Mason James
Quote:
"The ats can be really tricky to get to take. Especially a reverse. I've ran an ats but for the opposite reasons I assume you are wanting to. But maybe i should ask why you are wanting to run one? Like any form of life, algae needs To feed. You need to create that envioroment where it can thrive. Do you really want to be promoting an environment where it can thrive? Or would you rather promote an environment where it's not so ideal for it? non the less there can be certain benefits from doing so (also negatives) if you choose but just keep in mind that they can be tricky to get going and maintain. So your attempts may or may not have been limited by available nutrients. The algae on the glass can find a meal so there is food to be had.
I understand you seem to be only limited to the algae on the glass. Which you very well may be, and being the tank is receiving more sunlight recently it could very well be the cause for an increase in growth. But as I said before, the only way the algae that is growing on your glass can get an availabe meal is through the water column. So your water has algae fertilizer floating around in it. Is this a nutrient problem? I don't know. Is the algae doing you a favor and consuming 100% of the extra nutrients that are availabe? or is there a percent of the extra not being consumed and is getting sinked someplace else? When you clean your glass of the algae is 100% of that algae and the nutrients they consumed being removed and filtered out?
The algae problem really could be a s simple as your just fertilizing the tank with too much of that fancy "food". Ditch all the extra for while and see if that helps. I'm only trying to stress that the nutrients are there. Work to fix it before those nutrients start to be stored elsewhere else."
The reasons I am wanting to experiment with an algae scrubber are.....
1: No more carbon. I think it is better not to run carbon and it costs money.
2: My understanding is that it takes nutients to grow algae. Does that not mean the the scubber will take nutrients out of the water?
Is it not better to have the algae grow on a piece of plastic, in my refugium, in the basement? There is little light down there so I do not see it spreading from the box it is in. The light to grow it has to be at a low kelvin and intense from what I have read. If that is true, I believe it cannot live to far from the actual scrubber.
Yes, there could be minute pieces that float out, but will it not die off and get skimmed if it does not have the required parameters?
I do wonder if it will propogate in the DT as it is a different type of algae that grows on the plastic as to the one that grows on my glass. Or, at least my research says that.
3: I think a scrubber is more natural filtration.
I agree that it may or may not be a nutrient issue, as to why I am having trouble getting it going. Something I will have to determine and fudge with.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algae_scrubber