2 issues- Algae and Dying torch

[newbie2]

I am by no means and expert but diatoms tend to come back if you have an influx of silicates, could there be silicates in/on the filter material you were talking about earlier?

[AquaAddict]

OK, here's my 2 cents worth:

To my way of thinking exchanging water every day means that a percentage of the new water put in yesterday ends up being removed the next day. I would think that to be wasteful.

AquaAddict

[reefwithareefer]

Newbie 2

I am wondering the same thing. I have always used a filter cloth, but changed over to a different one a month ago. I do not know for certain if it has silicates, oils etc in it. But out they come.


Aqua Addict

In theory I would agree, but the research that Randy Holmes and others have done, say that this in ot so, or it is so minor that not worth worrying about.
In reality, Reefing is wasteful. I use rodi water for changes and topoffs. I can not remember the ratio, but I think I "throw away" 3 gals of waste water for every rodi water I get to keep. Never mind using 2 gals of water a day.
Part of my reason to do daily changes, was to see if it will help reuce water changes or the amout used/wasted..Time will tell.

[Masonjames]

Originally Posted by reefwithareefer

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

Sure. Ats work, refugiums work, macros work. They have proven themselves time and time again to be an effective tool. So, I don't see why you would not be able to make one work yourself. These can be effective tools, and they ca have there benefits. But IMO it will simply come down to the environment you are trying to create and the critters you are trying to keep, wether a deliberate inclusion of algae into your sytem fits with that or not.
Before you try and understand ats, refugiums, macros etc. I woudl first try and broader your understanding of the nature of algae itself and the enviormnet it needs and promotes. I am sure you may learn a few things about it that may help you understand a bit better if deliberately including it your system fits the bill for you or not.
I have ran an ats. And it worked for the purposes I intended it to. But I used it slightly differnt then most i would imagine. I learned a few things out about what makes alage tick, and I took advantage of some of its other qualities and used it as a means to raise my systems trophic indices to that of eutrophic. I wanted to raise nutrient levels and keep them within the system. So an ats (algae) fit the bill for my needs.
You cannot have one without the other. Algae comes with the territory or it doesn't. Wether it's deliberate or not. If you wish to promote a higher nutrient system, which you may want to depending on what your trying to achieve with your system then algae can be a wonderful tool to use. If you wish to promote pod life and or all types of critters for certain fish/invert species etc, keeping higher nutriant demanding corals, etc. These are great reasons to include algae in some form to your system and it can be very beneficial to do so. But as algae will also seek to promote a thriving enviormnet for its own self preservation and success, you have to be careful to keep the scale in balance. If you can maintain a healty and thriving mesotrophic enviromnet, without pushing the scale to far into the eutrophic zones then you have found a good balance for your needs. And many appear to and/or are able to maintain this balance. Unfortunately many people inevitably end up in the eutrophic zones unintentionally. When you get to the higher scales in this zone you can start to boarder on the hypereutrophic zone which will more then likely result in a crash or a system **** down due to not being able to control alage. And it's surprizing common. And our friend algae is more then happy to help us along in this journey as its only seeking to promote itself by self promoting an envirmonet for itself. Simply put, if your going to have alage deliberately or not, you need to or will have had to create the enviromnet it needs, and your waters will need to be rich with nutrients.

If you want to maintain low nutrients in a true sense, algae doesn't fit. You can't have low nutrients and have algae. At least in nuisance form or as a deliberate tool. If you wish to maintain a oligotrophic system, that being one of truly low nutrients, you cannot have and will not have algae deliberately, or as a nusiance. It would not work. Opting to maintain a system which maintains this trophic level can have many benefits, but it also comes with its own potential downsides based again upon the environment you are trying to create. Many species of fish, inverts etc. Would not be possible in such a system as the system would not be able to meet the needs of these species. Some species of coral which require a greater level of nutriants also would not do well in this type of system.

In regards to your statement/question, "my understanding is that it takes nutrients to grow algae. Does that not mean the scrubber will take nutrients out of the water"
Yes, absolulty at the most basic level of algae being a tool for export. This works very well to a certain degree.
What I don't understand is the logic. However it is a very common point of view.
We don't want algae. So we feed alage with nutrients so that we can use it to remove nutrients. Why not not feed the algae and forget having to remove the food you fed it? I don't understand the point of giving algae the fuel it needs to thrive, just so we can use it as a form of nutrient export. Seems pretty roundabout to me for those wanting to keep an algae free enviromnet.