Algae Scrubber Basics

[Floyd R Turbo]

If it was roughed up well enough in the first place, then it should be fine.

I would definitely dial it back to 50% and let the screen fill in. Do you have stand-off screws or anything like that to back it off of the acrylic? The RB will literally burn a hole in the acrylic. You need it to be 1/2" away minimum. Then take a small (1" x 1") piece of diffuser and use double-stick scotch tape (tiny pieces) to stick the diffuser to the window, right in front of the RB. This will spread that light out and cut the intensity of the RB by quite a bit.

also, don't over-clean. Think of it as harvesting not cleaning. You don't ever want to scrub the screen thinking "gotta get this clean" you want to leave a good base of growth behind

 

[zachtos]

Worked like a charm, making this bypass made the ATS silent. I guess if you feed from a drain, you need to keep the flow down or it will spray and sound like a bath tub filling up. I am not sure if I am getting exactly 35gph/inch though, but I suppose I could cut the slot a bit bigger if I need more. I think it's about 1/8", but it's pure gravity feed at this point.

The T is required, or it siphons, as mentioned, and no flow goes to the scrubber. I do hear a constant gurgle in the pipe though, not that loud though.

I ordered LEDs yesterday (11"x19" screen 2X sided), planning a 6x20" heatsink w/ T slots, and 42 LED per side (84 total), 72 - 660nm LED and 12 - 410-420nm LED. No lenses, will try to just keep as close as possible. Will be using dimming functions. My bioload will start at 2 cubes/day and slowly ramp up to 15+ cubes/day over the next 2 years as fish are added/grow.

 

[biglurr54]

The leds are up against the acrylic and about 1 1/2 inches from the screen. I have been toying with the idea of a diffuser for the whole array. I didn't think to do one for just the rb led. I think I need to lighten up on the cleaning. I was scrubbing 3/4 of the screen so ot was pretty clean every week. I've dropped down to one side a week and I will only do a light job cleaning it. I was feed g 2 cubes a day and the tank got cyano pretty bad. I've dropped down to 1 cube a day.

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[Floyd R Turbo]

zachtos that's awesome! Thanks for posting that, I was curious! You probably will want to fashion a light blocker, you can take ABS strips from McMaster Carr and a heat gun and form your own, will take a bit of practice but they will be removable better than duct tape

biglurr54 yes scrubbing the screen with a brush is a huge no-no. In fact I don't even recommend scraping the screen with a scraper in the "chiseling" position unless you need to - instead, just "drag" is across the screen, and go against the direction of flow, kind of like 'against the grain' so to speak - that loosen up a lot of growth.

here is what my screen looks like post-harvest

 

[Becks]

Got my algae scrubber up and running and this is just under a weeks growth, can only get a quick glimps at an angle of the screen due to the acrylic enclosure I built, I assume this is looking healthy and good so far?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

for a week, that looks like a good start!

 

[Becks]

I really roughed up the screen and I removed my rowapho, I have just over 35gph per horizontal inch with 18 hrs on 6 off cycle with red led flood light. I have a bit of arching of the water which I assume is due to the flow and will hopefully reduce once the algae grows but it's in a fully secure box so the noise is minimal.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Reduce the flow a bit until you get no arcing. You don't need the "guideline" flow right off the bat, but you do want it eventually. Until then, is fine (and sometimes better)

You might want to reduce LED hours also. 18/6 is CFL hours recommendation. You might find that to be too much when running LEDs. Either dim them or reduce to 9-12 hrs/day until you start to see some good results

 

[vikinglord13]

Floyd,

Do you know of a good book that details the ins and outs of Algae Scrubbers?
I've been to the algaescrubber zoho page before; I just like books haha

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Besides Dynamic Aquaria by Walter Adey, I don't know of any books that go into great detail about algae scrubbers

 

[SantaMonica]

google: algae scrubber powerpoint presentation

 

[davidgnome]

I am unable to post a video, but on the prior page I listed the details of my scrubber. It is lit on both sides and I have changed the configuration to a 5x5 screen with 2x24w cfls(one on each side in dome reflectors). 2 cubes a day, and how many hours for the photo period is correct?

 

[SantaMonica]

18 hours a day is a good start.

 

[zachtos]

Built the algae turf scrubber LED fixtures, very bright, extremely high PAR readings and good coverage at short range. Mostly 400-500 PAR most zones at 4-6", hard to measure until I properly mount under the tank (not gonna be easy).

I can adjust the light and fan output with a storm controller. I bought silicone conformal coating to protect the LEDs, but I can't find in the CREE spec sheets if the coating I bought is safe, many are not, so I'm too scared to lose the money and find out. I may just spray my controller PCBs to protect.

 

[seefil]

Back at it

Back at it

Hello, I used to have a scrubber on my 55 g reef tank. I did a lot of reading in this thread. I moved the filter into an adjacent closet. I created a sump with a 20g and a 10g linked together. I have an SC Aquariums SCA-302 Protein skimmer rated at 180 g, GFO reactor, Sunsun 9w UV sterilizer, Jebao DC 3000 return pump, Jebao RW8 Wavemaker, and now my Scrubber. I am feeding the scrubber off the return pump, regulated by a valve. It's going online tomorrow after I make a light blocker for the top of the scrubber. Here are some picks.

 

[SantaMonica]

Yes a black lid will make a lot of difference. You could paint the inside of it white, and the bucket too, to increase light.

 

[seefil]

Yes a black lid will make a lot of difference. You could paint the inside of it white, and the bucket too, to increase light.

Interesting ideas, never thought of that.. Or foil?

 

[jrp1588]

Any suggestions on ways to block light from the slot to keep algae out of it? I tried rigging something up with duct tape and cardboard, but those didn't really feel like "long term solution" materials. Maybe take some thinwall 1.25" drain tubing, cut a thick enough slot in it to stretch over your slot tube and screen, then it could just sit on top of the slot pipe. I figure it would almost entirely block the top 1" or so of screen and be fairly easily removable. Here's a cross-section diagram I drew up.

 

[SantaMonica]

That works, or a rectangular tube, or clear sandwich wrap.

 

[jrp1588]

That works, or a rectangular tube, or clear sandwich wrap.

Not sure what clear sandwich wrap would do. Can you elaborate? Anyway, I got it set up with 1.5" drain pipe. My diagram was not quite to scale, as it only prevents the top half inch or so from direct light exposure. There's probably enough ambient light to keep algae alive though. I'm thinking of trying to heat up the pipe to warp it into an oval shape to cover up more of the screen.