Algae Scrubber Basics

[dogstar74]

Well, unfortunately, in this forum you've hit a sensitive question with that request. We'd better keep this thread to DIY so it doesn't get closed down. You could post a thread with that request in the subject heading in the for sale and trade thread after you get 50 posts to your account and 90 days. Then those threads will appear. Sorry for the lack of helpfulness, but some that frequent this thread, have had warnings on this subject so you may not get a lot of responses. Just didn't want you to be too frustrated when people aren't exactly helpful with your question. Just know that they can't be because of the rules of the forum.

Cheers,
Aaron

 

[srusso]

Does anyone sell good algae scrubbers or are the only DIY?

Yes, I will send you some info. We can only discuss DIY stuff on this thread.

 

[BigRick]

Thanks guys!!

 

[rcr]

If I may ask 2 design questions?

1. I have seen two different designs, one being a screen with water running down the screen and one with the screen submerged in water. Witch way is best and why?
2. Do regular 4 foot florescent tube lights put out enough light to grow the algae?
Thanks for you help with these questions.
Robin

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Robin,

You are seeing the same design really. The 'flooded' ATS is a result of putting the screen in an enclosed box (with a bottom and a drain) and allowing the algae to grow thick enough that it traps water between the screen and the box. The water is still running through it, and this is the key thing that needs to happen. Filling a box with water and sticking a screen in it will not grow algae to the extent required to perform adequate filtration, unless the water is extremely turbulent.

But to answer your question, the enclosed box design, which allows for what we refer to as "3D growth" is best. The drawback is that it's harder to build, and inherently louder, unless you have a way to cover the screen area (like a lid for the box).

As far as lights, it depends on your definition of 'regular'. 48" T5HO (54W) with a reflector will work great, and you can find strip light fixtures that do that job pretty cheap (SunBlaze). T8s are generally 32W and lower lumens/watt so you would need to cram them together tight and use reflectors too, which are going to basically offset each other, because the reflectors will need to be wider to correctly reflect a larger light signature. So you would end up with a lower-light scrubber, which is fine as long as you oversize the screen and provide it good flow.

I would say that T12s are out.

 

[rcr]

As a screen material has anyone tried the faithful egg crate?

 

[rcr]

Another question if I may? I am running carbon and GFO in separate reactors, how well would a ATS work in my system? I do have to clean the glass every 3-4 days. Thanks for the help with the silly questions.

Robin.

 

[jeremy-40]

Update

Update

I cleaned my screen today and there really was no change. Last week I did a very light cleaning and I really did not get much more growth this week than normal. It's still a light brown color and was very hard to cleanoff the screen. I used an old credit card this week and did a heavy cleaning.

This is a pictue of my harvest. I know it looks a little green but again it's my phones camera and that is all I have. This is really a light brown and it's very carpet like algae.

Also since I cleaned the live rock last week it really hasn't regenerated much at all!!! Maybe it helped!!!!

 

[davey812]

Hello, im getting ready to set up a 55gal tank and im going to use a algae scrubber and was wondering if I should start useing it as soon as I set the tank up or should I wait untill the Im done cycling.

Thanks for the help

 

[srusso]

I cleaned my screen today and there really was no change. Last week I did a very light cleaning and I really did not get much more growth this week than normal. It's still a light brown color and was very hard to cleanoff the screen. I used an old credit card this week and did a heavy cleaning.

This is a pictue of my harvest. I know it looks a little green but again it's my phones camera and that is all I have. This is really a light brown and it's very carpet like algae.

Also since I cleaned the live rock last week it really hasn't regenerated much at all!!! Maybe it helped!!!!

Good stuff! Keep up the good work. I don't doubt that it did speed up the process.

 

[srusso]

Hello, im getting ready to set up a 55gal tank and im going to use a algae scrubber and was wondering if I should start useing it as soon as I set the tank up or should I wait untill the Im done cycling.

Thanks for the help

It should be setup with the tank. You will see almost no cycle if your scrubber is working well. Post your design here for comments. Happy scrubbing.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

As a screen material has anyone tried the faithful egg crate?

Yes, not enough surface area, too difficult to rough up. It doesn't work very well.

Another question if I may? I am running carbon and GFO in separate reactors, how well would a ATS work in my system? I do have to clean the glass every 3-4 days. Thanks for the help with the silly questions.

Robin.

Running GFO will eliminate phosphate, which will result in low to no algae growth on and algae scrubber. Algae uses light to absorb N and P and make chlorophyll. Without P, the algae won't absorb N, or at least not very well. So running both together may or may not result in an effective scrubber.

If you're wanting to keep running GFO, I would make sure that it's not in line between the overflow and the scrubber, like put it on a separate tap and dial the flow way back, and monitor P while the scrubber is ramping up. Once the scrubber is mature, then you can see how much you can dial it back without raising P (shouldn't happen anyways). But if you're really worried about P, running GFO can't hurt, as long as it is used as a backup and not primary over the scrubber. Think about the GFO as limiting P but not enough to hinder algae growth.

As for carbon, that's one of those that has people on either side of the fence, ATS or not. I personally don't run carbon unless there is some kind of need (on any tank), others run it all the time.

Hello, im getting ready to set up a 55gal tank and im going to use a algae scrubber and was wondering if I should start useing it as soon as I set the tank up or should I wait untill the Im done cycling.

Thanks for the help

Algae eats ammonia (for breakfast) so what happens is that you get an 'invisible' cycle. The will be very little if any measurable increase in Ammonia, Nitrite, or Nitrate (given that the scrubber is properly constructed), but the cycle will still be happening. So you have to remember the Randy Holmes-Farley advice that any new system will not truly start to become stable until you reach about 6 months old. There are thousands of other reactions and death/life cycles occurring that we don't measure and monitor.

Go to Myth #15

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-01/eb/index.php

This applies no matter what system you are running. But at least with an algae scrubber, you lower or eliminate the risk of ammonia burn when you set up your system. But I would start the scrubber with no LR, maybe just sand and fresh mix of SW, then dose ammonia to get the scrubber/cycle started, then slowly start adding LR. If it's all base rock and it's all dry you can probably add it all at once. But if you're buying LR from a store, that is actually live, then if you add all that at once with a new scrubber you're likely to get a spike.

The long and short of it is that there really is no way around the 6-month cycle issue. I'm a big proponent of that chart that Randy shows. It makes total sense.

 

[travis32]

Algae issues continue worse.

Algae issues continue worse.

Well, I'm not sure what to do. I'm at a loss...

I feel I've been doing everything right, but things continue to get worse than better.

I was gone for a week, and fed with an auto feeder flake food 2-3 times a day. I had a person come in and check the top off and feed some frozen food. He's a reefer so I'm sure he didn't over feed. Plus the ATS and skimmer are going.

Well, in that time I had a power outtage and lost 4-5 of my 8 fish... He got them out not long after they had died (up to 12 hours possibly...). Corals and everything were fine and 3 fish survived for sure. 1 is still missing.

Anyways, that's not why I'm writing this. Even before this happened and after it, the briopsis, Hair algae, film algae, have all continued to get worse in the display.

I have ATS running with 4 23W CFL bulbs 18 hours a day. Screen is 10 by 13 for my 125g + half full 30 gallon sump and around 80-100lbs of rock and DSB in sump.

I have skimmer going constantly pulling out black stuff, and The ATS consistantly fills in with film algae.. I have macro algae on my power heads in the display that I harvest 6-8" of macro a week.

I have chaeto in my sump that I harvest (in half or more) once every 2-3 weeks.

I have 6 mangrove roots that are leafing out nicely and growing quite well.

I don't know what else to do!! The briopsis and hair algae continue to thrive with all that I'm doing! I Have a massive export system, but nothing touches the stuff...

Am I better off scrapping my rock and starting over? It's just really disappointing to look at with corals just being overtaken by briopsis and ha.

 

[davey812]

Thanks for the help. My plan is to you use the bucket system that i seen on here.
I plan on putting live sand in the tank, I have about 45lbs of old rock that im bleaching right now, and im going to get another 30lbs of dry rock and add a few lbs of live rock to seed the base rock.

So i should add the dry rock when I set the tank up and wait to add the live rock?

 

[srusso]

Thanks for the help. My plan is to you use the bucket system that i seen on here.
I plan on putting live sand in the tank, I have about 45lbs of old rock that im bleaching right now, and im going to get another 30lbs of dry rock and add a few lbs of live rock to seed the base rock.

So i should add the dry rock when I set the tank up and wait to add the live rock?

Dont bleach anything, add the rock when you setup the tank.

 

[davey812]

The rock had been sitting outside in a bucket of rainwater for about 5 years and had all kinds of stuff growing on it didn't know what else to do.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Bleach won't make the rock unusable, you just have to dechlor before putting in your tank. I've bleached LR to kill cyano, but I sprayed straight bleach, let sit for a minute or two, then hosed off with high pressure hot water, then soaked in a tub with FW and Prime and 3 power heads for several days. Bleach is perfectly fine to use as long as you rinse it well. Bleach raises pH so you may have a residual effect on pH in your tank for a while until it is all leeched out, depending on how long you soaked it.

 

[Barfly]

You will see almost no cycle if your scrubber is working well.

That's a new one. That statement doesn't even make sense and is, imo, preposterous. Please explain.

The rock had been sitting outside in a bucket of rainwater for about 5 years and had all kinds of stuff growing on it didn't know what else to do.

Regardless of whatever filtration method you choose, you SHOULD clean your rocks prior to using. There are several methods that work very well, using bleach being one of them. What I would do is give the rocks that were outside in rainwater an acid bath. There are several threads on this subject in the chemistry forum. After the acid bath, I would cure all the rock before placing in the DT. Why would anyone want to start a tank with problem rock?

 

[Barfly]

Bleach raises pH so you may have a residual effect on pH in your tank for a while until it is all leeched out, depending on how long you soaked it.

Using bleach on your rock and rinsing it properly will have zero effect on the tank's ph. That is assuming that proper methods were used and the rock was thoroughly rinsed and dried after the bleach treatment.

 

[davey812]

this is what im doing with the rock, found this on another site

Soak the rock in a 50/50 bleach and water solution for about 2 days. Drain the soaking container then soak the rock in clean fresh water for 2 days. Drain the container again, rinse the rock in fresh water and soak again it in fresh water again for another 2 days. Then add a 2lb box of baking soda per 15 gallons of water and soak the rock again for 3-4 days. Drain the container then soak again in fresh water for a day then remove the rock and let it sit and dry for 3-4 days