Easy algae turf scrubber in action

Hey everyone,
About 3 months ago I was having some nitrate problems, they were at 80ppm. My fuge was full of caulepra and it was growing like crazy. I did a lot of water changes and after about a month I got my nitrates down to 40ppm. I decided to try an improvised ATS.

I tested my water on 2011/04/12 and got a reading of 40pmm nitrate and 0.25 PO4.
I tested my water today 2011/05/05 and got a reading of 0 and 0.
I did also add chemipure elite though, but this wouldn't affect the nitrates.
Other than test kit readings, my fuge has completely cleared up of algae and the caulepra is barely growing. I also have a ton of pods.
The pipe with the drilled holes below is the outlet of my protein skimmer. The light source is the fuge light. Here are some pics.

About 2-3 weeks growth.

 

pretty awesome i did a similar design glad to hear it working out for u

 

That is really cool. I am a big fan of ATS. What is the lighting source?

 

Thanks, seems to be working great and it took about 15 mins to do.

Thank you.
I have two cfl bulbs over my fuge; a 3000k and 5500k. I think the ATS just gets light from the 5500k though.

 

Looks great! A few quick questions if you dont mind. Do you ever clean it? after like so much or will the growth just level off and maintain? Also do you end up having to clean the pipe often...as in the holes get clogged often?

 

Cool, and congrats on the success :thumb_up:. Thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks.
When I first set it up, I drilled really small holes, they got clogged often, about 3 weeks ago, I made the holes bigger and they haven't clogged yet. I think if you cut a slit along the pipe with a dremel it would be less likely to clog, but I don't have one.
I clean of the screen every now and then, to export nutrients from the system. This makes space for more algae. I never clean the whole thing though.
It's pretty low maintenance especially for the benefits it provides.

Thank you.
No problem.

 

u should clean it every time its full of algae or once a week if the turf algae piece get in ur main display it will be hard to get out .ive seen aquariums shut down because of turf algae cleaning the screen is the best way i try to keep this from happening

 

Ok, thanks for the advice and the link. Looking at the video though I'm not sure if I have turf algae on my screen. The algae i have is like hair, very thick , but soft. I have to kind of pinch it of the screen. I'm thinking i have GHA on the screen.
How does your turf algae feel?

 

turf algae feels like gha lol just reddish in color and and tuff to get off the screen . also cleaning the green hair algae off to will help u export nutrients fast because algae left on sreen will slow the process of algae growth algae cant grow on algae just try to leave a lil patch of the reddish stuff .in short whenever ur ats gets full of algae clean it pretty good just leaving a very small amount of red stuff to help seed the ats