My algae scrubber

[Dude1982]

I used to have an upflow algae scrubber but looked ugly in my tank as I have no sump, so I've been toying with the idea of using my back brace of my tank for a scrubber. It's been running 2 days now and I seeded the new scrubber screens with my old one from the upflow scrubber and getting some growth already. It's being fed from my hang on skimmer and working really well. Anyway guys here is what I have come up with !

 

[Hocky puck]

That's looks good! you said its already working?

 

[Dude1982]

Thanks and yes I seeded the new scrubber screens with my old screen so the algae has taken off already

 

[Daniel Fishy]

Good idea, looks tight!

 

[Dude1982]

Thanks I have had the idea whizzing around my head for months now but never planned or tried it until 2 days ago so I changed my whole system around this scrubber

 

[Dude1982]

I have an 8x54w t5 light unit and have a couple of ge 6500k bulbs at the back of my light unit which sits right above back brace so I don't need any different lights to power it !

 

[Dude1982]

Well it's been running a few days and I'm quite surprised by the results, it's been growing algae like crazy.
Anyway here's some growth pics

 

[chenzo9999]

Do you have any plans for this? I do not have an algea scrubber - but may want to add a HOB one

 

[Dude1982]

Hi chenzo, I used to have an upflow algae scrubber but I thought this idea was way better as there is no equipment in my tank.
You say you would like a hob scrubber and an upflow scrubber is basically a hob scrubber and is easily DIY'ed ill send you a link.
Most people use the thin plastic trays that come in microwave dinners, cross stitch canvas as the screen, a air pump and led's or energy saving bulbs that are 2700k. Some people have had great results with these and can be that powerful it replaces all other filter media and equipment, some people have even ditched their skimmers an just run a scrubber itself

 

[Dude1982]

It's been 6 or 7 days now running my 4ft scrubber and it has some major growth !
Just think this could of been growing in my tank somewhere !

 

[audifusion]

That looks awesome, cool design.


I've been thinking about doing a scrubber.

My giant mrc commercial grade skimmer thats almost as tall as me takes out a lot of stuff but I still have hair algae on my rock and sand.

could you send me a link on how you did this one?

I've got dual built in overflow boxes that are about 6" deep x 20"L x 16" h, thinking I might have the space to do one in each of those.

 

[Dude1982]

Hi audifusion, I have never seen anyone build 1 using their back brace on a tank, I think I'm the only person who has done this. The brace just runs like a channel from 1 end of the tank to the other with a triangular drain hole right into the tank, I had some bubble issues but all I did was raise my water level which got rid of the bubbles and its completely silent. I cleaned 2 of the screens today and dumped a fair bit of algae out of my tank down the kitchen sink

I have some good read ups on algae scrubbers, I could send you the links if you like ?

 

[melosu58]

Looks like a pretty good set up. Nice tank BTW

 

[Dude1982]

Thanks melsou, I had been thinking about the idea for months and months but only just built it, I wish I built it when first thought of it. If all goes well I may even ditch my skimmer and have this as the only filtration, all skimmers do is pull out food before it decays anyway.

 

[Dude1982]

It's better the food is left free floating in the tank and not skimmed out as the tank mates, corals, filter feeders and bacteria can eat and have a better chance of eating it. Plus you get a ton of pods which can easily feed several mandarins, I had a massive mysis explosion in my old upflow scrubber.

 

[Dude1982]

Because of whole system change around this scrubber I'm not using any other filtering media or equipment apart from the skimmer for now. This means no changing filter floss, filter socks, changing or running carbon or phosphate remover and when nutrients are very very low no more water changes woo hoo. Ill manually dose kh ph cal and mag to keep levels from dropping due to no water changes

 

[Robert_ellis]

Now your making me want to find a read on scrubbers....

 

[Dude1982]

Here you go:
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/santa-monica-filtration/56161-algae-scrubber-faq-2-13-10-a.html
This is a FAQ on scrubbers, I have a few others that go into more details on building the actual scrubbers

 

[Dude1982]

Cleaned 2 screens at the far end of my scrubber, the other 2 screens upstream will get the algae growing like crazy again in no time, I should of got pics of the screens before I cleaned them !

 

[audifusion]

you've inspired me to do my own horizontal algae scrubber. installed it with a suction cup onto one of my sump partitions. Literally took me 3 minutes to install, the hardest part was roughing up the surface of the screen.

I have a bunch if 50w led flood lights that I ordered a while back off eBay, these things put out a lot of light and are virtually waterproof, so I hung one from my skimmer outlet pipe going into my sump, it hangs about 2" from the scrubber screen.

I get about 6000 gph of flow over the screen and all my tank water flows over it.

What do you guys think?

hoping to see some growth in a few days!!!