silverado61
Well-Known Member
Well, I finally got my diy up-flow algae scrubber up and running with the proper pump and led but all I'm getting is brown hair algae. Is there a reason for that?
Up-flow algae scrubber
- Thread starter silverado61
- Start date
2quills
Well-Known Member
The brown is pretty typical during the first couple of cleanings. Usually you get the good green stuff after about a month or so. Though I've read some reports of people not getting the good green algae even after months. Mine had bright redish/brown mixed with green growth for about a month then it went mostly bright and dark geen.
What color of leds did you use?
What color of leds did you use?
silverado61
Well-Known Member
The fixture I'm using has 30 red, 12 white and 3 blue actinic led's for a total of 45. The number of each can be modified if needed.
It's a small light. Just a lot of leds. It puts out about 220 foot candles with the meter about 6 inches away.
It's a small light. Just a lot of leds. It puts out about 220 foot candles with the meter about 6 inches away.
silverado61
Well-Known Member
Sounds good to me.
Thanks 2quills
Riddle me this: My skimmers been online since day one and tweeked to top performance. Each time I feed the tank, I turn off the the return pump, power heads and the skimmer. Ten minutes later, I turn the return and power heads back on followed by the skimmer after everything levels out. Sounds good right?
Well, the day before yesterderday I followed the same routine but this time the skimmer started foaming white and overflowing. Thinking maybe it got knocked out of adjustment I tried to redial it but started getting a cloud of microbubbles coming out of the intake by the valve. Its a reefoctopus.
So I took it offline and put activated carbon bags in the tanks overflows. Today I removed it and its now running in a vinegar and water bath to clean it. Tomorrow I'm going to put it in saltwater and run it to see if I can figure out what went wrong.
Any ideas off hand?
Thanks 2quills
Riddle me this: My skimmers been online since day one and tweeked to top performance. Each time I feed the tank, I turn off the the return pump, power heads and the skimmer. Ten minutes later, I turn the return and power heads back on followed by the skimmer after everything levels out. Sounds good right?
Well, the day before yesterderday I followed the same routine but this time the skimmer started foaming white and overflowing. Thinking maybe it got knocked out of adjustment I tried to redial it but started getting a cloud of microbubbles coming out of the intake by the valve. Its a reefoctopus.
So I took it offline and put activated carbon bags in the tanks overflows. Today I removed it and its now running in a vinegar and water bath to clean it. Tomorrow I'm going to put it in saltwater and run it to see if I can figure out what went wrong.
Any ideas off hand?
2quills
Well-Known Member
Sometimes it doesn't take much to make a skimmer go crazy like that. Little changes in water chemistry can make it happen.
What did you build your scrubber out of? Sometimes plastics can leach stuff like oils out of them from the manufacturing process and it can cause that temporarily.
What did you build your scrubber out of? Sometimes plastics can leach stuff like oils out of them from the manufacturing process and it can cause that temporarily.
silverado61
Well-Known Member
The scrubbers also been in since day one. It was made out of black acrylic riddled with holes, plastic canvas with square rods for a frame so I can just pull the screen out for cleaning. It was just powered by a cheap pump and light and wasn't producing anything till I upgraded it a week ago.
2quills
Well-Known Member
I'd pull it apart and just check it from head to toe. If it's not a mechanical issue then it's something in the water. I've had minor outbursts like that after large water changes but nothing that lasted for too long.
Other than that mine went pretty crazy when I first filled the tank. It pulled a bunch of yellowish liguid for almost two days.
Did you stir anything up in the tank?
Other than that mine went pretty crazy when I first filled the tank. It pulled a bunch of yellowish liguid for almost two days.
Did you stir anything up in the tank?
silverado61
Well-Known Member
Just a water change. But I don't pour it in, I pump it in with a low 100gph pump.
I did take it apart and cleaned it. Plus its running in a vinegar/water bath till Monday. Then I'll put it in a saltwater tub and check it.
It was clean white foam which was the strange part. Till I tried to adjust it. Then I got the microbubbles. So it's the fact that it was producing the white foam for no apparent reason that's got me.
I did take it apart and cleaned it. Plus its running in a vinegar/water bath till Monday. Then I'll put it in a saltwater tub and check it.
It was clean white foam which was the strange part. Till I tried to adjust it. Then I got the microbubbles. So it's the fact that it was producing the white foam for no apparent reason that's got me.
snakeblitz33
Well-Known Member
Sounds like you increased the surface tension in the tank - which why the skimmer went haywire. Probably something to do with a lower temperature or a slight change in salinity or an increase in the pH. Sometimes just by removing natural oils in the water through a water change will cause the surface tension to increase and your skimmer to overflow. Slight changes in chemistry can do all sorts of neat things.
Hows the upflow algae scrubber doing?
Hows the upflow algae scrubber doing?
silverado61
Well-Known Member
Right now I've got it in my 36g filled to the same line it would be in my sump running for three days.
Here it is adjusted so it doesn't over flow at the collection cup. Notice how foggy the photo is with the micro bubbles. The bubbles are coming out of the gray "T" fitting where the adjustment valve is.
And here it is barely adjusted so there are no micro bubbles.
The salinity is 1.024 with no thermometer and I used about 6 gallons of water from my brine shrimp hatchery along with fresh saltwater. About 16g or so total water.
I hope the algae scrubber is coming along.
Here it is with the screen inserted in the scubber.
Here I took it out. Don't know if you can see it but there's pods crawling all over the screen.
While I've got you Seth, any idea what this is growing off my Astrea? Long tube like a horn on the right side. It wasn't there when I first got it. It grew over the last 3 months or so. I keep seeing a long white stream coming out of it which I'm assuming are eggs but it's the only one I have of that type so I doubt they'll ever hatch.
Here it is adjusted so it doesn't over flow at the collection cup. Notice how foggy the photo is with the micro bubbles. The bubbles are coming out of the gray "T" fitting where the adjustment valve is.
And here it is barely adjusted so there are no micro bubbles.
The salinity is 1.024 with no thermometer and I used about 6 gallons of water from my brine shrimp hatchery along with fresh saltwater. About 16g or so total water.
I hope the algae scrubber is coming along.
Here it is with the screen inserted in the scubber.
Here I took it out. Don't know if you can see it but there's pods crawling all over the screen.
While I've got you Seth, any idea what this is growing off my Astrea? Long tube like a horn on the right side. It wasn't there when I first got it. It grew over the last 3 months or so. I keep seeing a long white stream coming out of it which I'm assuming are eggs but it's the only one I have of that type so I doubt they'll ever hatch.
silverado61
Well-Known Member
Oh, and here's the led that I'm using for the scrubber. Sorry, the picture kinda sucks. The led won't let me use the flash. It's about 10 inches long.
silverado61
Well-Known Member
This might be a better pic of the snail. It's still kind of grainy. It's a new camera and I'm still getting used to it.
snakeblitz33
Well-Known Member
The snail has a vermitid snail growing on it most likely. It's a little brown or red tube that almost always seems to have strands coming out of it?
They are harmless but can irritate some soft corals.
The scrubber is looking great!
They are harmless but can irritate some soft corals.
The scrubber is looking great!
silverado61
Well-Known Member
Thanks. Now, if I could just figure out what's wrong with this damn skimmer. 
silverado61
Well-Known Member
And its not strands coming out of it as much as its a thin stream of white goo. The stream releases and floats off into the water column. A few days later it repeats. And so on and so on. I've watched it do it four times so far. Who knows how many times it's done it without me witnessing it. Wierdest thing to watch. Doesn't take long and it gets about three inches long before it comes off.
beaslbob
Well-Known Member
mating.
silverado61
Well-Known Member
See, thats what I thought, but I took the snail out to get a better look at what ever it was and there were two more growing underneath it on its shell. So I used a bone cutter and a scrapper to get them off since I read they reproduce faster than aiptasia and can dominate a tank and inhibit corals. Hope I got them all.
snakeblitz33
Well-Known Member
pics of the scrubber today?
silverado61
Well-Known Member
I could post some new pics but they wouldn't be any different than the first ones I posted. I took the pump completely apart. Piece by piece, cleaned everything, put silicone grease on all the rubber fittings and then put it all back together. The needle wheel was in great shape, no missing teeth, nothing clogging anything up. Absolutely no difference in the performance. I'm starting to think that the internal pump is going haywire and working overtime by producing to much bubbles. I do know that the access bubbles are getting syphoned down into the "T" fitting and valve and into the water column which is where I'm getting the micro bubbles. But if I close the valve to the point where the syphoning stops, the foam overflows into the cup. A new pump is like $200. Wow!
This wasn't a gradual thing happening. I've done water changes before the same way and the skimmer came back online like a champ. Every time I fed the tank I'd turn the skimmer off because when I turned the return pump off to feed, the sump level would rise causing the sump to over react and each time I turned it back on, back to normal. But this last time I did a water change????
I've still got it in the empty 36g filled to the level that the sump normally is. I've tried fresh saltwater, dumped it and used the water from my brine shrimp hatchery thinking the water was too clean. The salinity is 1.025, same as the display. Temperature is 78deg. Same as the display. All the results are the same.
Silverado(pulling my hair out in Illinois)61
This wasn't a gradual thing happening. I've done water changes before the same way and the skimmer came back online like a champ. Every time I fed the tank I'd turn the skimmer off because when I turned the return pump off to feed, the sump level would rise causing the sump to over react and each time I turned it back on, back to normal. But this last time I did a water change????
I've still got it in the empty 36g filled to the level that the sump normally is. I've tried fresh saltwater, dumped it and used the water from my brine shrimp hatchery thinking the water was too clean. The salinity is 1.025, same as the display. Temperature is 78deg. Same as the display. All the results are the same.
Silverado(pulling my hair out in Illinois)61