Algae Scrubber Advanced

[Scrubber_steve]

Where did you read it?

can't remember exactly, sorry.

 

[seefil]

back online

back online

Just brought my scrubber back online. Was off line for about 8 months. My screen is 8"x5.5" handling a 55g tank with 30g of sump with a lot of live rock. Had algae build up. It motivated me to get back online.

Thanks to all who contribute to this thread. A lot of great information that is so valuable. I wish I had the knowledge to contribute but I'll leave that up to you guys. I just wanted to show you my stuff, share my experience, and say thanks. I'll keep you up to date as it progresses.

:lolspin:

 

[2smokes]

One of my one sided algae scrubbers.The cooling is verry efficient and compact through the heat pipes and the copper is fully enclosed so there is no worry it can poison the water.Now a days i use 10W full spectrum grow leds (special made fror growing plants) instead of led strips ,but the 5050 led strip worked well also.This is all my idea ,i didnt coppyed any otther scrubber design but i still learned a lot from Santa Monica filtration and Floyd R Turbo to wich i pay my respects.

Last picture is about a funny incident when a heat pipe expoded while i was soldering it.Take care with these.Soldering them is not for the heart fainted

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Nice!!

 

[SantaMonica]

Upflow or waterfall?

 

[2smokes]

Waterfall.but i took the picture with the algae underwater .

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

How is that a waterfall with the box in the tank? Do you let the water overflow into it and pump it out?

 

[2smokes]

How is that a waterfall with the box in the tank? Do you let the water overflow into it and pump it out?

That transparent box is to keep the glass of the lights not get in contact with water.It raises if the water level gets up.Its also prevents the heat from the leds of the scrubber not to disperse into the aquarium.The scrubber is just one sided waterfall that has the algae screen mounted with magnets for easy maintenance.The scrubber is mounted in a tight place where it was verry hard to mount a good radiator for the LEDs thats why i get up with the Leds cooled through thoose 2 heatpipes.Its one of the first heat pipe cooled LEDs in the world.A heat pipe is maybe 100 times more efficient heat transporter than solid copper.Now i am thinking that there could be build somme titanium heat pipes for saltwater aquariums ,and even thogh titanium is a bad heat conductor ,in a heatpipe design it will beat solid copper properties manny times.
In the past i also did experiments to grow algae with 5 mm led diodes and this was the result.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I think I can see now but still not 100% sure! So is the waterfall screen attached inside your overflow box, then the glass box to protect the lights is also in the overflow box, and the light inside the glass box?

So that when/if the overflow box fills up, the glass box floats up and stays dry?

You can see a major difference between the 5mm LED diodes and the 5050s.

 

[jason2459]

I'm confused. lol

 

[2smokes]

You are 100 percent sure.The floating ,,glass,, box helps a lot by keeping the light fixture clean so the light is not obstructed by dirt(calcium deposits) and it also isolates thermally the leds from the aquarium water.With the 5 mm led diodes i did an experiment and i didnt expected too much from them.The inspiration to use 5 mm diodes for the scrubber was when ive read about a member here that used blue 5 mm diodes to light his mainly acropora tank and it worked for a while.My next challenge is to build an algae scrubber for the cold water aquarium.For cold water and scrubber i dont have any experience and i dont know wich plants should i use,maybe il use ulva lettuce instead of GHA.In any case il keep the cold water aquarium as hot as the algae wants because i trust algae scrubbers and bacterial filtration works really bad in cold.

 

[SantaMonica]

Scrubbers work good in cold water. But you can't choose the growth; it will grow what it wants.

 

[sandipan.ece]

why my ats grows discolored algae?

why my ats grows discolored algae?

Hi,

I use a Santa Monica HOG 1.x ATS. I am getting this discolored algae.
I run the ATS lights for 18 hours a day in 2 equal segments.
Is this discoloration due to excess lights? I have tried using the black cloth, that slows down the algae growth and I do not like that. Is this discoloration of algae a problem? Will this harm my tank?

Here is the photo:


Can someone with experience in using ATS, help me with this?

 

[vai6921]

Algae Scrubber Advanced

For me I've been using an ATS now for a bit over 3 months and mine just started to grow yellowish. At first it was like slime which grew into huge dark green turf. It recently dwindled down to smaller and more yellow turf. May be related to the amount of nutrition in the tank. It's working as the algae in the tank has mostly disappeared.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SantaMonica]

Both yours and sandipan just need a little less light, or more nutrients. Try feeding nori to the fish, which has iron to help the growth turn darker green.

 

[Danielmx]

Uas

Uas

Hi santa monica im daniel from the philippines and im a fan of your ats systems. Im planning a uas build for my 35g cube. My question is this:

1. What are the main keys to make a uas very effective?

2. What is the most succesfull type of screen for a uas and how can i build it?

3. How do i know if a led is 600nm? Because here in the philippines only chinese leds are available and there is no label for nm.

4. Is there an advantage on putting more holes on the algae part of the uas? Holes on the sides too or just on top and bottom?

I know you've been asked the same questions many times but im having trouble finding answers on the forums. Thanks

 

[karimwassef]

Just posted in the basic forum - a circulating settling tank ATS with recycled export

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1977420&page=370

 

[MidwesternTexan]

In a never seemingly never ending quest to improve the function of my personal DIY - ATS's

I have found perhaps my final 'splash guard'

I had some black plastic piping around my house- the smaller one was an old basement sump pump discharge hose; the other was an old downspout discharge hose- hence for this project- $0 additional cost.





* Oh, and just to be clear, my DT systems' ATS had 2 of the standard sized sheets on it, and I went down to 1 sheet, 50% less about a month ago- it was stripping my tank TOO clean! Things are more in balance now- still no nuisance algae.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Perfect!

 

[MidwesternTexan]

Perfect!

Thanks Turbo!!