Algae Scrubber Basics

Hey what do you guys think of using a ball or gate valve to dial in the flow over the screen, leaving the rest to flow in to the sump?

my idea is that i have more flow then i need (even though i roughed up my screen pretty good ) I really only need 280 GPH and I have 400 GPH so I could let 100 go in to the skimmer bay, and I could adjust it to meat my need.

thoughts?
Deva
I am heading out to Ace right now and will do a mock up and post a pic tonight or tomorrow..
 
Day two and it seems to be getting some growth. Kind of a weird color though. Look normal?

q9iko
 
srusso said:
So my LED test project is complete.
Total cost was about $30 dollars.

View attachment 191473

I used two electrical boxes as my heat sinks, light blocker, reflector, and it comes with screws that would normally be used to screw in the faceplate. Can't beat that! Let's see how well it does with the heat from the LEDs... Used some old nuts and bolts to sandwich the 5 LED driver between the boxes.

Got a $1 dollar piece of acrylic and made a cover for the boxes.

- Some old wire I had to connect everything up, cut an old power cord for the plug.


View attachment 191474

View attachment 191475

Mounted it to the inside door.

View attachment 191476
Click to expand...

A little update on my new LEDs, I forgot to take a picture but growth is healthier and greener. Also I am sure I could get the LEDs much closer without burning the harvest. I will be building a completely new set of LEDs for each side. And this set will be used with the test UAS.
 
srusso said:
On a side note, I have reason to believe I may have discovered a new "rule".

Scrubber PAR should be equal or greater than that of your display lighting.

At least this is the case for me... allow me to explain...

Some of you may or may not know my tank has become infested with bryopsis... Its bad... like a... really bad.

About 4 months ago I purchased all new lighting. Went with top of the line metal halide equipment. The change in PAR was from a crappy (ebay) 250 PAR at the water surface to now 1500 PAR... (anyone see the problem, my lighting is NOW like 4 feet from the top of the tank...)

now my scrubber didn't get an upgrade... it is still using the crap drop lights and 23w CFLs. AND if you have been keeping up with the reading the PAR reading from my scrubber are about 300 - 400...

With the scrubber being on for 18 hours a day and my tank lighting about 12 -10 hours, (I like to see my tank on early during weekends) the tank was receiving a TON more PAR then my scrubber.

So I believe I flipped the algae filtering from a sump scrubber to an entire system turned into a scrubber. Needs less to say the output of the scrubber declined over the four months, as the bryopsis did its thing and took over everything. I felt I had failed and a weed had won the battle.

Equipped with a new outlook, I will attempt to fix my own ongoing experiment of a reef tank.

Ps... yes I tried the kent magnesium thing... I am going to try and get the balance of power corrected, now that I may have found my issue. :headwallblue:

I think the main take away here is, scrubbers need lots of quality light.
Click to expand...

I am very happy to inform all and update to this post.

I would like to post my new before and after pics.

It took some time, adjustments to the scrubber, and adjustments to my feedings... Extreme minimal lighting, had ready lost most corals to the byropsis choking them out or growing on it. Changed the lighting again...

NO WATER CHANGES WHERE DONE...

Only one rock was removed from the tank for testing. It's the one in the after shot that is whiter...

A little back story...
During all this time I could never get a readable PO4 from any liquid based test, but my DIY scrubber obviously couldn't handle the extra something... Randy posted a great article on how most food we feed has much more phosphates then we all knew. So I was convinced it was my over feeding, a very strong metal halide over the display and the scrubber had become nitrate limited, since algae consumes nitrates to phosphates about 15-1 and now we know our food has more phosphates to boot!... Floyd suggested I get a Hana checker so I can really know what my phosphates where.

When I tested at the time I got .31

Started running started running GFO a little over a month ago, which worked great to drop my phosphates back down. Also added LEDs to one side of the scrubber to help in the battle...

So the war became, the bryopsis vs. the algae scrubber and GFO with the LED mob coming in two weeks ago... you tell me who won... Now read "0.00"

BEFORE
photo(18).jpg

AFTER
photo(19).jpg

So what is the conclusion?

1) The new feeding rules are much better then the tank sizing
2) In an algae scrubber only system, phosphates over time will build up due to the food we feed. And more then likely will not show on most liquid based tests.
3)GFO can be used to remove the excess phosphates in an scrubber only system. (Maybe "Should" be run for a CFL scrubber only system)

I am going to allow the GFO to run for now, going to get a full LED setup for the scrubber and build a nicer looking reactor... lol

I felt it only I should rework the rock scape, after I won the battle. :beachbum:
 
BEFORE
Click image for larger version Name: photo(18).jpg Views: 10 Size: 58.2 KB ID: 192871

AFTER
Click image for larger version Name: photo(19).jpg Views: 10 Size: 60.4 KB ID: 192872
Click to expand...

Wow! That's such a drastic change! How long did the battle take?
 
Tmoriarty said:
But the algae was so pretty :P, Good job on the battle, tank looks good.
Click to expand...

Funny you say that, at one point my wife actually said... "it's kind of cool looking now".

That picture is kind of "cherry picked" of the tank at its worst... At one point, I all but gave up... That is our before picture...
 
dryworm said:
holy cow. if my tank looked like that i would of gave up. great job
Click to expand...

Almost did... Funny thing was before I went reef, I was keeping a planted tank. Guess I am better at growing plants better then corals!! Hahaha

I learned a lot about what was happening in my tank and how algae works, it took a lot of reading and determination. Most learning came from taking out one rock so I could put it in a test tank...

Or like I called it, the prisoner of war! Spent hours, screaming at it... "Tell me what you know!" "How does your kind keep regrowing!" "When is your next attack planned!"

I learned the algae can handle 4 weeks of no light and hypo salinity... And still regrow... It has tiny black calcified roots that are important to its regrowth. It naturally rips right where the root starts to grow green. If the root is broken it has a harder time regrowing. It has a spores that are released when pruned but if that water will not support life it will not grow. So it's important not to prune in the beginning or while your water still supports the regrowth. That's just what I did for the first months when it was just a small patch so many months and months ago. If you have a bad outbreak like I did you can even see the stuff go sexual and the male plant turns a bright green, this can be seen in the before picture. Looks like a small strip of lighter color growth...
 
srusso said:
So what is the conclusion?

1) The new feeding rules are much better then the tank sizing
2) In an algae scrubber only system, phosphates over time will build up due to the food we feed. And more then likely will not show on most liquid based tests.
3)GFO can be used to remove the excess phosphates in an scrubber only system. (Maybe "Should" be run for a CFL scrubber only system)

I am going to allow the GFO to run for now, going to get a full LED setup for the scrubber and build a nicer looking reactor... lol
Click to expand...

Great job with the tank. :fish1:

How much GFO do you anticipate running to pick up the slack that the scrubber leaves behind?

Josh
 
I've been lurking on this thread for a while. About 2 months ago I set up my ATS using sprial cfl bulbs and basic ceramic sockets with hardware store reflectors. So far I am completely amazed that my house has not burned down from these things. So I decided to build an enclosed LED ATS. I used (3) 3W LEDs on both sides. Top and bottom are deep red and the middle is royal blue for a total of 9 watts on each side. How long should my light cycle be with this much light? Each side of the screen has the lights about 3 inches away.

Here's a few pics. I go a little overboard with my DIY. I always try to make it look "store bought". Let me know what you think.

011.jpg

010.jpg
 
JHawlz9989 said:
Great job with the tank. :fish1:

How much GFO do you anticipate running to pick up the slack that the scrubber leaves behind?

Josh
Click to expand...

Well I haven't even put in the suggested amount, half of it actually. Time will tell... my guess is that with the N's and P's in balance again, the scrubber should become more effective.
 
Update to my UAS test tank.

Well the screen is growing but it's also being groomed all day. I have cleaned it only once. Mainly b/c this female Molly (who killed the two males) has kept the screen so bare there is nothing to clean...

View attachment ImageUploadedByTapatalk1339849515.678668.jpg

So it's just the one Molly in a 30 gallon, water is perfect, and well... Not just one any more...

View attachment ImageUploadedByTapatalk1339849725.273844.jpg

About 15 fry, and she getting ready to to drop more...
 
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