Algae Scrubber Build!!

Jeremy, the proof is in the pudding. i have read countless accounts of people adding an algae scrubber to a tank with a refugium and the algae scrubber out-competes the refugium.

I have seen tanks with refugiums before that had algae problems also, there are so many factors that go into a successful tank that you cannot point a finger at one thing and say that is the reason a tank is or is not successful. You can build an algae scrubber wrong, and it won't out-compete your algae. So be careful what you blame, it might be the builder, not the build.

As for the Mark Vera video, I haven't watched it but at 2012 Fall Fest, I heard several people say that during his presentation there that he stated something to the effect of "if you had to choose between using a refugium or an algae scrubber, choose the algae scrubber". Matt Nelsen told me that. So opinions can change once more meaningful information comes to light. I have a couple of customers that one would consider high-profile, one of them is a MASNA board member. So for you to poo-poo the algae scrubber as a fad I kind of take personally, because I put a lot of time, effort, and money into developing my algae scrubbers, and I would not have done so if I thought it was just a gimmick.

Just because there has been a surge in their use in recent years doesn't mean that there a fad necessarily, but rather that they have 'come of age', meaning construction and maintenance techniques and use of current technology has simply improved on what once was a technique with only limited success to a technique that provides more consistently successful results.

 

I just wanted to make a few comments regarding waterfall vs upflow scrubbers: None of my comments were in reference to the "new UAS", which is, IMO, an unproven implementation of the algae scrubber (and that is an understatement) for tanks larger than about 35 gallons. I would still hesitate to call that version a fad, because it does have it's place - small FW and SW tanks. That was it's original intended market (FW and Nanos), and it very well may be successful in that market, and quite honestly, I hope it is. The vast majority of fish sales is small FW tanks that parents buy for their kids, and the SantaMonica HOG0.5 is perfect for a small FW tank, because it will absorb nitrogen compounds right off the bat and keep fish from dying, keeping people (kids) in the hobby longer which eventually benefits the entire hobby.

I'm not slamming on the UAS because I build the waterfall scrubbers - it's because they flat out do not work as consistently as waterfall scrubbers on larger SW tanks. There was zero testing done before the "release" earlier this year, and what was done was only done on a goldfish bowl, basically. Everyone who has built one since then has essentially volunteered to be part of an experiment. If anyone wishes to see the results of my 8 month UAS experiment, you can contact me, and you will be shocked at how poorly it performed/performs on my personal tank. If it worked, I would be finding a way to build them instead of the waterfall scrubber. Right now I will not waste any more of my time trying to make it work.

As far as the small screen size goes - that is not something that is only a UAS concept, that was actually a new sizing guideline that came out before the UAS was released, all screen sizes are now recommended to be sized based on feeding volume rather than water volume. I also feel that in this respect the UAS is now undersized relative to the waterfall scrubber in terms of screen area compared to filtering power, however there may be another mechanism at work here. There are just too many questions about the UAS in general for me to get behind it. The waterfall scrubber has proven to work, and compared to refugiums, it has a much greater filtration capability per unit of space - meaning that if you had a 10g refugium and then a scrubber that matched the L x H dimension of that refugium, the scrubber would smoke it, and if you reduced the footprint to 1/4 of the LxH dim, IMO it would still smoke it. I say that because of all of the examples that I have read about over the past 4 years. But the scrubber must be properly built and maintained.

 

Upflow Algae Scrubber

http://algaescrubber.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?17-Upflow-Algae-Scrubbers-%28UAS%29

 

It looks like you are getting a little bit of dino growth on top of the green right in the center. Is that what I am seeing or is that a redder colored algae there?

Dinos will sometimes grow in the screen when your light is too intense for too long. Don't freak out, they won't spread to your display - just like GHA it grows in the scrubber and not in the tank. It's kind of odd that way.

If they wash off the second you hit the screen with tap water and run your hand over the screen, and if the screen smells stinky when you pull it out - that's dinos and it's nothing to worry about, they don't really block light to the GHA below.

You can probably add a few hours to the photoperiod, as long as the algae doesn't start to turn yellowish. If that happens, then you need to either dial the light back until you don't get yellow, or increase the flow.

Another thing that would not hurt (if you can do it) is to cut the holes bigger in the sides and get the larger dome-type reflectors. The reflectors you have don't spread the light out very evenly, more of a tight cone which is why you are getting different growth in the center of the screen. But if you can't no biggie. I think you would have to rebuild to make that work so just stick with it and see how it goes. I've found that even a half-a--ed scrubber usually works well (not that yours is one of those, it loos very good - just sayin!!)

 

Well I spent 2 years looking at other people's builds and helping them with issues, and I saw the same issues and concerns over and over again not being addressed with DIY builds. The main issue to me is safety. It is not simple to adequately protect the light fixture in a sump environment. With an open screen, you can easily get a minor blockage in the slot pipe that results in a line of water spraying horizontally. I even had this happen on one of my scrubbers, in a very high nutrient tank which grew a really weird algae, and the spray was straight horizontal from the slot pipe. Even in the enclosed box, it spattered outside of the box a little and created some salt creep on the wall behind the sump. So to me, the only truly safe way to go is to fully enclose the screen with a box. The secondary effect is that you create a chamber by which the growth can fill the box from window to window, which traps water in a "moving suspension" which allows light to penetrate to the roots more easily, which prevents them from dying, allowing the growth to get thicker without risk of detachment.

Next is drainage. The issue being a single bottom drain in an enclosed box that grows a huge amount of thick algae is an inevitable disaster. Just as Jim Stime w/LA Fishguys. His personal SM100 overflow 3 times, one time he caught it on tape. A secondary oversized drain is a must. Even with that, I had one guy let the screen grow 3 weeks and it came within millimeters of overflowing. That is why you must clean weekly. I added the false bottom to my design to protect the bottom drain from algae on the screen being in direct contact with the drain, which further increases the risk of a drain clogging. In my unit, algae would have to detach from the screen to clog the drain, and for algae to detach from the screen, you would have to have thick growth and let it go significantly past 7 days.

After that is noise. With an enclosed box with a drain, you will get a siphoning and flushing effect, or constant loud gurgling. With my unit, which has a secondary drain, you can make the bottom drain a tuned siphon by putting a gate valve on it. This very effectively eliminates the siphon/flush/gurgle and will significantly reduce or eliminate any air that gets sucked down the drain. Coupled with this is the secondary drain which is very low on the side, allowing a percentage of the flow to go through that drain, kind of like the open channel drain on a BeanAnimal overflow system.

There are many more items, like water creep blockers on the pipe, quality lighting components of the optimum spectrum, slot pipe cut via router with double-pass to ensure even width, plus I've roughed up over 100 screens so you get the optimal substrate.

So yes, you can build one on the cheap and it will surely do you fine, and you can DIY mods to make is safer, and it very well may be functionally equivalent if you do your research and implement these things right. I'm not saying that my way is the only way to do it. But if you decide to make an enclosed box scrubber, you're going to spend a lot of time figuring out how to put it all together if you're never done it before. Might be a fun DIY project and that's great, I encourage DIY. But if your time is money then I can save you a lot of time. The catch is you have to pay me the money LOL