Well I think this goes along with my thread. Different ways and right and wrong ways to successfully run a scrubber.. Do you run in on its own. Or does water pass thru the top? I mean is there another exit for the water. Or is it just flow to the screen?
Pros and cons of an algae scrubber
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Floyd R Turbo
Aquarium Advice Addict
Ooops oh ha ha it already is your thread duuuh
Floyd R Turbo
Aquarium Advice Addict
You do not want a secondary exit for the water, or else it will end up bypassing the screen. The slot pipe is essentially pressurized
Floyd R Turbo
Aquarium Advice Addict
This is an older version of what I have on this tank now but it gives you an idea of the general concept.
I am horribly lacking in uploaded photos, I have hundreds on my PC but haven't had time to scale them back and upload. Here is another one, same unit as the above, just sitting on a piece of acrylic, you can see the sump beneath
I am horribly lacking in uploaded photos, I have hundreds on my PC but haven't had time to scale them back and upload. Here is another one, same unit as the above, just sitting on a piece of acrylic, you can see the sump beneath
Floyd R Turbo
Aquarium Advice Addict
Ok here is a current set of how I have the one in the first tank set up. Larger unit.
before
after (used new screen, cut up old one to seed it)
LED lights on (back side only, other fixture removed)
I route the drain into a filter sock but that's just for trapping bubbles
10 days growth
15 days
This is on a 200g tank. The smaller unit had a tough time keeping up. The larger unit is staying ahead of the curve. Lots of big tangs in the tank!
before
after (used new screen, cut up old one to seed it)
LED lights on (back side only, other fixture removed)
I route the drain into a filter sock but that's just for trapping bubbles
10 days growth
15 days
This is on a 200g tank. The smaller unit had a tough time keeping up. The larger unit is staying ahead of the curve. Lots of big tangs in the tank!
well for all who are interested I found Greg' s tread
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f60/the-dynamic-aquarium-algae-turf-scrubbing-199323.html
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f60/the-dynamic-aquarium-algae-turf-scrubbing-199323.html
Gregcoyote
Aquarium Advice Addict
That is a nice compact design. Mine is 5 times that large. Impractical unless you have a room for filtration.
But they all do the same thing. I harvest almost 5 pounds of wet algae every month. That's a lot of nitrogen waste products going into the land fill. Imagine where all that stuff would have ended up in your system before converting into nitrogen gas, eventually.
But they all do the same thing. I harvest almost 5 pounds of wet algae every month. That's a lot of nitrogen waste products going into the land fill. Imagine where all that stuff would have ended up in your system before converting into nitrogen gas, eventually.
Floyd R Turbo
Aquarium Advice Addict
Yeah, ever since my very first scrubber, I've always gone with the fully enclosed acrylic box. But you don't have to go that far. You can hang thin acrylic sheets over the slot pipe as spray protectors for the lights, they might warp but they're cheap to replace. You can extend the screen down into the sump water to reduce splashing and bubbles, just don't count this additional area as effective filtration.
There's definitely more than one way to skin a cat when it comes to scrubbers.
There's definitely more than one way to skin a cat when it comes to scrubbers.
Here's a question.. How do you feed your skimmer . reactors and scrubber? Seperate pumps or from your return? I want to do away with multiple pumps and just use one.. How would I go about setting this up? Would the water just go into sump. Then the return feed all plus feed the main tank? Fuge , skimmer, frag tank. And scrubber just dump back into sump . I'm going to draw up a few ideas. If I figure out something I like. Ill post a pic of my drawing. . Need as many ideas as I can get!! Haha
Gregcoyote
Aquarium Advice Addict
My main return empties into my dump bucket. That washes over the algae beds on its way to the sump under it. Gravity feeds the system, one big pump lifts the processed water back to the main reef. The algae sump is then also connected on a secondary loop that has a 50 g brute trash can that the skimmers sit around. That loop also has the heater/chiller equipment hooked to it. Then that system has a third loop that goes to carbon and purigen filtration as well as about 100 gallons of frag tanks.
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Floyd R Turbo
Aquarium Advice Addict
Greg, I'm getting loopy trying to follow your loops 
I run all scrubbers on dedicated pumps. I didn't always, but it's safer. The reason is not the algae clogging anything, it's something getting into the plumbing and stopping up the slot pipe from the inside. Snail, anemone, etc.
Ok so if you want to minimize pumps then you need to have a dual overflow system, and you need to tune it such that 100% of the flow can go through the path that the scrubber is not on. If you only have one overflow, then you need to create a bypass. This is rather simple but must be thought out so that it allows full bypass flow in the event of a 100% clog, without causing a tank overflow AND without allowing the bypass pathway to let water through it under normal operation.
Basically, it's a pipe loop that tees off before the scrubber, rises up as high as possible (up the back side of the tank, if possible) then into a open tee and back down. This allows head pressure from the overflow pipe to 'build' on top of the slot/screen junction and keep the scrubber working. The slot has a variable head pressure throughout the weekly growth cycle, so towards the end, you might be maintaining a few feet of head in the overflow pipe because of algae wanting to grow into the slot/screen junction. The head pressure prevents this from happening, and you want the head pressure. If your bypass is too low in relation to the level of the slot pipe, your extra head pressure will go right by the scrubber and your screen will eventually get zero flow and die.
Here are a few hand sketches I made a while back to explain this concept.
The first pic might be for a single-level system. The second one was one I sketched up for someone with a basement sump.
I run all scrubbers on dedicated pumps. I didn't always, but it's safer. The reason is not the algae clogging anything, it's something getting into the plumbing and stopping up the slot pipe from the inside. Snail, anemone, etc.
Ok so if you want to minimize pumps then you need to have a dual overflow system, and you need to tune it such that 100% of the flow can go through the path that the scrubber is not on. If you only have one overflow, then you need to create a bypass. This is rather simple but must be thought out so that it allows full bypass flow in the event of a 100% clog, without causing a tank overflow AND without allowing the bypass pathway to let water through it under normal operation.
Basically, it's a pipe loop that tees off before the scrubber, rises up as high as possible (up the back side of the tank, if possible) then into a open tee and back down. This allows head pressure from the overflow pipe to 'build' on top of the slot/screen junction and keep the scrubber working. The slot has a variable head pressure throughout the weekly growth cycle, so towards the end, you might be maintaining a few feet of head in the overflow pipe because of algae wanting to grow into the slot/screen junction. The head pressure prevents this from happening, and you want the head pressure. If your bypass is too low in relation to the level of the slot pipe, your extra head pressure will go right by the scrubber and your screen will eventually get zero flow and die.
Here are a few hand sketches I made a while back to explain this concept.
The first pic might be for a single-level system. The second one was one I sketched up for someone with a basement sump.
Gregcoyote
Aquarium Advice Addict
That was the other upside to the dump bucket. There is no point where my scrubber can back up. The slot method is simpler, but as mentioned it needs a emergency bypass if the slots clog.
I have a dual overflow.. But I seem a design on YouTube were a guy had his return hard plumped and the PVC going by the sump had 4 valves. One fed skimmer one fed scrubber. And so on. And each one dumped right back into the sump or was already in the sump like the skimmer. But I asked because I thought you would have everything go before the return. But I guess it wouldn't really matter.. As it would either loop around back to the sump or make into the display..
Floyd R Turbo
Aquarium Advice Addict
I read between the lines and got all of it, no worries!
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