Algae Scrubber Basics

[rysher]

More wattage does not mean more filtering if you just waste and spill that light all over the place. Then it just means I don't need to turn the light switch on when I go into the basement.

tell that to santa monica, you want me to quote him saying more wattage is better filtering?

but i think you can find his post by yourself if you go to the algaescrubber site.

next.

 

[redneckgearhead]

Well, I cleaned my screen for the first time today, mostly brown slimey stuff, but noticed some whispers of HA, so it is starting to take off. Heres what it looked like before I cleaned it.

 

[Soundtrigger]

Flyod that leather coral in the 37 is nice wish I had one like it

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

My wife and kids wish it was mine!! They come in every day and try to find the Fire Shrimp. They're not going to like it when you take it all back.

 

[Amphiprion]

More wattage does not mean more filtering if you just waste and spill that light all over the place. Then it just means I don't need to turn the light switch on when I go into the basement.

While it is true that it is a bit inefficient to run the lamps further away with a higher wattage, the bottom line is that the screen as a whole actually gets more radiant energy overall. You don't want a small, concentrated spot on one portion of the screen, since that takes little advantage of the area you've provided. A brighter lamp and increased distance from the screen satisfies the needs of the algae a bit better (as well as improving potential algal coverage), despite some sacrifices in energy efficiency.

Light spill is another issue altogether. There are plenty of ways to deal with it, though, like reflectors, visors, boxes, etc.

 

[badvegan]

Thanks!

Thanks!

Thank you for this build. It was really well put together and I really enjoy projects in this hobby that do not cost an arm and a leg! I have been wanting to try the scrubber for a long time, just never really got around till now.

 

[travis32]

I have another question. Are there any potential negative side effects of a scrubber's capabilities? Screen is starting to have tufts of hair algae on it, and staying solid light to dark green even after cleaning it. So, it's doing very well.

However, My toad stool refuses to open now anymore. It's been going on a week since it last opened. I have other toad stools that are open all night as well as all day... It's my largest toadstool that remains closed. This happened when I finished pulling the last of the pullable hair algae and the hair algae has stopped growing back for the most part.

I'm just wondering if the scrubber reached it's full potential and the phosphates maybe dissapated too fast for some softies. Is it possible that despite taking a month to reduce the nutrients, that maybe it happened too fast for some corals?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I was concerned from the beginning about my softies, because I was told that they like water a little 'dirtier', with some N and P. I was mostly concerned that the Xenias would get choked off and turn into goo and take the tank down. So far, (6+ months) that has not happened. However the tank did go through a period of adjustment it seems where the leathers did not open for quite some time, and they still seem to go through cycles of not opening, but they never die off.

The good news is that when your scrubber starts to knock out the N and P, then you can feed the tank more to keep the nutrients (N and P) up a bit. Get a good quality food like Rod's or liquid oysters and up your feedings. The food particles will stay in the water column a lot longer with a scrubber-only tank.

As with any system change, your system will need to re-balance. This even happens when you change the location of your live rock or your powerheads if they have been in place for a long time.

EDIT: PS my Xenias are splitting like wildfire and growing up the back wall. So for me, the jury is out on scrubbers being bad for softies, it's certainly not my experience.

 

[travis32]

Thanks Floyd. I do have some pink star polyps, that have grown in and xenia (non -pulsing xenia ) that were hitchhikers that survived my 8.0 ppm ammonia crash. They came back 6 weeks after the crash, and have grown like crazy, I have a large SPS in front of them so I can't see how they are doing. The last I checked though a couple weeks ago they were there around a dozen or two. So, I don't think they melted.. But, Yeah, especially with toadstools that are moody anyways, periods of balancing are annoying for them..

I am and am planning to feed more now. I've doubled my number of fish in the last 3 weeks. Had 4 and am up to 8 now. So, that should also provide additional nutrients on top of feeding more. I'm taking to feeding twice a day as well.. I'm still running the skimmer as it's still getting crap out, but, I may take that offline soon. Now that the HA is on the run, I'm afraid to change anything. heh.

 

[holmstar]

Built a scrubber of my own, inspired by some other designs. The thread is over in the DIY area: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2008249

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Or, you can tap NPT threads in the bottom of the scrubber. I have 1 1/2" threaded holes and the inside dimension is 1 7/8".

I found the tap for $44 to my door on ebay.

I hadn't thought about tapping threads into the acrylic. I came across something when looking into the annealing process that mentioned that annealing (heating and gradual cooling of finished parts) is particularly helpful in strengthening thread taps. One of the issues with acrylic is that any machining, bonding, etc causes stress to the material. Tapping threads apparently is one of the most stressful things and crazing over time can result. I don't know how much of a concern this is with a small box, but it is worth making a note of, you might want to periodically check around the threads to make sure it's not breaking down.

 

[salty joe]

Thanks for the heads up- I just inspected them & they look fine, I'll keep my eye on it. I tapped acrylic before with no issues.

Speaking of crazing, I once pushed my acrylic ATO into Bondo becuase the surface was uneven. As the Bondo cured it caused bad crazing.

 

[srusso]

Built a scrubber of my own, inspired by some other designs. The thread is over in the DIY area: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2008249

Nice build, please post pictures and results here if you don't mind. :beer:

 

[travis32]

I just checked my ATS tonight, and one one side, there's bubbles of algae protruding off the screen. I'm not sure what it is, but, I'm hoping that's a good sign of a new form of algae coming. It wasn't like bubble algae, almost like a bunch of algae on top of an air pocket or something, but, it's starting to protrude off the screen!! And this is strange too but it's in a lower flow spot of the screen, There's areas at the input of the spray bar that have faster flow and those have dark green algaes and still fairly slimy and not too hairy yet, then areas on the other end of low flow have algae building up off the screen.

I assume this is all good though.

 

[bshumake]

OK. Pictures at the end of week one. this is with only one light.
there's stuff all over the screen. i think it will take a couple weeks to get totally mature but so far, i'm impressed.

 

[srusso]

I just checked my ATS tonight, and one one side, there's bubbles of algae protruding off the screen. I'm not sure what it is, but, I'm hoping that's a good sign of a new form of algae coming. It wasn't like bubble algae, almost like a bunch of algae on top of an air pocket or something, but, it's starting to protrude off the screen!! And this is strange too but it's in a lower flow spot of the screen, There's areas at the input of the spray bar that have faster flow and those have dark green algaes and still fairly slimy and not too hairy yet, then areas on the other end of low flow have algae building up off the screen.

I assume this is all good though.

This is the next stage of growth, normal.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

It looks like your light is up high and pointed down at the center of the screen. Is there any way that you can point it straight at the center of the screen, perpendicular to it? You will get better growth.

 

[rysher]

my sump is full of red slime now, grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
nothing on the DT, i think this is because of the light on the ATS.
hopefully it wont go to the DT.

 

[jeremy-40]

my sump is full of red slime now, grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
nothing on the DT, i think this is because of the light on the ATS.
hopefully it wont go to the DT.

Don't worry it won't. I had the same issue and eventually the slime will go away, just hang in there!!!!!

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Blocking the light is a major benefit here. You definitely want to minimize light shed into the sump, unless you want light there for another reason.