Algae Scrubber Basics

[sensei]

They're on different tanks, separate systems

Floyd both are in the same tank.

I have a 3rd 2 cube ATS that is in a different tank but the two mentioned are in same tank, same 600 g system

 

[sensei]

I did not have a pump failure.
something did happened in the chemistry of the system, since I introduced around 12 acropora frags 1 month ago and in the last 15 days I have noticed some burned tips, and it happened to be at the same time that I had this whitening effect, but I did not know until I cleaned the screen last week. I have not been able to know why the burned tips since kh has been stable and it only happened in the new acros, not on the established acroporas.
can this whitening effect of the algae release some toxins in the water?
phosphate increased from 0.02 to 0.07 but I guess is becuase the 4 cube ATS was not working.

please let me know what you think

thanks

I am not sure if the bleaching of the 4 cube could release toxins?

thanks a lot for your answers.

 

[SantaMonica]

I would be using a horizontalfloating mesh (7 count canvas) with one side only lit from above, approx 10" away. It could possible have fine bubbles from wooden ayirstone, if helps at all

The "floating" screens I've seen people make have not worked; the screen needs to be up out of the water instead. Or, bubbles from beneath; but then the screen gets clogged with growth. That's why strings are better with bubbles. You could try making bigger holes in the screen though.

I introduced around 12 acropora frags 1 month ago. phosphate increased from 0.02 to 0.07

Sounds like what I was saying. Acros are mostly rock, and any transfer of rock through the air kills a part of it, and causes die-off. If the 4-cube scrubber was already thick, the extra phosphate might have made growth thick enough to kill the roots and let go. If so, it should be back to normal soon. Larger screens just have less water access from the edges of the screen, so the middle dies sooner when thick.

I am not sure if the bleaching of the 4 cube could release toxins

No, dying algae just put nutrients back into the water.

My scrubber build with leds on 72 gal

No pic

Can i use something like this Apollo Horticulture Purple Reign 6W MR16 LED https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AAWXNLA..._FMMtAbQJSZWMS

This is is very focused; maybe too much so.

Or this ABI 12W Deep Red 660nm https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01H2Y5U4M..._C9MtAb30A8M2C

Probably better and spread out.

7W Desk Clip Plant Grow light. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ID6A1MO..._V.MtAbAK2CBGB

Also focussed but ok for a small screen.

18W LED Grow Light https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MXK4HS0..._AdNtAbZ405BA3

This one probably has good spread because there are no lenses.

On a UAS as lighting?

For bubble upflows, these lights can be position and sized to the screen size, but will be 1-sided. To make them 2-sided, put a white plastic reflector behind the screen, angled to reflect light to the back of the screen as shown in the drawing. Or just use strings instead of a screen.

 

[Pandagobyguy]

The "floating" screens I've seen people make have not worked; the screen needs to be up out of the water instead. Or, bubbles from beneath; but then the screen gets clogged with growth. That's why strings are better with bubbles. You could try making bigger holes in the screen though.



Sounds like what I was saying. Acros are mostly rock, and any transfer of rock through the air kills a part of it, and causes die-off. If the 4-cube scrubber was already thick, the extra phosphate might have made growth thick enough to kill the roots and let go. If so, it should be back to normal soon. Larger screens just have less water access from the edges of the screen, so the middle dies sooner when thick.



No, dying algae just put nutrients back into the water.



No pic



This is is very focused; maybe too much so.



Probably better and spread out.



Also focussed but ok for a small screen.



This one probably has good spread because there are no lenses.



For bubble upflows, these lights can be position and sized to the screen size, but will be 1-sided. To make them 2-sided, put a white plastic reflector behind the screen, angled to reflect light to the back of the screen as shown in the drawing. Or just use strings instead of a screen.

Thanks for the info!

 

[ali1]

Made my scrubber to a total size 19x11 with the LEDs on each side.

Harvesting every week:

Based on this scrubber, it looks like turf algae is now wrapping around my pvc and growing in the base of my sump. Is this a concern for nitrate build up?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

My scrubber build with leds on 72 gal custom tank. Built the stand and everything myself. I am doing a floating reef tank I cut rock and siliconed it the the tank with ASI aquarium safe silIcone
I'm using a jabeo 15000 pump and bubble magnus skimmer. Still waiting to add coral
View attachment 385330View attachment 385331

Man, you've got some faith in silicone! I'm not saying you should worry, it could be just fine, but I'd be constantly worried about a piece of rock peeling away and falling & busting out the bottom of the tank

Floyd both are in the same tank.

I have a 3rd 2 cube ATS that is in a different tank but the two mentioned are in same tank, same 600 g system

I spoke too soon, dammit!!

 

[Zoapro91]

Man, you've got some faith in silicone! I'm not saying you should worry, it could be just fine, but I'd be constantly worried about a piece of rock peeling away and falling & busting out the bottom of the tank



I spoke too soon, dammit!!

No way for that rock to come down with the asi silIcone I can put over 5lbs over the rock and it doesn't budge. I can't even cut that stuff once it's dry.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I introduced around 12 acropora frags 1 month ago. phosphate increased from 0.02 to 0.07

Sounds like what I was saying. Acros are mostly rock, and any transfer of rock through the air kills a part of it, and causes die-off. If the 4-cube scrubber was already thick, the extra phosphate might have made growth thick enough to kill the roots and let go. If so, it should be back to normal soon. Larger screens just have less water access from the edges of the screen, so the middle dies sooner when thick.

But that quote is not accurate, here is what he posted

I did not have a pump failure.
something did happened in the chemistry of the system, since I introduced around 12 acropora frags 1 month ago and in the last 15 days I have noticed some burned tips, and it happened to be at the same time that I had this whitening effect, but I did not know until I cleaned the screen last week. I have not been able to know why the burned tips since kh has been stable and it only happened in the new acros, not on the established acroporas.
can this whitening effect of the algae release some toxins in the water?
phosphate increased from 0.02 to 0.07 but I guess is becuase the 4 cube ATS was not working.

So the "extra phosphate" would not likely have caused the scrubber growth to fail, otherwise the 2nd scrubber which is also on the same tank should have died off similarly. But that didn't happen.

No, dying algae just put nutrients back into the water.

I'm not so sure about this. While it seems to make sense from a logical perspective that whatever nutrients the algae has adsorbed in the process of growing would be released when the algae dies, it's not likely in the same form. Also there is probably something else released when algae dies off, like sugars.

But the rise in phosphates is probably a combination of the filtering being less prevalent + the nutrient release from the algae dying. However I think the nutrient release is less of a factor since this seems to have happened shortly after cleaning...did I get that last part right?

So the timeline is:

12/3/17 added acro frags
12/19/17 = Day 0 - cleaned scrubber, normal looking harvest
1/2/18 = Day 14 - Noticed scrubber is white

Now, another piece of info (posted 1/3):

Yesterday cleaned both after last hasvest 14 days ago and to my surprice the 4 cube did not show any growth and the little algae attached to the screen was completelly White, what could have happened??

What this tells me is that right after you cleaned the screen, something happened that caused whatever growth you have to stop growing and die off, and it stayed that way for the 14 day period. So this would mean likely very little nutrient release since there was very little algae.

Is the growth on the L2 just fine? Normal looking harvest?

If so, this just seems to point to an issue with the settings on the L4. A temporary pump failure would make the most sense. What you want to look for as evidence to indicate this is the presence of white encrustation on the screen, stuff that looks almost "baked on". If this happened for a few days right after you harvested, but then the water kicked back on, it would still be white and crusty/hard.

Tell me about your pump controls - do you run the scrubber pumps off of a controller? Or do you manually plug/unplug them? If on a controller, is it possible that you didn't re-start the pump after cleaning, but the controller kicked it back on automatically a day later as part of a fallback mode?

Tell me about the settings on the L4 and L2 - how many hours/day are the lights on? What intensity are they both at?

 

[FLSharkvictim]

Santa Monica Hogx Scrubber review

Santa Monica Hogx Scrubber review

I have had a lot of good luck with the Santa Monica HOG1.3X. It fits perfect in my sump area. It's been running for about 2 months and I have ZERO algae in my display and a ton of it in the Scrubber. Then if you ever upgrade you can just add another one.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

The 600g system was cycled in march 2016
in May 2016 I installed the first 2 cube ATS
in Oct 2016 I installed the other 4 cube ATS

Both are in same tank, different parts of the sump and they have a different sumergible pump. the design of both are exactly the same with the difference that one is bigger. both have same red leds, and both run the same light skedule. I tryed to match both so that one does not outcompete the other one.

they were both growing green hair algae.

here are the pictures of the harvest of both before the bleaching of the 4 cube

View attachment 385366

View attachment 385367

Thanks for your answer

For what its worth, I've put some green scrubber algae in a zip lock bag, for a month, in darkness, and it stayed green.
I've also scraped off the excess algae on a screen I've decommissioned, left the screen sitting in the sunlight, dry, and the remaining base algae turned a pale creamy white colour - dead, after about seven days. When i've wet it, it turned soft and crumbly.

An illuminated dry screen seems the only logical answer.

 

[sensei]

For what its worth, I've put some green scrubber algae in a zip lock bag, for a month, in darkness, and it stayed green.
I've also scraped off the excess algae on a screen I've decommissioned, left the screen sitting in the sunlight, dry, and the remaining base algae turned a pale creamy white colour - dead, after about seven days. When i've wet it, it turned soft and crumbly.

An illuminated dry screen seems the only logical answer.

Yes, it is the only logical explanation.
Thanks

 

[Nstocks]

Could a box be filled with strings and a wooden air stone inside for a good algae scrubber?

Reason for the microbbbles from air stone is to prevent noise due to tank location.

 

[Nstocks]

The biggest concern I have is the proximity of bare LED/wires near water.

In this build they have the lights 90 degrees from the screens which greatly reduced the electrical risk if a DIY LED panel was made.

Would this method be very inefficient though, even with 3 or 4 screens?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8UqBIEwSgQ (at 1:32)

 

[SantaMonica]

Could a box be filled with strings and a wooden air stone inside for a good algae scrubber?

The air stone is the limiting part. You need big air bubbles to move the algae around, and to remove the boundary layer on the air/water interface. Small bubbles do this less efficiently.

In this build they have the lights 90 degrees from the screens

Those types lose a lot of effectiveness because almost all the light is at the "sunset" level. Much better to move the lights to the side, and only use one screen if you need to.

 

[Nstocks]

Possible found a solution for splash proofing the Led's.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Whitefurze...4+plastic+box&refinements=p_76:419158031&th=1

 

[lapoza]

Well The Inland dump bucket has been going about 6 weeks now, maybe longer i cant remember when i actually started the tank up. Anyhow they gave me two seed screens when they closed to get it going, both covered in purple algae. I was using CFL lighting but they lamps had a date on them from 2011 so i decided to change to using a mars aqua 165W i just bought off of ebay. Within days GHA growth was explosive. I have been cleaning the screen weekly and it is overgrowing the old purple agae and will probably kill it off within the month.

I read through Turbos website on a DIY vertical style so i could get rid of the constant dumping noise. Found a DIY article on making a verticle scrubber out of PVC plywood. Ordered the Red and blue LEDS from Steves LEDS and have had it up an running for around 5 days, once again im not good at not taking so i dont know exactly how long it has been in operation. But it has gotten very good growth in a short time frame using a small seed screen of GHS from my dump bucket ATS. Once I feel confident that the vertical is adequate I will remove the dump bucket from operation.

The tank is fairly new but the Scrubbers have been keeping my levels at very good levels. Last nights readings were Alk 11.6 down from 12.5. Nitrate nitrite and ammonia at 0. The only issue Ive had has been phosphates from using tap water. I was at a .86 and it wouldn't drop until i changed to the mars Aqua. That dropped it to a .56 over a couple weeks. Two days ago I added GFO which dropped it to .21 overnight. I am hoping that within a week my phosphates are down to SPS coral levels.

Here are some pics of my DIY adventure. One thing i found very interesting is on the dump bucket scrubber the edge of the Mars Aqua LED the Alga quits growing almost in an exact perfect line. Definitely dependent on lighting for growth

 

[SantaMonica]

Yes the dump bucket had its day, but as you can see a waterfall, bubble upflow, or horizontal flowing river with constant flow and strong light will outgrow the dump bucket turf.

 

[MSHUR]

For you all ATS gurus, can you tell me PLEASE what light and why is better for scrubbers?

WARM WHITE LED OR COMBO OF RED/BLUE


Thanks,

Mike

 

[Scrubber_steve]

For you all ATS gurus, can you tell me PLEASE what light and why is better for scrubbers?

WARM WHITE LED OR COMBO OF RED/BLUE


Thanks,

Mike

Just red 660nm is all you need to grow green algae

0.25W to 0.5W per square inch, each side of screen.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

http://algaescrubber.zohosites.com/lighting-led.html