Algae Scrubber Advanced

The cube equivalent was developed by Bryan / Santa Monica, basically from what I understand he took 2 of his SM100 scrubbers and put them on a 90g tank and then fed liquid coral food according to his developed cube-equivalent measurement method, and then basically fed the equivalent of about 22 cubes/day for a length of time, then figured that this feeding rate was about the maximum that those 2 scrubbers could handle.

Then he did total screen LxW area divided by cubes/day and came up with 12 sq in per cube of food per day.

IMO that one has stood pretty solid as a rule of thumb.

Yes, pretty solid.

S.M. had to work it out using a practicle method because the fraction of inorganics removed is unknown, so the TTR cannot be calculated.

Practicle testing is best of course because its used to test a theoretical conclusion.

I see now how considering both TTR, and the cube - screen size method, at the same time as though their two seperate issues is wrong, because the TTR is built into the cube - screen size method already.
 
3D growth is what you get when you enclose the scrubber in a box that is small enough such that the growth touches the walls and traps water like this:

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I believe it was SM that first noticed this effect in his SM 100 scrubber, the box would fill up with algae growth and once this started to happen, the growth seemed to take off somewhat exponentially for a period of time.

I've had some harvests where the growth was so densely packed, it came off like a slab.
 

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These old things just work and work and work....This is only 2 weeks of growth. Maintenance is due this weekend.
 

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That looks like one of Floyd's units. He sold them as kits and as finished products or combinations of kit/finished I think.

I built one (I can't remember if I paid, or he sent for some other reason.. think I paid for it.) They were nice units. I know several local folks that still run them. I had mine online for a few months... can't remember why I took it down, but I think it was just from laziness to clean and fear of that causing a flood. Use to have the build log and review on my site... I must have not migrated it when the site was upgraded.
 
Forgot to add, that I am on my 3rd screen on them. Over time, the screen will get brittle and crack. Can get them in sheets at Walmart in the hobby section.
 
 
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