Algae Scrubber Basics

[srusso]

Ok I'm going to give this a try. Here is what I have going.

I feed the scrubber for my return pump.

This is day 1.

A few things...

1)Besure that your are getting the flow needed for that size screen. From the looks of it, you are not getting complete coverage.
2)Poor light placement, you should try to get it more parallel to the screen. Its was too close at the top there...
3)For record, what type of LEDs are you using?

 

[Ehgemus]

It is flowing down the screen pretty heavy in about 7 spots. I thank when the algae starts it will even out.
The light is placed that way to light screen and some of the sump. I may end up using two light on this.
There is 7x 1w LEDs there and it is brighter than want the pictures shows. The LEDs are cree and came out of 1w led flashlights. I build high power laser pointers and I have a few of these laying around.
How much flow should I have? I will try to find out what the flow rate is. The screen is 10.5 x 13.5

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

35 GPH per inch of screen. For your screen, you would want about 370 GPH to it. With your tap off the overflow (which I've never seen done quite like that before - that's out-of-the-box thinking!) I would think you would have a difficult time getting that much flow. The 1/2" tubing is further restricted inside the elbow fitting.

Also your slot tube appears to be pointed sideways, it should be pointed straight down. When you do this, I believe you will end up with all the flow in the first 1/4 of the screen. You might consider measuring the flow and then just making your scrubber very narrow so you have the right flow rate per inch and then rotate the light vertically.

You lights will grow algae, but probably very little. 1W LEDs just aren't that bright. Plus coming out of a flashlight, they're probably not the right spectrum. All LED builds that have resulted in good results use Warm White 3W at a minimum, and most successful ones have 660nm reds. CW and blue LEDs have been shown to do just about nothing

How big of a tank is this on, and how much/how often do you feed?

Have you read through the basics summary?

 

[srusso]

It is flowing down the screen pretty heavy in about 7 spots. I thank when the algae starts it will even out.
The light is placed that way to light screen and some of the sump. I may end up using two light on this.
There is 7x 1w LEDs there and it is brighter than want the pictures shows. The LEDs are cree and came out of 1w led flashlights. I build high power laser pointers and I have a few of these laying around.
How much flow should I have? I will try to find out what the flow rate is. The screen is 10.5 x 13.5

Do you know how much PAR your getting from these LEDs? What Kevin? I don't know much about LEDs but 7 1W LEDs isn't going to be enough... Additionally your pointing it so some light goes into the sump. You should read a little more about scrubbers. Allow what you have there to start cycling. Diatoms will grow in almost no light. Then fix flow and lighting, also the slot in the PVC should be pointing down.

 

[Ehgemus]

I figured it to be about 66gph. Not that much but I'm not looking for much, just something to pull some extra phosphate out of my water. My tank is a 75g with 30g sump. I'm thinking about 90-100g total.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

That's enough flow for a 2 or maybe 4 inch wide screen, max. If you're just looking for something to assist in pulling some nutrients out of the water, and not for primary filtration, then cut a new slot pipe with a 3 or 4 inch long slot and trim your screen down so that it gets proper flow and turn the light vertical. But I'll warn you now that you're probably going to get black slime algae, with blocks light and will result in detachment unless you clean it more frequently.

If you really want this to work, then I personally think you need to read through the follow the basics. Two CFL floods (one on each side) and a 4 inch wide screen is the bare minimum that you should be running with that flow rate and setup. And that will do about 10x better job (literally) that what you have set up now.

 

[SPotter]

I got it all hooked up and turned it on tonight. Ill try to get some better pictures tomorrow.

Steve

 

[Robert Patterso]

Ok I need some input. I work part time in a lfs (Saturdays only) and we have a 800 gallon display mixed reef. Very nice, still young but growing in nicely. I've been talking to the owner about putting an ats on this thing. Problem is room. There is no way I could build one big enough to cover all 800 gallons but was thinking IF I could get one in there that would cover half of that it would still be an improvement.
My question is, Which is more important, Width or length? I am sure I could get 2 maybe 3 screens in there and they would be about 22" wide and maybe 16" in length.
Looking for ideas. This thing has 2 Octo xp5000 skimmers, a very large calcium reactor, a reactor with bio pellets, Lots of cheato, which I told him would eventually die off probably. It has a little GHA, very little in the tank. I told him it could possibly make a big difference in the health of the tank. He has ask me to build it and we could do some trading. I want some mp40"s!!

Thanks in Advance

 

[srusso]

Ok I need some input. I work part time in a lfs (Saturdays only) and we have a 800 gallon display mixed reef. Very nice, still young but growing in nicely. I've been talking to the owner about putting an ats on this thing. Problem is room. There is no way I could build one big enough to cover all 800 gallons but was thinking IF I could get one in there that would cover half of that it would still be an improvement.
My question is, Which is more important, Width or length? I am sure I could get 2 maybe 3 screens in there and they would be about 22" wide and maybe 16" in length.
Looking for ideas. This thing has 2 Octo xp5000 skimmers, a very large calcium reactor, a reactor with bio pellets, Lots of cheato, which I told him would eventually die off probably. It has a little GHA, very little in the tank. I told him it could possibly make a big difference in the health of the tank. He has ask me to build it and we could do some trading. I want some mp40"s!!

Thanks in Advance

Wider the better but it comes at the cost of more GPH. Sounds like a good build, let's see some pictures of the tank and sump area. What lighting are you doing? IMHO this should totally be a T5 system and some nice reflectors, acrylic box etc. If you could get two 22"x16" screen with 16 T5's. Going to be an amazing build. 4 T5's per side, and a pump that will push 1500GPH for both scrubbers.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

You would probably be able to get away with a smaller scrubber vs the tank gallons. The reason is that your scrubber really only needs to be sized to the bio-load. So as long as you stock the tank moderately and feed per the screen size, you'll be OK.

This is spawning from some new recommendations that will be coming soon, the gist of it is that you can size your screen based on the amount that you feed. I don't want to get too ahead of things here and throw people off w/r to their designs, but a properly built scrubber can handle roughly one cube of food per 10 square inches per day (but that's a maximum). A cube being defined as roughly 1 cubic cm (such as a cube of Ocean Nutrition).

Also it's worth pointing out that your bio-pellet reactor will interfere with the scrubber growth.

Post some more info and we can go from there

 

[Robert Patterso]

The tank itself is 800g. It has about 2 dozen fish. Tangs and anthias, more anthias than anything. He won't have a problem with taking the pellets out. It is mainly sps, with lps and zoas, large clam and a couple small ones. Sump is about 150g sump.
I will try and get some pictures later in the week.

 

[Robert Patterso]

Wider the better but it comes at the cost of more GPH. Sounds like a good build, let's see some pictures of the tank and sump area. What lighting are you doing? IMHO this should totally be a T5 system and some nice reflectors, acrylic box etc. If you could get two 22"x16" screen with 16 T5's. Going to be an amazing build. 4 T5's per side, and a pump that will push 1500GPH for both scrubbers.

4 T5's per side? I was thinking 2 but I guess that wouldn't be enough coverage. Not sure he will go that many. Be a little expensive. I will find out just how serious he I guess.

 

[TheFishMan65]

Also it's worth pointing out that your bio-pellet reactor will interfere with the scrubber growth.

Isn't this a bit of and understatement?

Both the scrubber and reactor are trying to take N and P out of the system. The scubber by growing algae that is removed. The pellet reactor by growing bacteria that is removed by skimming.

From my reading (and perhaps poor understanding) the bio pellets will provide a better environemnt than the algae scrubber, so if you want to try and run both you will want to use fewer pellets than is recommended.

 

[srusso]

4 T5's per side? I was thinking 2 but I guess that wouldn't be enough coverage. Not sure he will go that many. Be a little expensive. I will find out just how serious he I guess.

Well you could do 48" T5's... Two screens inside one long box. This cuts it down to only 8 bulbs.

Or do 2 screens that are 22"x12" And use 3 - 48" T5 bulbs pre side for a total of 6 bulbs

That would be for ~524 gallons. Enough to take one skimmer offline, once it's producing...

 

[Robert Patterso]

The screens will have to be side by side. Going cross ways on the sump due to room restrictions. So we will only be able to use 24" t5's. I would imagine the will be open air (no box) also. I haven't been able to get any real good measurement yet. Will try to get all that this week sometime

 

[Robert Patterso]

how often do the t5 bulbs need to be replaced compared to the cfl's. I know the cfl bulbs should be replaced approx. every 90 days.
Second question is does anyone know where to get mylar to make reflectors with?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I have always stuck to 3 months. I was due for replacement in the middle of last month, but haven't done it yet. I've read some people saying that they've been able to stretch T5HO a little longer, so I'm trying that. But it may depend on the brand of lamp, so it's hard to say whether it will matter for other brands. The best way to judge it is to replace every 3 months, or if nuisance algae / nutrient level (N and P) start to rise, and no more than 4 months. CFLs are 3 months no matter what.

If you undersize the scrubber though, better change every 3 months - intensity is of great importance in your case.

 

[srusso]

how often do the t5 bulbs need to be replaced compared to the cfl's. I know the cfl bulbs should be replaced approx. every 90 days.
Second question is does anyone know where to get mylar to make reflectors with?

+1 on the 3 month replacement.

As for mylar, I would use emergency thermal blankets. They are made from mylar and are cheap.

http://www.amazon.com/Emergency-Thermal-Blankets-4-Pack/dp/B0007N0XDO

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Those should work good with a rigid backing of some kind. Srusso's build uses shop lights (they're the yellow ones in the summary) and that stuff works well for that style of reflector. If you don't have a rigid backing, you'll have to find a material to make a 'frame' out of, then glue it on to that frame.

 

[pskelton]

Floyd,
With your T5 Setup who much does a bulb change cost you.

Another question, I see you said #7 mesh is the best. I am running one size smaller because I did not know better when I started my scrubber. What are your thoughts on this?