Algae Scrubber Basics

[Floyd R Turbo]

You can see pics of my design on my photobucket page here

http://s611.photobucket.com/albums/...s/Customer 1 - 125 Reef/2011-01-15 ATS Rev 2/

The lamps are T5HO, TEK-II Reflectors (very high efficiency). I think the lamps are 5.5" from center to center, so each lamp is about 2.75" from the screen. I think the unit is about 9-10" (side to side in the pic, which is front to back in the sump) and it spans a 40 breeder so it's 36" long.

As far as a breeding system, in the case where you have a large quantity of fish that must be fed either continuously or very frequently, if you have multiple tanks connected to a common sump, then the way to do it in order to maintain good water quality would be to have multiple scrubbers and clean them on a rotating schedule. For a single tank system, you could do one scrubber with a sectional screen (half & half) and clean one section every 3 or 4 days. The reason you would want to do this is because in an extremely high bio-load environment, cleaning the entire screen could allow a buildup of NH3, NO2, NO3 immediately after cleaning the screen, and it might take a few days to take it back down. Now if you had a ton of LR to buffer the screen cleaning schedule you might be OK. But if you were going scrubber only, you would want some kind of rotating cleaning schedule so that you always had some algae growing uninterrupted (by weekly cleaning)

Oh yeah, and +1 on oversizing - it wouldn't be a bad idea.

 

[fppf]

Hmmmm, ok I cleaned my scrubber for the first time tonight.
Few issues to resolve.

I need to add some sealer between the bin and the reflectors. During the off time the reflectors cool off and condense, then the water runs down and leaks out the side. So I'm going to add a bead of silicone and that should be that.

I made a modification to the screen where it goes into the slot. I cut about 4 rows of the horizontal rows where it goes into the pipe. I think this will help with the algae growing in the slot and plugging it. I also think it will help even out the water flow on the screen. We will see. If it don't work it only cost $1

My scrubber is not growing in the center, I think I have to much light. I have algae growing inside the PVC cross tube. It is DWV pipe, not sch 40. I'm using 27 watt CLF's and the edge of the reflector is 4" from the screen. I think I may try to step down one bulb size and see if that helps.

So the screen is cleaned and sitting in the sump for tonight while the silicone dries.

 

[salty joe]

So the screen is cleaned and sitting in the sump for tonight while the silicone dries.

Silicone will cure underwater. I have siliconed things to the inside of a full tank before, believe it or not. It did drive the PH down a little bit.

 

[fppf]

Silicone will cure underwater. I have siliconed things to the inside of a full tank before, believe it or not. It did drive the PH down a little bit.

Thanks for the tip, I don't think its a big deal to wait it out. But if my tank ever springs a leak I will keep that in mind.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

DWV pipe is thinner walled if I'm thinking of the right product.

You should not have algae growing into the actual pipe, unless you have cross-cuts, which would be the reason. Cross-cuts actually allow the pipe to clog. This is why they are not recommended. Without them, water pressure keeps the algae from growing into the slot. You might get a thin layer of algae, but it should not clog the pipe.

Thinner walled pipe may allow more light leakage into the pipe. I would recommend using Sched 40 for the slot tube. It will also be more rigid. DWV pipe might flex a little more, opening up the slot in the middle over time and allowing algae to grow into it, not to mention causing very uneven flow.

 

[fppf]

Yeah, thinner walled.
No cross cuts.

I might switch it out for sch 40, its what was laying around. I'm not worried about it changing shape at all. There is no way a mag 9.5 can generate that much pressure.

 

[dogstar74]

I would just paint the thinwall with krylon black and you'd be fine for light spillage.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Yeah, thinner walled.
No cross cuts.

I might switch it out for sch 40, its what was laying around. I'm not worried about it changing shape at all. There is no way a mag 9.5 can generate that much pressure.

I went back and found your build - post #240?

So are you feeding that from the overflow, or directly from the mag 9.5?

It's not so much about the pressure, it's over time I would think the slot might expand, but your slot it not that long so it may not be an issue.

How wide did you cut the slot? 1/8" or bigger?

 

[salty joe]

Anyone ever use an algae filter to control a Bryopsis infestation? A lot of people have gone to great lengths to get rid of it, including elevated magnesium. Wouldn't that be something if an AF could wipe out an existing Bryopsis problem?

 

[fppf]

Takes 5 minutes to cut a new tube out, I will just change it if there is an issue.

The slot is 0.125 wide.

Feed direct off the mag 9.5 with a valve to throttle it. Tried very hard to run it off my return, I have 12 feet of head coming down. But my filter layout just would not allow it. Maybe in the next house or if I rebuild the filter I will run it direct off the return water.

 

[phil47952]

Anyone ever use an algae filter to control a Bryopsis infestation? A lot of people have gone to great lengths to get rid of it, including elevated magnesium. Wouldn't that be something if an AF could wipe out an existing Bryopsis problem?

I'd like some info on this problem also.......

Phil

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

It will out-compete any algae that is photosynthetic. It will eventually out-compete cyanobacteria but may take a little more time. I've never personally battled Bryopsis, but from what I've read about it, it's your standard nuisance algae, it's green, and it'll go away.

I'll leave it to others to correct me if I'm wrong. It might take some pruning while the screen is ramping up, but once it takes off, it will take up all the food the bryopsis is using. The already grown stuff traps waste and uses it for food, so you must remove what you can, and new leaves will have a harder time growing.

 

[fppf]

Ok, we are back up.
Silicone was dry this morning.

Removing the horizontals for the first few rows works great. Much more even and laminar flow over the screen now.

 

[salty joe]

I made a modification to the screen where it goes into the slot. I cut about 4 rows of the horizontal rows where it goes into the pipe. I think this will help with the algae growing in the slot and plugging it. I also think it will help even out the water flow on the screen. We will see. If it don't work it only cost $1


Removing the horizontals for the first few rows works great. Much more even and laminar flow over the screen now.

I don't quite understand what you did. Can you explain again? Thanks.

 

[fppf]

Should have taken a picture, doh!

Ok, where the screen goes into the slot in the pipe....

I used a pair of very small cutters and cut the all the plastic running horizontal. So I left the top row of plastic to hold the verticals spaced out, then cut each little piece of horizontal plastic off for about 3-4 rows. This gives vertical slots in the screen where it goes into the slot in the pipe.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I get what you're saying. That does make sense too. That will probably prevent algae from growing into the slot, since it would have a more difficult time adhering to a vertical surface than a horizontal surface.

Great idea!

 

[fppf]

Ok here is a pic
The big hole is where my zip tie goes, it really is not that big, this is zoomed way in.

I left the material around the zip tie hole for structure and cut the rest out only where the screen passes through the slot in the pipe.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Is that the screen you use? It looks like you have not roughed it up at all.

 

[fppf]

No, that was scrape demo piece.

 

[skyshrimp]

Ok I have posted part 1 of my problem on the equipment thred now I need ats guys for part two. I just got a new water pump (wp-10000) and its good execept now the scrubber makes so much trickling noise. It used to be so quiet, but now I cant even watch tv because the ats is so loud.

I currently have the pump throttled back 3/4 of the way on a valve. I want to be able to run the full capacity of the pump as I need better flow for better algae growth. the opening on the ats pipe is 1/8 wide. Need help guys. What do you guys do with your ats and strong pumps?