Algae scrubber?

They are both growing algae to export nutrients, so in that case they are the same concept. An algae scrubber basically creates conditions so the algae growing process is "supercharged". Tons of light, tons of water movement across the screens. More algae growth means increased uptake of the excess nutrients we are trying to get rid of. The algae grows so readily in the scrubber that "ideally" it won't grow in the display. Then you clean the screen to "export" the nutrients.

I got the L4 at fall fest, and since I was able to seed it from an established screen I had growth covering probably 90% of the screen in just one week. Now the screen is continuing to fill in and I'll probably be on a weekly cleaning cycle. That's CUPS of algae in just 7 days and from a scrubber that takes up very little space in the scheme of things.

 

What kind of nitrate and phosphate readings are you getting? Even after "fixing" the problems with feeding etc. and getting the nutrients you introduce into the tank under control the rock and sand can leach back out and feed the algae growth for quite a long time. Or the rocks and sand, depending on the source, could be the sole cause of your issues since the beginning. If you think that may be the case get some new salt water that reads 0 phosphates in a container and throw a few nice size pieces of your rock in there. If its leaching phosphates you'll be able to tell with testing after soaking them a few days.

 

Scrubber is similar to a refugium but does promote growth of a different type of macro, but essentially it maximizes the refugium concept by providing minimal water penetration for light, thin laminar flow, and once mature, a regenerating substrate

Each tank is different, and to some extent, each scrubber will grow different. If you take a tank that has gone long-term on one type of filtration and add in another, you will likely see an improvement no matter what additional piece you put in. You may also insert another dynamic that wasn't there that may cause things to change and all change has consequences. That's why you don't remove existing filtration before you add different/new, if you can.

A scrubber is good in combination with a skimmer and carbon. You attack organics and inorganics from all angles using these 3.

Regarding slime, whether that is green or red cyano, that is going to be the tough one to beat out. From what I have experienced, cyano is somewhat cyclical in nature. For instance if you move a bunch of rock or change your flow pattern, about 4-6 weeks later it's dinos or cyano for about 4 weeks no matter what you do really. So it is somewhat anecdotal to say that anything really fixes that. Long terms stability can really make a difference. But if you talking about trying to save corals through this time and preventing future possible outbreaks, a scrubber can really chop a leg out from under cyano. But it takes several weeks to get one mature to the point where it can do battle if you've got tough cyano. That being said I have had customers put one on and get good algae growth within 7-10 days and the get more immediate tank results.

If you chaeto is still growing OK, then you should, hypothetically, be able to get good scrubber growth. One way to test it: build a quick and dirty DIY one.

 

yep, that's classic bacterial die-off. Same can happen in an established tank just by changing an established flow pattern. That's why planning ahead is so important, then leaving things alone instead of constantly re-arranging. But that's hard to do /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/smile.gif

 

Possibly. I'd try manual removal and make sure things are set up the way they will be for good

 

It's really based on a combination of feeding and tank size. It used to be completely based on feeding but then the guideline was modified to be more centered around how much you feed, but when you get to a certain size of tank then you really need to stretch the size a bit IMO no matter how much you feed.

 

http://www.algaescubber.net

 

Don't go there if you want advice from me. I got banned and a large portion of my threads got deleted. I guess the admin preferred to not have people questioning his product logic while offering another option.