Santa Monica UAS ATS Turf Scrubber review - hog and surf - EPIC FAILURE

I'll have a larger update with test results tomorrow and sorry to say there isn't anything worth photographing. Both scrubbers have very little growth since the last photos BUT, a bit of good news! While doing the monthly maintenance weekend, I took off a float switch from the tank that hasn't been cleaned in more than a year. On it was a little patch of green short filament truf looking algae! It's the only algae patch I've ever seen in the tank. I took about 1/3 of the patch and scrubbed it into the green grabber surface on the surf 4 and let the rest of the patch float about in it.

Time will tell if this helps kick start the growth.
 
entry #7:

End of week four. No changes in lighting, carbon dosing, or air pump volume.

nitrate 8.8ppm, 2.0 on the hach specrtophotometer (has been hovering between 1.5 and 1.9 for several weeks.)
po4 .03ppm on the same meter (changing gfo dropped last weeks reading as expected)
 
Well just put the scrubber on the frag tank to see what happens, the new tank is not ready yet and I really want to see if this works.



Tom
 
Good point. I did not realize the tank was new. If it is, the scrubber will not hardly grow at all until feeding starts.
 
SantaMonica said:
Good point. I did not realize the tank was new. If it is, the scrubber will not hardly grow at all until feeding starts.
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You might be confusing the multiple tanks and people from the GB in the thread. the previous post from rockhead was from the hog1x he got from the GB and is putting on his new tank. The hog3 and surf4 are on a mature tank.
 
entry #8:

End of week five. No changes in lighting, carbon dosing, or air pump volume. I did lose a fish (the biggest eater) this week. I've reduced the amount the autofeeder dispenses and reducing how much frozen is feed daily. I expect a drop in nitrate to follow in the next week to two weeks.

nitrate 8.8ppm, 2.0 on the hach specrtophotometer (has been hovering between 1.5 and 1.9 for several weeks.)
po4 .05ppm on the same meter


The hog3 is getting a bit more green growth and a little brown. I won't scrub it this week in hope that the green will grow in thicker before toothbrushing everything else.
the surf4 again looks just like it did a couple weeks ago. The only change is the piece of green turf I found and put into the surf 4 is attached to one of the threads. Again I'll hold off on toothbrushing this until I can get some more growth.

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Can let it go now 10 days. Probably no more toothbrushing needed. Could also feed normal amounts, since the scrubbers are not dark.
 
entry #9:

End of week Six. No changes in carbon dosing, or air pump volume. I did change the lighting, plugging in the second driver on the surf4 and uncovering about an inch more on the hog3. As expected the loss of the fish dropped the nitrate level. Yesterday was also a tank cleaning day, using a powerhead and filter socks to remove all the tank/rock detritus, further reducing nitrate.

nitrate 7.0ppm, 1.6 on the hach specrtophotometer (has been hovering between 1.5 and 1.9 for several weeks.)
po4 .02ppm on the same meter

I have not scrubbed either scrubber with a toothbrush. They are as they were seen in last weeks photos, little change.
 
SantaMonica said:
Are you currently running gfo?
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Yes and I've noted in above posts when I've changed it after seeing po4 was reaching the it's max level. I cannot let it get above .09. Both of the previous times it's gone above .09, some of the sensitive sps have had problems.
 
SantaMonica said:
Could you reduce carbon dosing? It seems to be a common thread in the few cases of low-growth.
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Yes I can. With the recent loss of the fish, I want to see how nitrate stabilizes with the reduction in food, then reduce carbon dosing to the point I know the nitrates won't go above 8-10. I'll keep the thread updated with the results and changes.
 
Ednigma13 said:
I was thinking the same thing. You put anything else in there and your going to have to take the doors off. ;-))

I've been thinking about building a algae scrubber. Thanks for starting this thread, I'll be following along.
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LOL, yeah or build another stand like the QT stand to hold it

Glad to hear you are finding the thread useful. :D
 
Photos of the scrubbers tonight. It's Been a few days since checking them and the results are good. The surf4 has a dark green thin algae growing over everything, with a couple tufts of hair aglea. The hog3 is darkening up, so I exposed a little more of the leds. The dark fabric covering fully covers the bottom led pair and part of the middle pair. I also had to clean the sump acrylic under the hog as algae was growing on it blocking light.


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