Algae Scrubber Basics

[redneckgearhead]

yep..DIY BOX scrubber...santamonica style ha ha...
ATS use low led buy from satisled http://www.satisled.com/5mm-water-cl...csbag_p66.html
one side combined blue and white 1:1
other side full white
total 273 led/side
with flow 1000liter/hour

Are those LED's mounting on a PCB? What kind of driver are you using?

 

[zhewitt04]

Here are some pictures of my ATS its only been going 2 days.

 

[elven]

hi,
This is my new scrubber

specification :
- 2 weeks without cleaning
- Pump 1800 L / H
- 2x24w lamps

please correct my scrubber,
whether it's time to clean? or there may still be wrong?

thanks,.

a little picture :

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

You want to clean it every 7 days. You can go a few days longer in a pinch, but you risk detachment of algae if you go too long, as the light to the lower layers gets blocked and copepods eat away at the algae.

Stick to 7 days between cleanings. The first 5 or 6 cleanings, just use your fingertips to gently run the algae off. If you have some green hair algae, and it looks like you do, try to leave some of that on. You may have to use the back of your fingernails to get some of that off, as long as you don't scrub it completely clean that's all that matters.

Once you start getting heavy growth, then you can start using an old toothbrush to gently clean the screen.

Other than that, it looks like you have good flow, lots of light, and good growth! Try to get a reflector for the other lamp, the aluminum foil works OK though.

 

[elven]

thank you for a response,

at first make scrubbers, I cleaned every 7 days without exception
because I follow the basic scrubber in this forum
maybe because I clean it too hard and using a toothbrush, algae that I get every 7 days was never much, just produce a little.

maybe now I'll start cleaning it with a finger
and trying to install a reflectors

 

[srusso]

thank you for a response,

at first make scrubbers, I cleaned every 7 days without exception
because I follow the basic scrubber in this forum
maybe because I clean it too hard and using a toothbrush, algae that I get every 7 days was never much, just produce a little.

maybe now I'll start cleaning it with a finger
and trying to install a reflectors

Yep, it should be cleaned every 7 days. Should be done even in the beginning when your not get much growth. Fix that other side with a better reflector and you should be good to go.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Just wanted to share a little piece of advice. This really goes for anyone, scrubber or not. First, the why:

I have been running my scrubber on a temporary setup until I get my customer's tank made, so it's on top of a 120 right now, and the pump is inside a DIY basket made of PVC pipe and plastic canvas. I was gone for a week and came back and the house smelled kind of funny. I immediately went to the tank, and discovered that my Starry / Snowflake Blenny had found his way into the basket (is slipped a little and the top edge was just below the water line) and swam in front of the pump. He didn't make it past the intake, unfortunately. But he did manage to block about 90-95% of the flow to the screen for a minimum of 6 hours and possibly longer than 24 hours. We had one person feeding the fish and another letting the dog out, and they both noticed it, but thought it was a hidden present from the dog.

Interestingly enough, the algae on the screen is still alive and well, with a couple of white die-off spots down low where the 3-D growth was likely starting to fill in, but just a trickle of water over it was enough to keep it alive through a rather long partial outage. We got in very late and I didn't have time to clean the screen last night or this morning, but I went home over lunch and checked on it, and it's doing fine. I will be cleaning it first thing when I get home today though.

So my advice for anyone in general is to make sure you have an intake strainer on your pump, no matter what. The larger the better. I have found that the plastic canvas worked great for making the basket, I used the #7 mesh that I had laying around. I made a Duros intake strainer out of the #7 and cut out some of the pieces to make the holes bigger and that worked great too. I would think that the mesh with the larger holes would do a perfect job.

 

[mmullaly]

I have a quick question. I have had my ATS up since last November. I really have never had the growth that I've seen on here regarding GHA. I usually get the brown slimy stuff and not much more. My current ATS is 10"X16" powered by a MJ1200 with about 2 feet of head. I run two 27w CFL 2700K bulbs (one on each side) about 4" to 5" away from the screen. I never had a GHA problem in my tank. I only get a green dusting on my DT, that I will admit I only have to clean once a week since the ATS.

I think flow is my problem, I know the MJ1200 is rated at 295 gph with 0 head. I figure I'm losing half of that with the 2 feet of head, 1 90 degree elbow and the ATS 1" pipe.

I have a CPR 100 hang on overflow with a 1" bulkhead going directly to my sump.
I'm thining of taking one of my spare 3/4" bulkheads and drilling ouf another hole in my overflow and running it directly to the ATS.

Do you think this will help? Or see any potential problems?
Keep in mind I will still have the 1" bulkhead in the overflow operational too.

Thnaks

 

[mmullaly]

Forgot to mention that I run the lights for 16 hours per day.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I would say that the reason you are only getting brown slime is that you don't have enough light on the screen. You have a 155 with a 160 sq in screen and 54W of light. You need 80 at a minimum, and preferably 160. Also if your screen is 10" wide then you are under flow also, like you said 295 @ 0 head, probably 200 with your setup, so you're at 20 GPH/in. But you would have to test that to verify. Is there a particular reason you don't want to run it directly off the overflow?

 

[srusso]

I have a quick question. I have had my ATS up since last November. I really have never had the growth that I've seen on here regarding GHA. I usually get the brown slimy stuff and not much more. My current ATS is 10"X16" powered by a MJ1200 with about 2 feet of head. I run two 27w CFL 2700K bulbs (one on each side) about 4" to 5" away from the screen. I never had a GHA problem in my tank. I only get a green dusting on my DT, that I will admit I only have to clean once a week since the ATS.

I think flow is my problem, I know the MJ1200 is rated at 295 gph with 0 head. I figure I'm losing half of that with the 2 feet of head, 1 90 degree elbow and the ATS 1" pipe.

I have a CPR 100 hang on overflow with a 1" bulkhead going directly to my sump.
I'm thining of taking one of my spare 3/4" bulkheads and drilling ouf another hole in my overflow and running it directly to the ATS.

Do you think this will help? Or see any potential problems?
Keep in mind I will still have the 1" bulkhead in the overflow operational too.

Thnaks

I would feed your scrubber directly off your overflow. If you dont want to do that, then you should get a new pump, as you already know. 18/6 lighting schedule.

 

[Snookster]

Anyone having any issues with LPS? I've been running mine for going on 4 months now with what I would consider great success. My SPS is doing great, zoas are marginal. GSP and rics are happy. However, I've been losing LPS (except for a challice), a torch, candy cane, acans, favia and a duncan. I can't figure out what's causing it. I'm starting to lean towards my water being too clean, 'cause I have no other ideas. Especially since my zoas are not exactly growing like weeds like before the ATS. Several weeks ago after it started (the LPS dying, I did massive water changes for 3 weeks, 2-3 times a week). No help.

I drip kalk slowly and have a very weak kalk top off. Do 5g water changes each week. No skimmer, no GFO or carbon. I have 9 fish, mostly under 3". Feed 2x/day pellets and flakes, 2x/week Rod's (heavy) mixed with reef chili and extra mysis.

Any thoughts or insight?
-Thanks

Tank - 75g w/30g sump (~90gals tot)
PO4 - not measurable with my kit
NO3 - 0
PH - 8.2
Alk - 9dkh
Mag - 1400
Temp - 78-80.5
Salinity - 1.025 (cal. refractor)

 

[mmullaly]

I would say that the reason you are only getting brown slime is that you don't have enough light on the screen. You have a 155 with a 160 sq in screen and 54W of light. You need 80 at a minimum, and preferably 160. Also if your screen is 10" wide then you are under flow also, like you said 295 @ 0 head, probably 200 with your setup, so you're at 20 GPH/in. But you would have to test that to verify. Is there a particular reason you don't want to run it directly off the overflow?

I'm paranoid about overflowing the overflow :eek1: with only one method of reaching my sump. Basically, I dont want to put all of my eggs in one basket and run my overflow directly into the sump. The bad luck that usually follows me will eventually cause the ATS slit to clog up and either start spraying out of the slit or backup enough to cause the DT to overflow.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

You're probably not feeding enough. My Frogspawn and Branching Hammer tend to open up right after I clean, and close up toward the end of the week. I noticed that pattern starting about 6 months into the scrubber. The conclusion I have come to is that the 'meaty' LPS corals do like water a little dirtier and don't do so well in the clean ATS water. When I moved the tank and had a nutrient spike, they opened way up. Recently when I almost lost the screen due to a pump blockage (yesterday) they have opened way up again.

I feed a DIY food that is like Rod's food, and I feed a square inch of about 3/8" thick daily, which equates to about 3-5 cubes/day, N=0, P=0.09-0.16 due to nitrate limitation. Softies love it, zoas don't seem to so much, I have one colony that keeps growing but the others just stay where they are. SPS and other LPS love it.

Everything else in your list looks good, you didn't list Calcium but I assume it's where it should be if you're watching the others.

I would try feeding more and watch N and P (which probably won't budge.)

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I'm paranoid about overflowing the overflow :eek1: with only one method of reaching my sump. Basically, I dont want to put all of my eggs in one basket and run my overflow directly into the sump. The bad luck that usually follows me will eventually cause the ATS slit to clog up and either start spraying out of the slit or backup enough to cause the DT to overflow.

If you only have one pipe to work with, then add a T inline below the box (vertical, with the side of the T pointing sideways) then on that branch do 90 up and 90 back to horizontal, into another vertical T and leave the top open and the bottom pipe it to your sump. This will allow another path for the water to follow in the event of a slot clog, and will allow head pressure to build above the slot to keep it clear of algae growth without the backup pipe running and siphoning the entire flow away from the algae screen. This type of backup works well but you want to try to keep the split as high as possible to avoid diverting all the flow. If you need a pic I can draw one up.

But you want pressure on the slot. If you're getting spray, your slot may not be wide enough. Or you can add a simple spray blocker with a couple of zip ties and some polycarbonate strips.

 

[Snookster]

Knew I was forgeting something (ca - 420).

And thanks. I'll try to pork up the fish a little more I guess. Maybe I'll go fish shopping this weekend too (more fish poo).

 

[pskelton]

I love it, The only thread on RC that people are given advice like "Get more fish" or "increase your feeding" in order to make your corals happier. Funny that in order to make a scrubbed tank heather you have to get more of what you want in your tank.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

It's also one of the few filtration techniques that allows you to really push the envelope with feeding, meaning running a continuous coral food drip system. SPS corals really like a constant food supply.

 

[srusso]

I love it, The only thread on RC that people are given advice like "Get more fish" or "increase your feeding" in order to make your corals happier. Funny that in order to make a scrubbed tank heather you have to get more of what you want in your tank.

This type of filtration is game changing, I truly believe that it will change the hobby. It is an extraordinarily natural way to run an aquarium, cheap and rather easy to build.

 

[nate82]

If you only have one pipe to work with, then add a T inline below the box (vertical, with the side of the T pointing sideways) then on that branch do 90 up and 90 back to horizontal, into another vertical T and leave the top open and the bottom pipe it to your sump. This will allow another path for the water to follow in the event of a slot clog, and will allow head pressure to build above the slot to keep it clear of algae growth without the backup pipe running and siphoning the entire flow away from the algae screen. This type of backup works well but you want to try to keep the split as high as possible to avoid diverting all the flow. If you need a pic I can draw one up.

But you want pressure on the slot. If you're getting spray, your slot may not be wide enough. Or you can add a simple spray blocker with a couple of zip ties and some polycarbonate strips.

A quick sketch would be great if you wouldn't mind. I'm kind of new to plumbing and want to avoid a massive spill at all costs. Can't wait to get my ATS set up.