Algae Scrubber Basics

[clownfish06]

I built a box for it.

Are you running the waterfall scrubber straight from your return? If so did you use same size pipe for scrubber or did you reduce it to a certain size? Do you have an elbow on other side of scrubber for excess water to come out?

Reason I ask is I want to build a waterfall scrubber and have it come from my return line to my sump.

 

[FishN00b83]

Are you running the waterfall scrubber straight from your return? If so did you use same size pipe for scrubber or did you reduce it to a certain size? Do you have an elbow on other side of scrubber for excess water to come out?



Reason I ask is I want to build a waterfall scrubber and have it come from my return line to my sump.

I run mine off the return. I used a t, to a gate valve, to a union, to the slotted pipe, to a cap. I just make sure I have enough flow to get a nice sheet of water on both sides. I have 2 polycarbonate clip lamps with CFL bulbs that turn on for two hours and off for three, 24 hours a day

 

[clownfish06]

Do you have any idea what the GPH is to your scrubber? Opinion on whether scrubber should be from overflow pipe going to sump or return line?

 

[FishN00b83]

Do you have any idea what the GPH is to your scrubber? Opinion on whether scrubber should be from overflow pipe going to sump or return line?

I have about 250 with a 7in pipe

 

[hkgar]

Are you running the waterfall scrubber straight from your return? If so did you use same size pipe for scrubber or did you reduce it to a certain size? Do you have an elbow on other side of scrubber for excess water to come out?

Reason I ask is I want to build a waterfall scrubber and have it come from my return line to my sump.

My return line is 3/4 inch and the pump is an Iwaki 100. I T off the return line with the same size line, 3/4", and then have a ball valve, gate valve and a union. The end of the scrubber is capped.

 

[clownfish06]

I went today and got supplies needed to build a basic Scrubber. I had some extra 1" pvc so I am going to make a stand out of it with slip T to pop my 3/4" pvc in to make the waterfall. I got a small round metal shop light with a 3k flood light with a piece of acrylic sheet to go over light as a splash guard. Going to try one sided scrubber just to test and then add extra light on other side if it works.

 

[clownfish06]

I have an extra pump that I will use to begin with and can always T my return line later. Maybe later upgrade my scrubber to LED's on both sides and house the scrubber in an acrylic box.

 

[sensei]

I roughed the canvas and this is a photo of how it looks with zoom, is this well done or it needs more rough-up????

In my country, I can not find the brand of mortar that was recomended, so I am thinking of just runing the ATS with the roughed canvas as you did before since the mortar that is available here may leach something to water and I don´t want to take that chance.
waiting for your comments

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Any brick mortar should be fine. As long as it is the kind that is used for building a brick wall, that is I believe all that really matters. Then make sure you soak in in RODI for a while - probably a week is what Paul B said

 

[clownfish06]

First I've heard of using brick mortar. How does using mortar help and I guess you spread a thin layer on the mesh? Also I have a 4x6" screen on waterfall with a 45 watt flood light (2850k). I just want a one sided screen so will this be enough light?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Read back and look at my post about it, or go to Paul B's "35 year old reef" thread and see the same pic and his explanation

 

[sensei]

View attachment 333176
I roughed the canvas and this is a photo of how it looks with zoom, is this well done or it needs more rough-up????

In my country, I can not find the brand of mortar that was recomended, so I am thinking of just runing the ATS with the roughed canvas as you did before since the mortar that is available here may leach something to water and I don´t want to take that chance.
waiting for your comments

Any brick mortar should be fine. As long as it is the kind that is used for building a brick wall, that is I believe all that really matters. Then make sure you soak in in RODI for a while - probably a week is what Paul B said

Thanks Floyd,
I will use the brick mortar available here.
how do you see the rough- up in the photo?
does it matter much if you use mortar?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Yeah the rough-up looks very good. In Paul's pic he puts it on pretty thick. I would say vary it, some areas really thin, some thicker, it shouldn't matter a whole lot as long as some screen is exposed and other areas will become exposed as the mortar chips off during cleaning (revealing screen below it, which will mature over time)

 

[sensei]

Thanks Floyd,
I am curious if you already tried the screen with the mortar?
if so how did it go?
how many days before you saw algae on it?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I've been so slammed with work and frag fest planning (ours is this weekend) and kids sports that I haven't had time to actually make one myself. I know it will only take me a few minutes but it's been one of those times where 5 minutes just doesn't seem to come free.

 

[sensei]

I know my friend, sometimes that happens to me also.

a couple more questions:
If I were to use the screen without the mortar, how much time do you consider it would take for it to go through the initial steps i.e. calcification, etc before I start to see algae in the screen?

2.- when you clean the screen, do you have to leave some algae hanging in the screen so that you do not have to go through these steps again?

thanks

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Usually 4-6 weeks and as for cleaning, just rub with fingertips and either rinse lightly in tap water (room temp, slow running) or swish in a shallow pan of saltwater. Usually every 10-14 days but really only when it needs it

 

[hkgar]

I have bee cleaning by using a spatula and scraping off the algae. Perhaps the finger method of cleaning might be better as it scrapping may very well removing too much algae?

 

[fishbox]

I've read enough to know I wanna try an Algae Scrubber with the 40B I'm building, but is there a condensed "How To" version of this thread? This thread is 288 pages long and was started in 2011.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I have found that you can use the scraper/credit card/spatula method to clean, but if you want to be a little less aggressive, instead of angling the blade into the direction of movement, angle it away from it - so that you are "dragging" it across the screen instead of pushing it into it. This also reduced the chances of ripping/tearing the screen material, and is just about as effective, you just might have to make a few extra passes. Then if you have area that are still pretty thick that you want to trim down, you angle the other way and push/scrape those areas a bit.

When a screen is relatively young (just reached maturity) it is a bit easy to over-clean if you are scraping aggressively. Once you get a very mature screen, you will almost always have chunks of algae left behind in the holes, and then your cleaning method is less important (but you can still snag the screen if you scrape vs drag)