Algae Turf Scrubber (ATS) DIY build

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I was thinking of putting one on one of my returns from my main tank....I wonder if there would be adequate flow......

180 display with dual returns.

Any opinions?
 
The only sure-fire way to know exactly what your flow rate is would be to find a way to fill a container from the sump input pipe and time it, then extrapolate the data.

I did this by using a 1/2 gallon pitcher and a digital voice recorder. I would call out "start" and "stop", empty the pitcher, and repeat about a dozen times. Then I would play it back and use my cell phone stopwatch and record the times. Figure out the GPH and divide by 35 and that is the maximum screen length you can support. The 35 number is 35 GPH/Inch of screen, minimum. So if you have 700 GPH into your sump, you can build a 20" screen system. Or you could make it 15" and get about 52 GPH/in, or a 10" screen and get 70 GPH/in. 35 is supposedly the minimum, but this system has 433 GPH and 20" of screen so it's way under that and it is working fine - although I do plan on shortening the screen and increasing the flow to promote better growth - it was a calculation error on my part

Your flow will decrease between pump cleanings so factor that in (25% over 6 months??).
 
What a difference it makes to have a system that allows for 3D growth. Here are pics from today:

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As you can see, the bottom 3" is now fully submerged. The thing that I'm wondering about at this point is how much water turnover is happening in that middle area. I'll have to keep an eye on that and look closely at the screen before cleaning. I should have cleaned it today, but I'm going to shift my cleaning schedule to the weekend so I"m not interfering with my work or their office hours, so Saturday AM I'll be in there to clean & take pics.
 
You Tube videos of screen cleaning

Ok, so here we go, this is my first screen cleaning on the new ATS box. Quite impressive growth with the new system. We got a Flip Video for my wife's birthday, which is totally awesome by the way.

YouTube - 125 Reef ATS Screen Cleaning Part 1

YouTube - 125 Reef ATS Screen Cleaning Part 2

YouTube - 125 Reef ATS Screen Cleaning Part 3

YouTube - 125 Reef ATS Screen Cleaning Part 4

YouTube - 125 Reef ATS Screen Cleaning Part 5

I just have to start realizing that I say "alright" at the beginning of every video!!
 
Super growth from this week's cleaning. 7 day growth was better than last week's 9-day growth.

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This doesn't count what made it down the drain.

ATS inner box side walls warped outwards. This happened pretty much right away so it must be something to do with construction. It seems that this is very difficult to avoid.

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What a difference it makes to have a system that allows for 3D growth. Here are pics from today:

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As you can see, the bottom 3" is now fully submerged. The thing that I'm wondering about at this point is how much water turnover is happening in that middle area. I'll have to keep an eye on that and look closely at the screen before cleaning. I should have cleaned it today, but I'm going to shift my cleaning schedule to the weekend so I"m not interfering with my work or their office hours, so Saturday AM I'll be in there to clean & take pics.

So I am just trying to figure out what you did different to make the 3D growth? Is it just that you raised the water level on the screen?

Also, what light bulbs do you use?

Thanks
 
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1) the box is enclosed. The previous one had a removable front face with/lights attached to it. There were bulkhead drains at the bottom, so it only filled up about 1-2 inches from the bottom - which was where the front panel joint was at.

2) the box is thinner, the original one is about 2" and this one is about 1.5"

3) the drains are made with PVC screw fittings so they are narrower and stick up into the box, making the bottom 2" completely submerged. As algae grows, it fills out to the box face and traps more water which causes more algae to grow which traps more water etc.

Lights are these:

T5 2Ft - Grow Bulbs 24W HO 3000k (8pack)

They are awesome for $4 each
 
Interesting... So the algae grows better 3D when it is under the water level....Why don't we just fill up the entire thing, and have no air at all in there? Or is there a reason to have an air/water level?

Sorry for all the questions, but I want to understand how and why this works, and what works best. Right now I am trying the simple bucket method over my sump.

Thanks for the thread by the way...
 
I am reading that long thread, and just read where SantaMontica said:

Can't be too fast. Air contact is not needed and not wanted. The only limitation to fast flow is how rough your screen is; needs to be able to hold on to the algae.

So maybe submerging the whole thing would work even better....
 
The problem becomes ensuring flow across the entire screen so the algae doesn't start to die and break off. To fill the whole box the water comes in and exits at the top and stagnates at the bottom, unless you fill from the bottom and drain at the top which could be interesting but I don't think it's been tried....yet....
 
I don't think you'd get the flow you'd need... unless you make like a maze or something. Need lotta light.. and lotta clean water. Other wise you'd get like stagnant water..
 
A bottom-source screen that overflows out the top would actually SOLVE a design issue I've been having with doing a 3-pipe beananimal / calfo overflow system and an ATS. What frickin timing! I'll have to give this a lot of thought and run it by a few people...might be a eureka!
 
It turns out that the bottom-source screen is not really a good idea after all. The issue has to do with what is called the "boundary layer", which in fluid dynamics means that in a laminar flowing stream of water, the agitation at the surface (of the algae) is very low. So the more turbulent the flow, the more exchange there is at the boundary layer. The design would have to promote very turbulent flow across the screen, and the best way to do this is to cascade a thin layer of fast-moving water across the screen (waterfall style) or cause the water to rush past in a wave (dump-style).

Oh well.

Cleaning pics from this weekend, not a lot of production for some reason, but also I harvested on day 6 (last week was on day 8)

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Harvest was pretty minimal, maybe 1 cup. I think the owner didn't feed that much this week. Also could be that I had to shut down filtration for about an hour to search the tank for a razor blade that I dropped into it, which I couldn't find. I guess I won't have to dose Iron for a while.
 
That is true, You would never get as much surface flow with the whole thing full of water.
 
floyd,the ats looks good,I've read your thread before and was wondering what size scrubber would I need for a 60g tank and 20g sump,these are uk gallons?

Cheers
David
 
So 60g US = 50g UK and 20=17 but I'll assume it's only 1/2 full at operating level, so that's about 60g US system capacity. A screen would have to be 60 square inches, or about 400 sq cm (387 to be exact). That's for vertical, lit on both sides. If you want to find some examples for ideas, go to Algae Scrubbers • Index page or the new sticky on RC here Algae Scrubber Basics - Reef Central Online Community
 
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