Lowest cost way to eliminate green hair, bubble, turf and slime algae

SantaMonica

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Oct 9, 2008
680
53
61
Santa Monica, CA, USA
"Algae scrubbers are one of the few, if not the only, nutrient removal systems that give me something back: Growth. It's a no brainer" -- Jim Stime, LA Fishguys

"I see algae scrubbers as the single most significant nutrient exporter you can have" -- Stephen Babcock, The Corner Reef, Columbia, Illinois, USA

"I am very happy with my [upflow scrubber] which is working great. I will be [using] more scrubbers for my other 8 tanks" -- Bruce Ashcraft

"The [floating upflow scrubber] is really useful and highly necessary for my tank. So I really can't be without it for too long" -- Jason Pappin

"My [tiny upflow scrubber] works great, and I was thinking about another one. The biggest difference I seen was my phosphate level went from 0.11 to 0.03-0.06 range " -- venom on the CR site:




"The [upflow scrubber] is producing lots of lovely green algae for me" -- K19RKS on the UR site.

"Growth from our [upflow scrubber]" -- Alyse Fisher:



"Tank is heavily fed and [upflow scrubber] definitely seems to have made an improvement since the algae started growing" -- Jason Oneppo

"[floating scrubber is] growing very well. Love the in sump design. Will probably do another down the road as I increase my bioload." -- Erik Sulman

"I'm getting good results from my [2 upflow scrubbers].. It's bringing my phosphate down and starting to get some decent hair algae my tangs love" -- Dane Wilcox

"WOW! 173grams. Two weeks growth [on the floating scrubber]. We LOVE it! The growth rate of the chaeto in our refugium had been steadily decreasing over the past six weeks or so. Yesterday, it became obvious that the chaeto had started to melt/die-off and needed to be removed from the system" -- Mike&Terry on the R2R site:




"There is getting to be some nice looking green hair algae in it" -- Dane Wilcox

"I clean my [scrubber] once a week. Definitely helped lower my nitrates." -- Nagrom on the MR site

"I installed a [upflow] ATS in my 3rd chamber with the return pump in my 29 biocube works well for me. My nitrates stay between 5 ppm or lower. Phosphates are usually .04 or lower -- Saltyphish on the R2R site"

"I didn't really expect much from the [upflow scrubber] and put it in my sump. After about 3 weeks the algae was in abundance and now I have to clean it every 2 weeks" -- Jukeboxjury on the RF site.

"The [upflow scrubber] is doing really great. The first time it was full of green small rounded shape of algae, feels like jelly, i dont know what that is. The second and third week after that is full of green hair algae. Water parameters are great, with readings from hanna checker and salifert testers" -- Yuppy Suhandinata:






"The scrubber is working great! getting a lot of nice growth" -- Mike Buechs

"I installed a [small upflow scrubber] in my 3rd chamber with the return pump in my 29 biocube, works well for me. My nitrates stay between 5 ppm or lower. Phosphates are usually .04 or lower" -- Saltyphish on the R2R site.

Other growth pics:

Damien Kwok:



Quy Van:



Marlon McNeish:



Alanreef on the R2R site:
 

SantaMonica

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Oct 9, 2008
680
53
61
Santa Monica, CA, USA
"Algae scrubbers are one of the few, if not the only, nutrient removal systems that give me something back: Growth. It's a no brainer" -- Jim Stime, LA Fishguys

"I see algae scrubbers as the single most significant nutrient exporter you can have" -- Stephen Babcock, The Corner Reef, Columbia, Illinois, USA

"I am very happy with my [upflow scrubber] which is working great. I will be [using] more scrubbers for my other 8 tanks" -- Bruce Ashcraft

"The [floating upflow scrubber] is really useful and highly necessary for my tank. So I really can't be without it for too long" -- Jason Pappin

"My [tiny upflow scrubber] works great, and I was thinking about another one. The biggest difference I seen was my phosphate level went from 0.11 to 0.03-0.06 range " -- venom on the CR site:




"The [upflow scrubber] is producing lots of lovely green algae for me" -- K19RKS on the UR site.

"Growth from our [upflow scrubber]" -- Alyse Fisher:



"Tank is heavily fed and [upflow scrubber] definitely seems to have made an improvement since the algae started growing" -- Jason Oneppo

"[floating scrubber is] growing very well. Love the in sump design. Will probably do another down the road as I increase my bioload." -- Erik Sulman

"I'm getting good results from my [2 upflow scrubbers].. It's bringing my phosphate down and starting to get some decent hair algae my tangs love" -- Dane Wilcox

"WOW! 173grams. Two weeks growth [on the floating scrubber]. We LOVE it! The growth rate of the chaeto in our refugium had been steadily decreasing over the past six weeks or so. Yesterday, it became obvious that the chaeto had started to melt/die-off and needed to be removed from the system" -- Mike&Terry on the R2R site:




"There is getting to be some nice looking green hair algae in it" -- Dane Wilcox

"I clean my [scrubber] once a week. Definitely helped lower my nitrates." -- Nagrom on the MR site

"I installed a [upflow] ATS in my 3rd chamber with the return pump in my 29 biocube works well for me. My nitrates stay between 5 ppm or lower. Phosphates are usually .04 or lower -- Saltyphish on the R2R site"

"I didn't really expect much from the [upflow scrubber] and put it in my sump. After about 3 weeks the algae was in abundance and now I have to clean it every 2 weeks" -- Jukeboxjury on the RF site.

"The [upflow scrubber] is doing really great. The first time it was full of green small rounded shape of algae, feels like jelly, i dont know what that is. The second and third week after that is full of green hair algae. Water parameters are great, with readings from hanna checker and salifert testers" -- Yuppy Suhandinata:






"The scrubber is working great! getting a lot of nice growth" -- Mike Buechs

"I installed a [small upflow scrubber] in my 3rd chamber with the return pump in my 29 biocube, works well for me. My nitrates stay between 5 ppm or lower. Phosphates are usually .04 or lower" -- Saltyphish on the R2R site.

Other growth pics:

Damien Kwok:



Quy Van:



Marlon McNeish:



Alanreef on the R2R site:
 
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SantaMonica

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Oct 9, 2008
680
53
61
Santa Monica, CA, USA

SantaMonica

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Oct 9, 2008
680
53
61
Santa Monica, CA, USA
People often ask what they can do to speed up the filtering after they've added a scrubber, at least until there scrubber "catches up" and fixes thing. Here are some things to consider:

Increase the lighting period in your display a few hours; this increases photosynthesis (filtering) of your corals, and also of the periphyton on your rocks.

Feed less, or break your current feedings into smaller ones (don't feed all at once). This is because each burst of feeding generates lots of ammonia/urea by the fish, and lots of ammonia by the respiration of the corals. When all that ammonia goes into the water at one time, it goes straight to your glass and rocks and is absorbed by algae anywhere nuisance algae can exist. A larger burst of ammonia from a larger feeding will support more algae throughout your system, but by breaking your feedings up into more smaller feedings, the peak levels of ammonia in your water will be reduced before the ammonia can feed more nuisance algae.

Do one of these: Keep your sump vacuumed, or put a clean up crew there to break up the settled food particles into smaller particals that will circulate around to feed your corals and small fish. But don't do both.

Start (or do more) water changes. Not the most effective in the world, and is costly and a hassle, but it will help some until your scrubber is going.

Start (or do more) GFO. This is more effective than water changes if you use a reactor, and is much easier. If it causes your scrubber grow less, then use less GFO. Once your scrubber is going, stop the GFO over the period of a few weeks.

And speaking of the periphyton on your rocks, don't move any rocks or change any flow on them; keep everything the same and your natural periphyton filter will develop more on your rocks during the next year and will help tremendously.

Of course, once your scrubber gets a hold on things, you should be able to reduce or eliminate these other filters.
 
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