working
"Assessing Evidence of Phase Shifts from Coral to Macroalgal Dominance on Coral Reefs"
Ecological Society of America, June 2009
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"Our database included 3,581 quantitative surveys of 1,851 coral reefs (or sites) performed between 1996 and 2006. Our analysis was based on quantitative surveys that measured the percentage of the substratum covered by living coral and fleshy or calcareous macroalgae between 1 and 15 meters depth."
[A simplified version of Table 1]
Caribbean -- Corals: 20%, Algae: 23%
Florida Keys -- Corals: 8%, Algae: 15%
Indo-Pacific -- Corals: 33%, Algae: 12%
Great Barrier Reef -- Corals: 31%, Algae: 9% "
"Overall, our results indicate that there is no general recent trend (i.e., post-1995) toward macroalgal dominance."
"Macroalgal cover on these 'pristine' reefs is similar to the regional averages for three of our four study regions, suggesting that macroalgal cover may currently be close to the historical baseline across most the world."
"Macroalgal cover and coral cover are widely assumed to be causally linked and inversely related. Yet we found only weak negative relationships between coral and macroalgal cover. Surprisingly, macroalgal cover has not increased appreciably on most of the world’s reefs that have very low coral cover. For example, 379 of the 1,851 reefs had less than 10% coral cover, but macroalgal cover was also low (less than 20%) on nearly two thirds of these reefs. In fact, more than half the benthic cover on reefs in the Caribbean, Pacific and Indian Oceans consists of organisms other than hard corals and macroalgae, possibly because other taxa, such as sponges and gorgonians, have been the primary beneficiaries of coral loss."
Ecological Society of America, June 2009
An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie
"Our database included 3,581 quantitative surveys of 1,851 coral reefs (or sites) performed between 1996 and 2006. Our analysis was based on quantitative surveys that measured the percentage of the substratum covered by living coral and fleshy or calcareous macroalgae between 1 and 15 meters depth."
[A simplified version of Table 1]
Caribbean -- Corals: 20%, Algae: 23%
Florida Keys -- Corals: 8%, Algae: 15%
Indo-Pacific -- Corals: 33%, Algae: 12%
Great Barrier Reef -- Corals: 31%, Algae: 9% "
"Overall, our results indicate that there is no general recent trend (i.e., post-1995) toward macroalgal dominance."
"Macroalgal cover on these 'pristine' reefs is similar to the regional averages for three of our four study regions, suggesting that macroalgal cover may currently be close to the historical baseline across most the world."
"Macroalgal cover and coral cover are widely assumed to be causally linked and inversely related. Yet we found only weak negative relationships between coral and macroalgal cover. Surprisingly, macroalgal cover has not increased appreciably on most of the world’s reefs that have very low coral cover. For example, 379 of the 1,851 reefs had less than 10% coral cover, but macroalgal cover was also low (less than 20%) on nearly two thirds of these reefs. In fact, more than half the benthic cover on reefs in the Caribbean, Pacific and Indian Oceans consists of organisms other than hard corals and macroalgae, possibly because other taxa, such as sponges and gorgonians, have been the primary beneficiaries of coral loss."
This is my turf scrubber its about 2 months old everything seems to be doing ok so far. I was wondering about a few things santamonica 1st is the red thing on the side of my tank do you or anyone have any idea what it may be? 2nd is i was thinking of getting a Carpet Anemone and paring it w/dworf clown fish. Do you have any pointers,tips or advise that may help me decide weather to invest in the items.ty [video=youtube_share;Q5TYlyyvrC0]http://youtu.be/Q5TYlyyvrC0[/video]
The scrubber when all said and done took about a month to realy grow nice and healthy green algae. Ty its a community tank so there would be nothing to hide from, although there was 1 bad fire fish so i demoted him to the scrubber tank because he was hurting the other fire fish.I am colored blind and I saw the electric carpet anemone so its only a matter of what I can see and what makes my eyes pop lol.Ty for your help and ideas I truly would be lost or broke spending $$on products I dont need, the scrubber is such a natural and great idea!!Ty KCmopar for the help also
i still find it amazing at how well the scrubbers work, i mean it's deffinatly sound in theory and in the science of it but half the time when sound in theory it realy don't work but it does. but algae eats up nitrates and phosphates as food and absorb other toxins and when u clean the screans u are removing all that from the system. amazing how a natural and a cheap solution works and i'm glad mopar suggested it to me. now just need the scrubber to kick into high gear so i can remove my skimmer and not hear my air pump anymore.
I was to very worried about stopping my skimmer but, did so on the the second week. I don't even miss it!! LOL. The scrubbers a great that's for sure. I am waiting for mine to go all green as well. Today was the best green I have had. It had a medium to dark green strip down the center about 2" wide and the brown had more of a green to it as well. Have you been to Algae Scrubbers • Index page This is where I have gotten most of my info. My name there is just "Kerry". They have some really great knowledgeable reefers there and they are friendly too.
I am just glad to help anyone with the SW struggle. My SW tanks always seemed to be a challenge until I found the scrubber deal. What a success my SW tanks are now!!!! Matter of fact my FW tanks are now more taxing then my SW is LOL. However I do read on the algae scrubber site that there are some corals that do not do well with the scrubber set up but, it only seems to be some people so it may not be a scrubber issue at all. The scrubber site also has some very technical info on SW as well.