Algae Scrubber..who actually HAS one.

ifirefight

Active Member
Thinking of maybe doing one for my 130. I want to know who actually has one ( on these boards ) and do you feel it is worth the effort. And please dont tell me to read all 24 pages of the santamonica post.....I tried,it gave me a headache.
Ive been around here for awhile,and want to see if any "oldtimers" are using them...I trust many of the opinions on these boards.
Thank you.
 

posiden

Active Member
I am not an old timer, but I did run one. It isn't on the tank now because I had to see what all the hype was about the Micro Bactor 7. I also wanted too see a "carbon dosed" system. I don't like it. I "WILL" be putting a scrubber back on my tank as soon as I figure out how I want the new one to be. I am then going to try the scrubber and a weekly dose of the Micro Bactor 7.
FWIW, If you have never seen one in action or used one......Do it. They are cheap and easy to build and worth the little effort that is required to build one.
Disclaimer: I will say that like anything else, "TIME" is needed. Depending on your tank, you "WILL" go through some changes. It is kinda like setting up a new tank. In my case I went through a small patch of HA and then had cyano for a brief time. I am one that doesn't freak out about things in my tank though. I let it ride and all was fine. I ran the scrubber for about a year. If I was going to recommend a time frame for you..........About a full year to see things come full circle. At least that was my experience. Good Luck, I hope you at least try it.
Cheers.
 

aquaknight

Active Member
I use one on our 90gal reef because of the success I had with it on my 125gal. I had some GHA I couldn't kick. Tried the ATS and slowly at first, but rather quickly the GHA started receeding and soon enough the tank was hair algae free. On the 90gal, just really use the ATS to knock the last bit of nitrates out.
Agreed with above, the hardest part to the scrubber is actually getting through that massive thread. Building one is about the easiest thing I've done with fish tanks. Granted my particular one, is an example of everything wrong, no shield to block the light where the screen meets the tube, probably could use more flow, more lighting etc.
 

reefkprz

Active Member
I am currently running one in conjunction with my skimmer and what cheato I could fit in my sump. with the changover to the 125 there wasnt much room left in my sump for cheato so i decided to go with my modified design of the algae screen. the growth isnt as spectacular as some I have seen made "examples" of on his threads. but its growing and I'm harvesting it. we'll see in the long run how well it works. the screen has been alive for about 3 months and is all green algae.
for some reason the attach a pic thing isnt working. here its on page 4 of my thread
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/vb/s...=369301&page=4
 

pezenfuego

Active Member
I believe much more strongly in the power of macroalgae and refugiums than I do in the algae scrubber. I've never run one but I've seen one in action. If it's cheap for you to do, well go for it. I personally don't like Santa Monica (the member) for posting his threads on every board on the internet.
In any case, it is an old, yet effective piece of equipment that is cheap. It isn't the best piece of equipment from what I can tell and it won't REPLACE skimmers and refugiums, but I can see how it is worth the effort.
 

cranberry

Active Member
Originally Posted by PEZenfuego
http:///forum/post/3232476
I believe much more strongly in the power of macroalgae and refugiums than I do in the algae scrubber. I've never run one but I've seen one in action. If it's cheap for you to do, well go for it. I personally don't like Santa Monica (the member) for posting his threads on every board on the internet.
In any case, it is an old, yet effective piece of equipment that is cheap. It isn't the best piece of equipment from what I can tell and it won't REPLACE skimmers and refugiums, but I can see how it is worth the effort.
Pez, let the peeps who actually have them come in here and give their experiences like the OP asked. There's a debate thread already out there, this guy is looking for experiences.... which, no offense, you have none on the topic if you've never kept one.
Let them have their thread.....
 

ifirefight

Active Member
Originally Posted by Posiden
http:///forum/post/3232267
FWIW, If you have never seen one in action or used one......Do it. They are cheap and easy to build and worth the little effort that is required to build one.
Depending on your tank, you "WILL" go through some changes. It is kinda like setting up a new tank. In my case I went through a small patch of HA and then had cyano for a brief time. Good Luck, I hope you at least try it.
Cheers.
Yeah,does not seem to hard to build one of these,I do like DIY projects.Im not following the tank "WILL" go thru a change thing....could you explain this?
Originally Posted by AquaKnight
http:///forum/post/3232387
I use one on our 90gal reef because of the success I had with it on my 125gal. I had some GHA I couldn't kick. Tried the ATS and slowly at first, but rather quickly the GHA started receeding and soon enough the tank was hair algae free. On the 90gal, just really use the ATS to knock the last bit of nitrates out.
Agreed with above, the hardest part to the scrubber is actually getting through that massive thread. Building one is about the easiest thing I've done with fish tanks.
Yes,that thread is massive,and people have said they would post their experiences/results and most of them never followed through with it..thats why Im asking here,who has had sucess with it.
Originally Posted by reefkprZ

http:///forum/post/3232471
I am currently running one in conjunction with my skimmer and what cheato I could fit in my sump. with the changover to the 125 there wasnt much room left in my sump for cheato so i decided to go with my modified design of the algae screen. the growth isnt as spectacular as some I have seen made "examples" of on his threads. but its growing and I'm harvesting it. we'll see in the long run how well it works. the screen has been alive for about 3 months and is all green algae.
for some reason the attach a pic thing isnt working. here its on page 4 of my thread
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/vb/s...=369301&page=4
This is a concern I am facing....I do not have much room left in my sump...I am going to have to do some planning to squeeze this in,but It should be doable.

Originally Posted by PEZenfuego
http:///forum/post/3232476
I believe much more strongly in the power of macroalgae and refugiums than I do in the algae scrubber. I've never run one but I've seen one in action. If it's cheap for you to do, well go for it. I personally don't like Santa Monica (the member) for posting his threads on every board on the internet.
In any case, it is an old, yet effective piece of equipment that is cheap. It isn't the best piece of equipment from what I can tell and it won't REPLACE skimmers and refugiums, but I can see how it is worth the effort.
Yes,I am NOT going to replace my skimmer with this...I belive both pieces of equipment can be valuable.
Originally Posted by Cranberry

http:///forum/post/3232489
Pez, let the peeps who actually have them come in here and give their experiences like the OP asked. There's a debate thread already out there, this guy is looking for experiences.... which, no offense, you have none on the topic if you've never kept one.
Let them have their thread.....
LOL,lets try to keep this thread under 24 pages.
 

reefkprz

Active Member
I just put a timer on my scrubber, to shut the light off for a couple hours near noon for my tank. to see if that impacts the growth rate. so far I am not overly impressed with the growth rate of the screen. checking through santa's threads all the screens he's making examples of seem to be getting 20X the growth mine is. maybe those tanks are just a lot dirtier than mine. or maybe lighting schedule has something to do with it. who knows trying to sort that out.
also considering putting the pump for the screen on a wave maker (30 seconds on 30 seconds off. but first I want to see how the daylight off period affects the screen, dont want to create too many variables at once.
I definatly dont advise eliminating other forms of filtration in favor of just this one form. I figure if this out competes the skimmer then my skimmer will just skim less, no biggie to me.
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
reef, can you post a pic of yours? what lighting are you using and how close to the screen is it?
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
NM, didnt see your link, what light do you have in the reflector? and what is your algae attaching to, it looks solid?
 

reefkprz

Active Member
Originally Posted by Jstdv8
http:///forum/post/3233548
NM, didnt see your link, what light do you have in the reflector? and what is your algae attaching to, it looks solid?
thats a solid acrylic backer, the algae is growing on plastic mesh. the backer is just so I could tip the screen to run at an angle instead of verticle.
the light bulb is a PC self ballasted daylight bulb (swirly bulb) from home depot.
 

ifirefight

Active Member
Originally Posted by stdreb27
http:///forum/post/3234186
Back in the day, after dealing with problems caused by IKE. I made this thread.
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/vb/s...ighlight=Algae
I eventually took the algae mat off, it was making a huge mess, and evap was RIDICULOUS. I wouldn't do it again. I'd just make sure I had plenty of room for a proper fuge.
Thanks for the honest reply. I really don't have a hair algae problem
I was just thinking of adding another piece of equipment to help
maintain water quality. I already have a oversized skimmer,uv,45 gallon fuge, and tons of LR. I figured it couldn't hurt. I didn't consider the evaporation issue,good point.
 

stdreb27

Active Member
Originally Posted by ifirefight
http:///forum/post/3234234
Thanks for the honest reply. I really don't have a hair algae problem
I was just thinking of adding another piece of equipment to help
maintain water quality. I already have a oversized skimmer,uv,45 gallon fuge, and tons of LR. I figured it couldn't hurt. I didn't consider the evaporation issue,good point.
I ended up doing 5 gallons every 2 days. Vs the about 1 gallon a day. That seemed like a lot for a 58 gallon tank.
 

king_neptune

Active Member
Scrubbers are noob friendly.
I enjoyed my time with scrubber.
I ran a skimmer for a short time, I liked that as well.
Currently I have no skimmer and no scrubber running.
Just the natural filtration provided by 100lbs of LR, 40lbs of sand, and a foam wall. And a well a balanced and chosen CuC.
When I was running my scrubber .1 on my trite/trate readings would be a bad day.Running it solely skimmer yielded a bit higher readings(still safe, but 5-10 range).
My over all opinion is you can punish your system and get away with it provided you are following the instructions of proper scrubber maintenance. You are getting ALOT of forgiveness by installing a scrubber. They really do work.
But there are trade offs to acknowledge. Excess Water evaporation meant mildew gathering on the walls in the maintance room, which I didnt like. And I never could seem to get it to stop slurping consistently. Those seemed to be the two biggest issues.
Basically there's a bit more to consider. And I don't see any reason not to have both. I'm about 4 weeks away from seeing how my system works running both skimmer and scrubber. After this latest batch of experiments, Ill have my mind made up on how I permanently want to run this system.
=========================================
As for Santa Monica,
Its shrewd ya. But I applaud him, because of his campaign I have heard the gospel of scrubbers. I think his latest design is a pretty interesting one. I was skeptical about the shallow depth of the screen. But it also means less water evaporation since the water isn't running down a long field. That reduces one of my two main problems. I might find it something I would consider ordering.
 

stdreb27

Active Member
Originally Posted by King_Neptune
http:///forum/post/3234733
But it also means less water evaporation since the water isn't running down a long field. That reduces one of my two main problems. I might find it something I would consider ordering.
I'm not an expert in water, and evap. But if you've got the same surface area on a screen, on a longer shallower design, why would your evap be less. Just maybe the sheet of water might not break up, but I can't imagine that surface area of the water being enough of a difference to see a difference in evap. I think it will cut down on the splash, because the surface tension will be enough sheet it down.
 

posiden

Active Member
Originally Posted by ifirefight
http:///forum/post/3233039
Yeah,does not seem to hard to build one of these,I do like DIY projects.Im not following the tank "WILL" go thru a change thing....could you explain this?
It would seem to me that the folks that have an issue with scrubbers will say that they caused a massive cyano outbreak. Some I have read claim to still be battling the cyano after a year of no scrubber. I myself went into a cyano phase after the HA got down to a really small amount. I did nothing different with the tank and let things go about. The cyano went away just like the HA did. Some will claim that their water turned yellow. I myself never experienced this. I even let the tank run for 6 months with out doing a water change. I put the scrubber through a good run, IMO anyway. I built it under powered, under the "lighting" requirement. I would let it go for a bit, I didn't always clean it every week. I still stand by my remark of wanting to put one back on the tank. I just have to give this new method a solid run before I go back.
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
Originally Posted by stdreb27
http:///forum/post/3234947
I'm not an expert in water, and evap. But if you've got the same surface area on a screen, on a longer shallower design, why would your evap be less. Just maybe the sheet of water might not break up, but I can't imagine that surface area of the water being enough of a difference to see a difference in evap. I think it will cut down on the splash, because the surface tension will be enough sheet it down.

it evaporates less because its fully enclosed
 

stdreb27

Active Member
Originally Posted by Jstdv8
http:///forum/post/3235270
it evaporates less because its fully enclosed
oh that makes sense, I guess I missed that.
I never understood the cyano claim. Or the yellowing of water for that matter. I still feel like that is a flow problem.
 
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