OP
OP
A long needed update. Next week will be the 3 year anniversay of 180g show tank being skimmerless with main filtration being ATS + water changes. I also do dose some LaCl3 to better maintain phosphates in addition. So no, ATS alone isn't solving everything but it is the main component for my system.
Tank phosphate levels had been going downhill since Sept./Oct. timeframe approaching .18ppm. Rocks nots as clean, more slime and cyano. No hair algae but tank was showing signs of going down hill. The ATS screen had not been producing as much algae and what was growing on there was more slimey than anything.
Several reasons, 1 got lazy and wasn't harvesting every week, second I forgot and left flow off for an full day and dried it out some and never was the same afterwards.
Meanwhile the ATS on the 75g ( which recently upgraded to a 120g ) then algae was very healthy green/stringy.
So I decided to scrap the screen and start over. I took some of the algae from the 75g and transplanted to the new screen. Within 2 weeks the harvest was already larger than was prior to the switch.
Now just 4 weeks since its already as good or better than the peak it was with the old. No more slimey, mostly scringy, I sqeezed out as much water as possible, rinsed with ro for smell. I got over 2 cups packed as tighly as possible this week.
Phosphate reading this morning is 17 on ULR checker which = .0522 ppm. For my tank, it seems to do best and I usually target .06- .08ppm. So slightly under my target range. Tank is doing awesome. I'll snap a tank pick later today.
For now, here is the harvest. 1 side, I alternate cleaning a side per week so the growth equals 2 weeks. I have done weekly harvest Sunday and Wedesday before and haven't found one yields anymore than the other so just do 1 cleaning per week:
Full Tank shot:
Tank phosphate levels had been going downhill since Sept./Oct. timeframe approaching .18ppm. Rocks nots as clean, more slime and cyano. No hair algae but tank was showing signs of going down hill. The ATS screen had not been producing as much algae and what was growing on there was more slimey than anything.
Several reasons, 1 got lazy and wasn't harvesting every week, second I forgot and left flow off for an full day and dried it out some and never was the same afterwards.
Meanwhile the ATS on the 75g ( which recently upgraded to a 120g ) then algae was very healthy green/stringy.
So I decided to scrap the screen and start over. I took some of the algae from the 75g and transplanted to the new screen. Within 2 weeks the harvest was already larger than was prior to the switch.
Now just 4 weeks since its already as good or better than the peak it was with the old. No more slimey, mostly scringy, I sqeezed out as much water as possible, rinsed with ro for smell. I got over 2 cups packed as tighly as possible this week.
Phosphate reading this morning is 17 on ULR checker which = .0522 ppm. For my tank, it seems to do best and I usually target .06- .08ppm. So slightly under my target range. Tank is doing awesome. I'll snap a tank pick later today.
For now, here is the harvest. 1 side, I alternate cleaning a side per week so the growth equals 2 weeks. I have done weekly harvest Sunday and Wedesday before and haven't found one yields anymore than the other so just do 1 cleaning per week:
Full Tank shot:
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