algea scrubber

[TheFishMan65]

turbo, What additives do you use to feed your corals?

The bio pellets appears to allow the formation of bacteria that works well for coral growth. For those of you not familiar bio pellets they are a form a carbon dosing (like vodka) the Nitrate, phosphate in the water mix with the carbon in the pellets and form a bacteria. This is then removed with your skimmer. I was thinking of turning my skimmer of when the light went out for a little while to allow these bacteria to feed the corals.

 

[srusso]

SRUSSO

I actually do still have the old algae scrubber in a 5gal bucket in the garage. Later today when i get home from class i can pull it out and upload a pic of it. I'm usuing door/window screen. The fiberglass/plastic kind. There was some mention a while back that it might not be a good idea because some contain antimold agents and what not but i couldnt find anything on the packaging that the kind i have has any of that. Which is why i started with a small test screen.

The types of algae that grew on mine were red and green, no light green. I had black on there but i scrapped it off as soon as i saw it form and rinsed the screen. My screen algae would only get maybe 1/2" thick, never got any thicker like some i have seen online which could be because of the type of screen i am using as you mentioned. About 12hrs from now i can post the pics of the old scrubber. I'm not sure if i had any pics of it fully grown, i'll have to look later when i get off work.

Cool! It will be great to see. This maybe one of the best threads on algae scrubbers ever started on RC. I had no idea there where so many of us!

 

[BluScrnOdeth]

SRUSSO

This is my scrubber I used to have. Its all dried out so it looks darker and you can't tell the thickness of the algae.
<img src="http://www.aquatic-refuge.com/RandomPics/12.jpg" width="400" height="300">

 

[kcress]

Fishman; If you have a properly running ATS you can not have macro-algae. The whole point of the ATS is to out-compete ANY other nitrate consumer in the system. And it will. If you have a monster ball of macro going and you light-off an ATS, the macro will cease thriving and wither away.. On the bright side you don't have to light or provide space for the macro.

If you want to feed your fish some macro take it right off your screen and feed it to them. I have a friend who feeds his fish from his screen and his fish are wild about it. Just make sure they eat all you give them so you don't contribute to yellow-water.


fraggleRocks; Great results! Keep in mind that the p and the nitrate are consumed in a specific ratio by the ATS. Often when the p won't go away completely it's because the nitrates are zero and are the limiting material. If it's been going that way for a while it can be because you're importing p faster than your nitrates are being created. Perhaps your feed has a lot of p? Sometimes you can feed more of something, (without p), that will increase the nitrates. That allows more p uptake.

 

[BluScrnOdeth]

SRUSSO

This is my scrubber I used to have. Its all dried out so it looks darker and you can't tell the thickness of the algae.
<img src="http://www.aquatic-refuge.com/RandomPics/13.jpg" width="400" height="300">

 

[hvacman250]

I recently started tank #3 (40 BR) and installed a ATS based on the "un-named" website. I am curious to see what happens. I am currently and will always use a skimmer.

Since only one side is lit, I did the screen 8" wide, water approx 300 GPH, lit by 2 26 W CFL bulbs roughly 4-6" from screen. Today is day 2 and the screen is clean as a whistle (looks brand new). The screen was roughed up by a brand new hole saw for 45 minutes straight. I had a full handful of plastic shavings, so I know its rough enough.

Observations. My slit is 8". My screen is 8". Water does not flow down the screen for the first inch, or the last inch. Should I make the screen a little shorter, or the slit longer???

 

[apt220]

How thick is the slot?

 

[BluScrnOdeth]

<img src="http://www.aquatic-refuge.com/RandomPics/14.jpg" width="400" height="300">

This is what it looks like one day after the other pic was posted. Red algae doubled almost and some green is forming.

 

[hvacman250]

how thick is the slot?

1/8"

 

[srusso]

<img src="http://www.aquatic-refuge.com/RandomPics/14.jpg" width="400" height="300">

This is what it looks like one day after the other pic was posted. Red algae doubled almost and some green is forming.

Please take no offence by what i have to say, and if it works for you... Keep it going. However, I can't help but think that this build is a very messy build. I see a stream of water shooting out, away from the screen. Additionally the ripples in your screen will create and uneven flow as well. It must be hard to clean this screen also, it looks like it would be hard to remove it from the tank for cleaning.
Are you cleaning outside of the tank in the sink?
Is there any reason you don't want to use a plastic canvas screen?

With that great lighting source I can't help but want your scrubber to perform better.

Forgive me if you have mentioned it before, what size is your tank and screen?
How many watts of light on your screen?

Would you post your test results of your water? Ph, Alk, Cal, Mag, NO3 and PO4?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

+1 to srusso's comments. The plastic canvas is the tried and true method.

Fishman, the only thing I started adding around the time of installing the scrubber is Oyster-Feast, and only did that because I didn't want all the Xenia to crash and take the tank down. Other than that, Rod's food and Ocean Nutrition I and II and some pellet food. Tank is in a dentist's office and he lets the kids feed them too so lots of food to 'feed the screen'. There's a sun coral in the tank that I never, ever target feed and it's growing like crazy.

If you go to the algaescrubber website, there's a lot of info about the bacteria and carbon compounds that are formed via algae growth. I have a feeling that ATS will perform the same functions as bio-pellets.

Thanks for answering all my DIY LED driver questions today!! (this is Bud)

 

[BluScrnOdeth]

I agree, i done it late at night (school hasnt given me muchtime to do anything). the reason why its shooting off to the one side is because the plastic wire i used bowed (so i'll be fixing that as well this weekend). I went out a bought some acrylic a couple days ago to make a U frame for the screenes so that it would be more rigid. The local Hobby store to get that hard screen you guys use (plastic canvas) is about 1.5hrs away so i never made the trip just for that. Though i plan on being close to there in a couple weeks so maybe i'll pick some up and ditch the screen i'm using.

It's not hard to remove the screen as the toob it is tied to is removeable. Simple twist off and put in the sink.

I can post my levels this weekend when i do my tests again. I borrowed a test strip from the LFS for the PO4 and it was at .0-.02 (really low, even with my undersized screen). I'll post the rest this weekend and i'll have to see about getting another strip or buying my own tester for the PO4.

I dont remember the screen size i have down there so i can get those specifics later tonight when i get home from college. Each side has one 95W 50/50 power compact 36".

And srusso, no offense taken. I too am not happy with how the screen turned out. I was nice and straight when it started, 4-5days in, its all warped because of the plastif wire i used (weed wacker cable). It was a quick fix to keep my tank filtered till i could pull more time together this weekend.

 

[srusso]

That is a great Lighting system for your scrubber!!! I wish I had that!! That lighting system could support a scrubber for a 180 gallon tank! Get that plastic canvas asap and get it rough as can be!

Unfortunately dip tests are about as accurate as looking at your livestock for results... Both can only tell you when things are REALLY BAD!

Once you do that you should have no problems.

One last question, approximately how much flow is your scrubber getting?

 

[BluScrnOdeth]

I have double screens.
15"x8" another 8"x8"

double sided enough for close to 368 gallons.

water speed is 25gph.

I'll get the water quality tests later this weekend. Though my results might be a little out of wack due to my srubber starting fresh this past week.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Are you using a 50/50 10,000k/actinic bulb?

 

[BluScrnOdeth]

yes

 

[apt220]

1/8"

Is it possible that you are overestimating the flow to the scrubber? With that flow rate, length of the screen and slit width I would think that you would be covering the whole screen.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

BSOD (love your username) the 50/50 PC bulb is really not the ideal bulb to use, just in case you didn't know. The wavelength is right for coralline and such, but not GHA which is what you want. So you might look into doing a 5000K max PC bulb. You really want 2700-3000K.

 

[salty joe]

BSOD (love your username) the 50/50 PC bulb is really not the ideal bulb to use, just in case you didn't know. The wavelength is right for coralline and such, but not GHA which is what you want. So you might look into doing a 5000K max PC bulb. You really want 2700-3000K.

You can have two different lamps and both can be rated the same K, but they could very easily emit different amounts of a given spectrum.

The better thing might be to get a spectral power graph (I think that's what it's called) of the lamp and compare the percentage of energy that is going towards PAR.

Someone mentioned keeping the lights 6" away from the screen so as not to burn the algae. Why not get smaller wattage lights and get up close, as long as you get a decent spread.

 

[BluScrnOdeth]

BSOD (love your username) the 50/50 PC bulb is really not the ideal bulb to use, just in case you didn't know. The wavelength is right for coralline and such, but not GHA which is what you want. So you might look into doing a 5000K max PC bulb. You really want 2700-3000K.

Yeah I am aware that the bulbs aren't ideal but my tank is going through a lot of light modifications right now. Those lights used to be on top of my corals till I replaced them with LEDs. So I figured it should do fine till I get the scrubber replaced with LED also. So its only temporary. I was using 65k CFLs and my algae did really well so I figured it wouldn't hurt. As you can see with the growth o have already obtained over the past week from my images. If I don't make it to replacing them in the next month with LED, I will replace them with a lesser K bulb. Thanks for the concern and appreciation for my name

Now that you mention it. One bulb is blue/white and the other is purple/white (came with the used ballast that way) so ill have to figure out what it is.