Week five and I think there's real progress being made. There aren't any big clumps of algea weeds in there anymore. It's more thin growth. I've cut back on the feeding yet again (sorry guys, it's austerity don't ya know), just three pinches of flakes a day amd 4-6 little sinking pellets. The turf scrubber is really growing and the color is close to the color of the algae in the tank with a light green racing stripe down the middle. The algae I take out of the tank stays gone longer and the powerhead and drain filters are collecting half as much stuff. I changed out ten gallons this week. Five gallons for the detris in the sump and five cleanish gallonsin which to rinse to blue foam. I'd say I should've lost the bioballs weeks ago as I didn't see any water quality problems after they came out. (NO 0, CA 440, KH 161, PO 0, I 0.03, FE 0.05, K 392, NACL 29)
I found two other probable phosphate sticking points. There's a small powerhead in the back of the sump for circulation. Probably not necessary, but it never hurts. It had a foam filter on the intake that had never been addressed. That's in the trash. The other is the foam filter pads. I'd been rinsing them weekly, but I found if you get in there a scrub em, you'll get a lot more junk of of them.
Work is progressing on a larger built in cabinet in the basement for a larger scrubber and sump (with a DSB to process the waste leftover from the scrubber). The plumbing, electrical, and drywall work is done and I've started practicing my acrylic work. I'm thinking of trying using low wattage LED grow lights (the blue and red ones) for the scrubber, although I don't know if underwater plants use the same light specrtum as above water plants. Also, you think a 35-40 (hopefully) gph turnaround in a 20-25 gallon sump will be sufficient? Seems like plenty.
Thanks for all your help.