Algae Scrubber Basics

[scolley]

Could you get a greater diameter piece of PVC, cut a slot in it and place it over your ATS feed pipe to shade the very top?

A pipe within a pipe. That's ingenious! Thanks for the suggestion. But gluing a small 1-2" x 8" piece of black acrylic the the screen is wicked easy too.

The only reason I haven't done it is that I'm in the middle of an upgrade, and I want to make sure I apply the acrylic in the right spot for it to work in my new stand.

Are your LEDs 3 W?

Yes, except the two reds which are a lot less. Don't recall how much exactly - could look it up a Mouser. But to my surprise, those two little low wattage reds are AMAZINGLY bright.

 

[tyler91913]

+1

I had the Herbie into an ATS. Obviously the top of the siphon has to be submerged for it to work though.

You can run a full siphon into an ATS (bean or herbie). It has been done and works just fine.

The point of submerging the siphon line is to eliminate the point where the water can free-fall and allow air to enter the line. With the slot tube junction, air has a much more difficult time entering the line because it is a horizontal flow into a vertical narrow partially open slot, which effectively makes it submerged.

 

[el aguila]

My ATS is starting it's 5th week. The need to clean the display glass has been greatly reduced. Thanks for all the info everyone!

When I read this thread originally I was lookiing more at how to build it and the concept behind it.

I would like to suggest that you post the answer to this question on the next summary page; anyway this may have been covered earlier in the thread. When you guys clean your screens, do you scrape it with a flat piece of plastic then rinse in the water, or how are you cleaning the screen to leave some algae still on the screen?

My screen is 21" long and a little difficult to place in a sink for cleaning. Presently laying on concrete floor of fish room on a plastic trash bag to clean.

 

[redneckgearhead]

I use an old casino card to scrape the screen (like a credit card) and have cut it down so it fits inside my ATS box to clean the bottom of the box as well and the sliver I cut off I use to clean out the slot. I clean mine in the bathtub. I can scrape all the algae into a pile and then us the removable shower head to rinse the screen off. It would be nearly impossible to remove all the algae. Some will stick in the crevices and scratches from you roughing up the screen.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Yep I currently go outside and do it in a low profile rubbermaid tub and use a cutting board and a plastic pan scraper then rinse with the hose sprayer on "shower". I scrub the top edge with a stuff scrub brush and occasionally scrub off the red turf that won't scrape away. I clean my screen probably a little more than most since some of my corals like the dirtier water.

 

[Robert Patterso]

I am thinking about going to led's but know next to nothing about them.
My question is what kind of a ballast do you use? Do you use pretty much all
Red lights? Thanks

 

[SPotter]

I've been reading some of the led threads on algaescrubber.net and it seems like all red and maybe a rb or two is the way to go.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

LED fixtures do not use a ballast, they use a driver. Meanwell makes a variety of these and they're relatively simple to connect and adjust. Reading up on general DIY LED thread on this site will get you a long way (and may confuse you significantly if you're not careful).

I posted this on the advanced thread. This is all 1W LEDs, a 50/50 mixture of 630 and 660nm red and 7:1 ratio of blues, also 50/50 mix of 425/435 and 455/460. this is what I'm going to use to test if there is a preferential spectrum that algae prefers, that being either the Chlorophyll A bandwidth or Chlorophyll B bandwidth (the fixtures are dual switched) or a combination of both (which will be more difficult to determine)

 

[SPotter]

what size screen are you going to test that out on?

 

[coral2002]

Nice. I am going to build one soon.

 

[coral2002]

BTW, what is flow rate should be used for the 12" screen?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I haven't gotten that far yet. Yesterday was the first time I had them both out of the box and plugged in. They were supposed to interchange the blues on the 2nd fixture and didn't, both fixtures are the same. I was hoping to be able to test 425/630 and 455/660 combinations. So right now I'm waiting to hear back from them on their screw up and see what they're going to do for me.

But the screen will probably be 1" wider than the LED opening, so probably about 8x12.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

BTW, what is flow rate should be used for the 12" screen?

35 GPH/in of width so 420ish

Basics summary on posts 2001-2010

 

[SPotter]

I haven't gotten that far yet. Yesterday was the first time I had them both out of the box and plugged in. They were supposed to interchange the blues on the 2nd fixture and didn't, both fixtures are the same. I was hoping to be able to test 425/630 and 455/660 combinations. So right now I'm waiting to hear back from them on their screw up and see what they're going to do for me.

But the screen will probably be 1" wider than the LED opening, so probably about 8x12.

wow...that fixture looks so much bigger than that!

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Fixture is about 9x16 (casing) each of the LED are about 3/4" on center

 

[coral2002]

35 GPH/in of width so 420ish

Basics summary on posts 2001-2010

Is 35GPH/in the average? Lots of flow. Question: higher is better or lower is better for Algae Scrubber?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Higher as long as your screen is rough enough. Better flow = better nutrient delivery to the algae at the boundary layer. Boundary layer in case you don't know is the concept that as a laminar flow approaches a stationary surface, the flow approaches zero. Higher flow reduces this. This is why gunk builds up in your pipes instead of routinely getting washed away.

 

[coral2002]

Thanks!!!

 

[rysher]

LED fixtures do not use a ballast, they use a driver. Meanwell makes a variety of these and they're relatively simple to connect and adjust. Reading up on general DIY LED thread on this site will get you a long way (and may confuse you significantly if you're not careful).

I posted this on the advanced thread. This is all 1W LEDs, a 50/50 mixture of 630 and 660nm red and 7:1 ratio of blues, also 50/50 mix of 425/435 and 455/460. this is what I'm going to use to test if there is a preferential spectrum that algae prefers, that being either the Chlorophyll A bandwidth or Chlorophyll B bandwidth (the fixtures are dual switched) or a combination of both (which will be more difficult to determine)

keep us posted

 

[mrbncal]

OK. Going on 5 months with an ATS on my little 29g. So here goes"¦


. . . Here's a pic of the screen and light. As you can see the light is an LED array on the door. When the door is closed the light is about 4" in front of from the algae mat. And you should see an acrylic splash guard hanging about an inch in front of the mat.

. . .


I like it. I have a similar situation in my stand now. I moved the tank recently and had to set it up a little differently. Smaller sump and less room to manuever. Your idea would fit my space pretty well.

Your tank is great, we have similar taste in corals I see. Heres a link to some pics before the move:

The tank is completely re-modeled now. Lost a few corals and fish to poor planning and a bacterial bloom in the holding tank. But its snapping back now.

As I said had to reduce my sump size, so the ATS got converted to a single side, but its pulling its weight or holding its own or . . . (insert any other witty idiom here) .

Anyway great job! Thanks for the pics!:bounce1:

mrb