Algae Scrubber Advanced

Turbo, I do agree with all you mentioned.
that's why I'm having a lot of concerns about installing this ATS. I knew it was overkill for my tank. But, begger's can't be choosers. It was free. I was only planning on lighting 1 side of it. If that helped. I might have to look closer to modifing a shelf or something above the sump area. (but it is very tight) and cleaning would be a bear.
 
You can always do a few mods, such as running a narrower screen (new slot pipe), switching to an LED light on a small heat sink, etc. This would help to reduce the drainage/noise issue and make it a bit easier to maintain. I would look into this because the enclosed acrylic box is nice to have.
 
Crush Coral said:
So what do you guys think of this one?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Red-Starfis...cb9c60c&pid=100011&rk=1&rkt=4&sd=221134624476

Also I was informed on the Reef Discussion thread that a couple posters here sell ATSs. I do not have the time to build one, am having trouble getting my new 90 Miracles set up. Any tips on who on here is selling ats units?

Thanks. Hope this question is not against the rules of RC. If so pull my thread please.
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That looks like a fairly flexible design that should be easy to adopt to most existing sumps. The size of the screen is even adjustable, although I suspect the suction cups on the end will be useless and it will need some sort of proper support on that end..

NewJack
This might be an easier way for you to incorporate an ATS. Just sell your other one to pay for it.
 
Hey guys back "in" after a 2 year break. looking to set up a upflow ATS on a 40Br LPS softie gorgonian macro tank in the works. ha just decided to get back in and petco just ended there $1 per gallon sale but there gave it to me any way...

question for all you ATS gurus out there. will I be able to grow gorgonians and macro with an ats filtered tank. I think the gorg. will be fine but not sure about the macros?

can we do a thread somewhere of ATS only tanks pics? I did a search but found nothing. I know I saw one maybe it was on a ATS only site. but it was years ago.
 
Nice design! Basically a Chaeto reactor, or at least from the pics I looked at, that's what people are using (didn't see a lot of pics)

One guy took an SM100 and modded it to grow chaeto (drain screen, spray bay with holes vs slot) and it worked great, no reason I can see why the ARID reactor would not do exactly what it says.

I don't know if it would be "better" or "worse". The only way to find out would be to put them head-to-head.
 
Floyd R Turbo said:
Nice design! Basically a Chaeto reactor, or at least from the pics I looked at, that's what people are using (didn't see a lot of pics)

One guy took an SM100 and modded it to grow chaeto (drain screen, spray bay with holes vs slot) and it worked great, no reason I can see why the ARID reactor would not do exactly what it says.

I don't know if it would be "better" or "worse". The only way to find out would be to put them head-to-head.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

Not crazy about external reactors due to space considerations and FOF (perhaps irrational fear of floods). But it certainly looks like something to consider.

Mike
 
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I was thinking a bit more about this, and it really is a great idea. The problems with a chaeto fuge are usually the reasons why an algae scrubber could be viewed as superior. Such as:

- light too far away from back side (shading), solved with the ARID by making a small round cylindrical chamber that is white on the outside (reflects light)

- poor flow throughout the growth area, solved by making a long narrow flow path. Pumping water through this at extremely high rates would be the best way, of course, the more flow, the bigger the pump, the more heat, more chance for detachment of hose (FOF) etc.

So it does improve things somewhat over a chaeto-fuge. Probably, you don't need a huge amount of flow to have a net increase in production of chaeto over time either, because it's concentrated and so is the light.

As you mentioned, the requirement to have it outside of the sump might be an issue for those with limited space or FOF. Also it can't go in the sump because the light chamber (I'm guessing here) is not sealed - nor would you want it to me, you would likely want air flow from underneath to go up for some cooling, the majority of cooling it would appear comes from the copper tube and top mounted heat sink.

The advantage I still see of the algae scrubber is the thin laminar flow concept. The ARID reactor still has a dispersed flow, but it is likely to be a vast improvement over (most) chaeto-fuge setups. Not having to worry about rotating/shading is a pretty big factor IMO
 
Floyd R Turbo said:
I was thinking a bit more about this, and it really is a great idea. The problems with a chaeto fuge are usually the reasons why an algae scrubber could be viewed as superior. Such as:

- light too far away from back side (shading), solved with the ARID by making a small round cylindrical chamber that is white on the outside (reflects light)

- poor flow throughout the growth area, solved by making a long narrow flow path. Pumping water through this at extremely high rates would be the best way, of course, the more flow, the bigger the pump, the more heat, more chance for detachment of hose (FOF) etc.

So it does improve things somewhat over a chaeto-fuge. Probably, you don't need a huge amount of flow to have a net increase in production of chaeto over time either, because it's concentrated and so is the light.

As you mentioned, the requirement to have it outside of the sump might be an issue for those with limited space or FOF. Also it can't go in the sump because the light chamber (I'm guessing here) is not sealed - nor would you want it to me, you would likely want air flow from underneath to go up for some cooling, the majority of cooling it would appear comes from the copper tube and top mounted heat sink.

The advantage I still see of the algae scrubber is the thin laminar flow concept. The ARID reactor still has a dispersed flow, but it is likely to be a vast improvement over (most) chaeto-fuge setups. Not having to worry about rotating/shading is a pretty big factor IMO
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I wonder if injecting air into the system would increase growth. Kind of like an upflow scrubber. Create localized agitation on the surface of the cheato.
 
Probably. but bigger bubbles are better for agitation, so I don't know how one would pull that off. Pumping water into the bottom via a skimmer/needlewheel pump would be marginally effective I would think.
 
Well I decided to install the worlds most simple scrubber :)

About a 2 min job , good old gutter guard and a cable tie. It's already got some nice hair growing. I plan to run 3 of my returns like this with some lights in each side. Will let u know how it goes.

846e765a8c45420c84d65e1a7edf23c7_zpskgldpazm.jpg
 
That's clever! I wonder if it would work better if you used a less course mesh? Maybe the same roughed up material used for a waterfall scrubber. Also wonder how well those little waterproof LEDs would work installed inside the tube.
 
salty joe said:
That's clever! I wonder if it would work better if you used a less course mesh? Maybe the same roughed up material used for a waterfall scrubber. Also wonder how well those little waterproof LEDs would work installed inside the tube.
Click to expand...

Yeh I had thoughts on that too, don't know if those LEDs are powerful enough ?
 
I've heard of people using them for underwater algae filters, but IDK. They would be point blank so maybe...
 
Anybody ever give any thought to a automatic cleaning system for their scrubber? I was thinking something along the line of a ultra high pressure car wash system... Thoughts?
 
Very complex but I suppose it's possible. Lots of things to consider. you don't really want to pressure wash a screen, you want to leave algae behind. That leaves scraping, and how do you automate that (create pressure, etc). Then, how do you keep the liquid from going into the tank and discoloring the water? How do you collect the algae? Takes me literally 5 minutes to clean my scrubber so to me it's not worth it
 
I finally got my algae scrubber up and running. It has two screens that are 7"X14". One lit by 450nm blue and the other lit by 660nm red. Each side has 40 3W LEDs that are dimmed down to about 25%. The water flows up through the screens. The photoperiod is 4 hr., one side is always on. A month ago, I added a little so so live rock to introduce bacteria and algae. I've been feeding the tank fish food. I have 50 lb. high quality live rock coming in a week. My hope is the alga and bacteria can keep up with ammonia. Just in case, I have Prime.

If interested, here is a thread of the algae filter build. Some very knowledgeable and generous reefers helped make it happen. I could not have done it without them.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2455743

First pic is red screen-I got about 3/4 cup algae. There are a couple patches of algae that are kind of stiff with strands maybe a little less than 1/16" in diameter. The strands crush easily. The rest is hair algae. The other pic is the blue screen. I got about 1/4 cup algae. I'm going to wait till the new rock has been in the system for awhile before switching over to all red LEDs in hopes that maybe a deep water species of algae takes hold on it.
 

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