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Alaska_Phil

Algae Scrubber

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Alaska_Phil
, 07-11-2010 at 07:02 PM (6336 Views)
As many of you know, I've been slowly upgrading my 50 gal long reef. It's been plagued with algae issues since I inherited it nearly 5 years ago. Last year I added a deep sand bed and upgraded from 2x55W PC lighting to 4x54W T5HO. A couple months ago I added a sump, but no refugium. Due to limited space, I decided to try an Algae turf scrubber. So here's the construction photo's and updates on how it's working.


Here's all the parts and pieces ready to get started. Other than the pump, there are less than $20 worth of materials here.


For the pump I choose one of the new Marineland utility pumps. I have a larger one for my return pump and after 3 months it's still running strong and quiet. Plus they're cheaper than most similar pumps. As you can see it's rated for 245 gph at 0 head. according to the flow chart, it'll produce about 210 at 1' of head. All the design guides I found recommend 35 gph per horizontal inch of algae screen, so I planned a 6" wide screen.


I cut the slot in the screen holder pipe using my tablesaw, I used one stick to hold the pipe tight against the fence, and a second one to push it through the blade. I didn't want my fingers anywhere near that blade after all.


Slotted screen holder pipe. In hind sight I'd have made the slot slightly larger.


Here's the actual algae screen, a sheet of plastic canvase that was all of $0.39 at Michaels. I roughed it up using the hole saw in my hand. Again, in hind site it's a good idea to leave the top inch or so smooth to help keep the water flow smooth out of the slotted pipe. The zip ties at the top are to hold it in the slotted pipe as shown below.


Screen inserted in slotted pipe. I should have used much smaller zip ties to allow better flow through the pipe.


I needed a plug for the far side of the slotted tube, so I cut off and sanded down a male plug to insert in the elbow ahead of the slotted tube.


And a little cutting and glueing later and it's done. Since there's a plug on the down stream end of the slotted tube I drilled several drain holes in the far support leg both above and below the water line. This prevents it from floating, and allows it to drain quickly when I remove it for cleaning.


And finally, up and running in my sump! The lights on either side have a 26W, 4100K compact fluorescent in them.

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Categories
‎ Plumbing , ‎ DIY projects

Comments

  1. T5FL's Avatar
    Nice, youll have to post pics once the algae has established and your before and after water test results.
  2. Plantguy's Avatar
    If you have issues getting the algae started, Inland sells them pre-seeded. It makes the whole process go much better/faster.
  3. melev's Avatar
    Very creative. I like how you connected the mesh with zipties inside of the PVC pipe.

    And leave it to "Plantguy" to chime in on an algae blog. hehe
  4. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    Plantguy, Actually, as you can tell from the dates on the photo's, it's been up an running for a month now. I took some photo's this afternoon that i'll add tomorrow. I've got a good coat of algae on the screens, green hair down low, with brown turf starting to appear higher up. And very encouraging, the portion submerged in the sump is starting to grow coraline. In the Display I still have a lot of brown turf growing, but only on the rocks and sand. There's no more algae, except coraline, growing on the glass and equipment. Even diatom alage has slowed way down. I used to need to clean the glass daily, now it take 3 days for visible algae to form on the glass. I just replenished my clean-up crew last Friday, so I'm hoping the display will clear up quickly now.

    T5FL Sorry, no before and after water tests, my nitrate and phosphate have always been near undetectable, but I've always had lots of nusiance algae of various kinds. I will dig up some old "before" photos of the display to compare with the "after" photos in a few more weeks.

    Marc, thanks. One other thing I would do differently would be to add unions so the screen portion could be removed separately. It's something of a pain to remove the entire apparatus for cleaning.
  5. Hat39406's Avatar
    Hey Phil nice update! I like the way you built the scrubber. I couldn't fit one in the sump I have. ;-/ I think for now I'm going to put live rock and macro algae in where they have bioballs now. A month and you already have less algae growth, that's awesome. It's amazing how people tanks look with algae scubbers in them. Can't wait till your before and after pics although I know it will take more time. ;-)
  6. Russell's Avatar
    I really like the way you did that. I built a acrylic tray for mine on the edge of the sump dumping into my fuge and they share a single light, but this would work better, and get the light back over the fuge, tho the cheato didn't seem to mind.
  7. melev's Avatar
    The common issues with ATSs are the salt creep you get, and the noise factor. It's a tad messy, but has worked well for others.
  8. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    Salt creep has been a bit of an issue, as it will occationally send out a squirt from the top. That's why I should have left the top of the screen smooth and made the slot a tad wider. Otherwise, it usually flows pretty smoothly and makes less noise than my skimmer.
  9. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    OK, discovered a definite flaw with my scrubber this morning. The slot got partially plugged last night, and started squirting off the screen. this happens a lot, but this time it squirted over the side of the sump. Came in this morning to find a puddle around the tank that had seeped under the wall and into the corridor outside. Fortunately, there was only about a gallon of water left in my top off jug, so the livestock is OK, and it was a small enough spray that I only lost about 2 gallons of water total. Got a fan going trying to dry things out now, and I'll be making a little spray shield to go on either side of the algae scrubber tonight.