swampthing
Member
Well. There it is. I'm no photographer, as you see.
This is my second turf scrubber. My first LED scrubber. You can see it up top there in the top cabinet. The water flows down from the main tank, over the scrubber, then across the protein skimmer pool and drains down to the sump in the middle cabinet. From there the MagDrive18 pump shoots it back up.
Interestingly, the algae grows better at the top of the scrubber than the bottom. The top algae getting the best fish poop. The LED's seem to be doing the job just fine. They use about 50 watts between the two of them, and they're mostly red with a smattering of blue (I bought em). The best way I've found to scrape em in a hurry is to put it in a 5 gallon bucket, then hold it against the side and push the crud off with my fingernails. I put a cabinet fan all the way at the top with a temperature switch to pull out some of that warm air.
The skimmer pool does two things. First, it keep a constant level on the skimmer regardless of pump operation. Secondly, it contains a lot of the crud that comes off the scrubber when I clean it. Then I can siphon it out of there before it gets to the display tank. The best way to get rid of aiptasia is to suck them into the siphon.
The sump in the second cabinet was made for me. I've got three bags of live sand and two chunks of live rock in there. I've got two 4 watt LED on the two rocks for 8 hours a day. Nothing special, just some kitchen cabinet lights. Of course there's a heater in there, but I won't know if I need it till winter. A piece of painters tape and a white sharpie let me mark every gallon of water so I can track my water changes. This sump also gets it's crud sucked out weekly during the 10 gallon water change. I NEED to remember to pick up a peppermint shrimp for in there. The glass anenomies really love it in there. The sponge get cleaned out (in the sink. I know.) weekly and last in the cleanup process. The pump has a bypass in case it was too powerful and I had to bleed off some of the flow. Also, you can't see it, but there's a spring on the wire holding the pump. Eye hook in ceiling, spring, then the string carrying the weight of the pump. The spring sucks up all the vibration and most of the noise.
In the bottom cabinet, you can see my RO/DI filter and a bucket of salt. The filter can't be left on constantly, because it always drains even if it isn't filtering. Hundreds of gallons. So I put a battery operated yard hose timer on the intake to the filter. For top off... You'll love this. I let the filter run for 12 minutes a day.
I made everything to fit into the space I had available in the corner of my basement bathroom. I got tired of seeing and hearing my first DIY scrubber. That thing was nothing but plywood, 2x4s, PVC pipes, and store bought tubs. I wanted something that nobody would think had anything in it but bath towels. I'm an amateur woodworker and home builder, in that I built my home myself, so I learned how to work acrylic and did all of this but the sump tank myself. And even then, I had to make the scrubber twice to get it right. As much as possible, I put all the plumbing and wiring in first, then dry walled over it and got started on the build.
Heat has turned into an unforeseen problem. I put lids over everywhere the water is to prevent splashing, but mostly to reduce evaporation. This worked, but it also kept the heat in. If I close it up, the temp climbs to 82. If I leave it open with a fan on it, 80. I'm going to redesign the hood over the display tank into something like a solid piece of glass with a hinge. Then light the tank with 4 powerful LED dangling from pendant lights above the tank. No heat there. Also, I've dug out my chiller and rinsed it out real good. I'm planning on mounting it in between floors, so there's some more drywall I'm gonna have to dig into to hide more plumbing.
Noise has been greatly reduced, and when I finish the ceiling in there it will be further reduced. Still, not eliminated though. The noisiest part being the chamber that the water first crashes into from 9 feet above. It's not a straight drop, there are some zigs and zags, but the faster the water is going, the louder it is when it hits.
All and all a success. The difference on the algae was dramatic and immediate. With an eye towards giving the detris as few places as possible to hide, I got rid of lots of plumbing and bioballs and hidden corners and sponges and whatnot. Overall hugely rewarding (but very expensive) pain in the butt in terms of lessons leaned. Looks pretty good, but I've already started planning my next tank.
And if this thing drops my paragraphs again...
