turf scrubbers

d-man

d-man

Member
ok as much as I would like to run out and get the few remaining supplies and go at it, I'm going to put things on hold until tomorrow so I can make myself clean up a good work space. I'm one of those "figure it out as I go" people for the most part, and am learning it helps a lot to slow down when I get excited, but I'm pretty stoked to be about to make a new toy
 
gill again68

gill again68

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flower http:///forum/thread/382073/turf-scrubbers/20#post_3333432

I am by no means a turf scrubber expert, but I am a crafty kind of person...what you guys want is backing for needle point. You can get at Walmart in the sewing section, its white plastic mesh.
LOL I got it at Hobby Lobby. My daughters were with me and they said they have never seen a man stay in a Hobby store so long. LMAO!
its in the needle point section. Found a piece 13.5 x 22"
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
wow, mine was 10 x 12 i think. thats a huge piece of screen
 
btwk12

btwk12

Member
i have been reading numerous pages on the big thread on swf the past week about the scrubber's. and i will have all the stuff tommorow to make mine! and i cant wait!!! my plan is to hang my screen directly above my hob filter, and let the water drain down in to the filter and back in to the dt. i will be feeding the water with a power head, not sure what size yet. i have power heads ranging from 175 gph to 1400 gph. what do you guys think it will be pumping maybe 18'' up. my tank is 110 gal. my screen size will be 12'' x 12'' =144'' . i will only be lighting one side (i know it falls short of the sq inches i need) but it cant hurt. i am however going to place a mirror on the back side to help so i think it should turn out good. this is all temporary as i will be building my sump at tax time. i am trying to get the screen seeded for when i do set up my sump.
p.s. soory for the long thread or if i hijacked the thread was just excited to find this, and that someone else is building one at the same time1
 
gill again68

gill again68

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jstdv8 http:///forum/thread/382073/turf-scrubbers/40#post_3333537
wow, mine was 10 x 12 i think. thats a huge piece of screen
Was thinking I could cut 1 sheet in 1/2. Then double them up. My tank is a 90 so I think the 13 x 11 would be the perfect size? I bought 2 pieces of it. They were only 1.99 each.
Question on the mirror. Will the mirror really do any good once the thick algae grows in? I think its a must for lights on both sides but thats just from my reading and understanding.
 
d-man

d-man

Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by btwk12 http:///forum/thread/382073/turf-scrubbers/40#post_3333643
i have been reading numerous pages on the big thread on swf the past week about the scrubber's. and i will have all the stuff tommorow to make mine! and i cant wait!!! my plan is to hang my screen directly above my hob filter, and let the water drain down in to the filter and back in to the dt. i will be feeding the water with a power head, not sure what size yet. i have power heads ranging from 175 gph to 1400 gph. what do you guys think it will be pumping maybe 18'' up. my tank is 110 gal. my screen size will be 12'' x 12'' =144'' . i will only be lighting one side (i know it falls short of the sq inches i need) but it cant hurt. i am however going to place a mirror on the back side to help so i think it should turn out good. this is all temporary as i will be building my sump at tax time. i am trying to get the screen seeded for when i do set up my sump.
p.s. soory for the long thread or if i hijacked the thread was just excited to find this, and that someone else is building one at the same time1
we will be working on ours at the same time
, but I might have to wait a few days to get some stuff for assembly. I age gill the mirror will probably only help get the algae started. Both of you please feel free to add pics of yours as you go.
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
ok, let me throw in some stuff about mine...
I started with a 10x12 screen and a pump that was supposed to put out 450 gallons per hour. well it turned out the pump really only put out about 360 with no head pressure and by the time it got up that 16" or so to push the water out the piupe it was well under the 350gph I needed. I my algae didn't grow in very good because of it. I had lighted two sides with 23 w lights in the 2700k spectrum and again, my system didn't grow much for green alagae just what looked like diatoms, cyano and very little green.
I'd like to add right here that even when I had little green growing it had managed to take my phos and nitrates to a 0 reading, however I did have quite a bit of hair algae growing in the DT that I would harvest as though it was on the screen about once every other week.
I was frustrated with the lack of flow and lighting and how everyone else I saw was harvesting plates of alage every week and mine didn't even look like it needed much cleaning so I cut a new top pipe with an 8" slot, tabbed the top of my screen in 1" on both sides so the same screen was used just thinner at the top so I could get away with less flow because the screen was only 8" now.
Well, shortly after that my pump went out and I didn't have money for a new one so I took the screen off the pipe and jsut layed it in the sump in the water. I still put light on it, but of course it wasn't growing anything at all now.
Well about a month later I came accross a mag 7 which of course pumps quite alot of water and I never put another screen in just kept it at 8" wide
I upgraded my ligths to 5000k 26/27 watt full spectrum lights and the algae started growing like crazy almost immediatley.
Mine still isn't as thick as some of the people you see in those pictures, but after about a month it had completely removed ALL of the green hair algae in my DT.
I'm harvesting a fair amount of alagae off the screen, the stuff I get comes off very easily with just my fingernails. and of course my DT is full of more pods than anything can eat (which are coral food to some corals) and my nitrates and phosphates have been at 0 ever since.
That was probbaly 3-4 months ago that I get it restarted with the new pump.
I do plan on replacing the screen with a new wide one because I'm not a huge fan of my fastening system, but I havnt gotten around to it yet.
In any event, if you follow the guidelines for flow and light you will get results, if you skimp you may not get everything you are after. At least that was my experience.
 
btwk12

btwk12

Member
when you say you cut tabs out is this so you can pull the screen out of the pvc without pulling the whole thing down to clean it? if so how well does it come out? pretty easy because the screens flexible? and also how thick is the slot you cut into the pvc? what did you use to cut it with? i was going to vise it down and cut with circular saw, because i dont have a dremel.
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
Has anyone found a thread where this method has been used long term? A lot of them I read people have started them, used them for less than a year and scrapped the idea.
 
btwk12

btwk12

Member
just that santa monica guy. i will be running mine along with my skimmer so it will not be my only filtration the way i figure for as much as it costs and the time it takes and the reward that it is supposed to have it's a no brainer. but i think jstdv8 has had his running for a while
 
d-man

d-man

Member
From what I've read most people shut them down because they worked too well and not because they did not work. I hear that after a while of no algae most people start to miss it and see that their fish really like it. I have a hard time believing that you can't grow algae with this setup, but well see. If I can't grow algae at all I'll use it when I feel things are getting out of hand and shut it off most of the time. I know it will time some time to get going each time I restart it, but I'm ok with that.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member

From what it looks like to me...cleaning that thing every week without fail would be a bit cumbersome. It may only take a minute to clean, but it looks like a hassle to remove it for service. You have to remove it from the pump...remove the screen without getting all that yuck or water everywhere, then reassemble the whole setup..= PITA
If however you find a way to to do it fast and easy...I'm very interested.
 
mproctor4

mproctor4

Member
Can you get too much flow? I also have been researching these for a few weeks and have purchased everything except my pump and light bulbs. I was waiting until after all Christmas presents are purchased before I order the pump. The screen is 10x13. The pump will have to push the water up approx 16-17". Originally I was planning on going with 500gph pump but now I'm wondering if I should get a 600 gph pump. I want to make sure I have enough flow but don't want too much splashing or salt creep. Any suggestions?
Flower--I agree it sounds a bit cumbersome but I'm looking for anyway possible to reduce nitrates without spending a fortune. I'm sure you learn some tricks to make it quicker after doing it a few times. I figured if I'm not happy with it I don't have much to lose, I can always used the pump for something else. Good for a backup if nothing else. I also would really like a healthy pod population.
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
Quote:
Originally Posted by spanko http:///forum/thread/382073/turf-scrubbers/40#post_3333722
Has anyone found a thread where this method has been used long term? A lot of them I read people have started them, used them for less than a year and scrapped the idea.
SantaMonica has had his up since 2008, not exactly long term but its a while now, he doesnt even do any water changes as he uses his beatiful tank as a big experiment.
There is a guy over on RC that has been reefing for like 25 years, I think his name is Paul B. or something like that, he has one that works off the saem basic idea except he made his out of cement and I think his has been up for quite some time. i have no clue how he cleans his.
Cleaning is where the old ones that were used commercially in the 80's failed. If you don't clean them they release all the goods back into the water wither by releasing the algae becasue it gets too thick, or by too many pads being allowed to eat on it and theyeat holes right through your alage mat and that releases it into the water.
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flower http:///forum/thread/382073/turf-scrubbers/40#post_3333745

From what it looks like to me...cleaning that thing every week without fail would be a bit cumbersome. It may only take a minute to clean, but it looks like a hassle to remove it for service. You have to remove it from the pump...remove the screen without getting all that yuck or water everywhere, then reassemble the whole setup..= PITA
If however you find a way to to do it fast and easy...I'm very interested.
I leave the screen right in the top pipe with the slot in it and just wiggle the elbows on both ends of the PVC (not ceemented in) and then just take the whole 14" spray bar and screen to the wash tub, scrape the alage off, make sure it gets a really good tap water bath to kill the pods off and slide it back into the elbows and turn the pump back on.
Granted my fish room is a room I built into my garage so i have concrete floors and don't care if i drip, but if i did, it would be easy to have a little towel there to catch the drips while going to and from the sink.
The yuck doesnt come off the screen in transport, its really on there good.
And as far as smell, the stuff that comes out of your skimmer cup is far far more nasty.
It is a bit more of a pain than cleaning your skimmer cup, but for the cost of a good skimmer, $300.00 plus when the scrubber only costs 50.00 or so (with the pump) I can take that 250.00+ and be happy as a clam.
Not to mention when i was skimming my system i was feeding only 1/4 of a small cube of food every other day still doing water changes 10% a week like I always have and couldnt get my Phosphates below .5 or my nitrates below 40 (this may sound somewhat familiar to you, with the whole acrylic sump thing) Now I feed as much or as little as I want, litterally 10X that much if i like and my phos and trates are always at an undetectable level
It's certainly not for everyone for sure, but we are inventive enough in this hobby to find easier more effective ways of doing things all the time, taking a wet screen to the sink seems pretty easy once a week compared to a water change (which i also do the same day, sunday is super tank maintenace day at my house :)
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
Quote:
Originally Posted by btwk12 http:///forum/thread/382073/turf-scrubbers/40#post_3333721
when you say you cut tabs out is this so you can pull the screen out of the pvc without pulling the whole thing down to clean it? if so how well does it come out? pretty easy because the screens flexible? and also how thick is the slot you cut into the pvc? what did you use to cut it with? i was going to vise it down and cut with circular saw, because i dont have a dremel.
No, my original build was going to have a screen that slid out the end (like you probably saw in one of SM's pics on the site with the bent over tabs inside)
Well I don't know how he makes that work, because when I cut the slot all the way down the pipe and out the end the pipe didn't hold its shape/size anymore. it wanted to curl over more and fill in the screen hole, so it didn't fit in the elbow anymore.
Actually when I first did it i had a union at the top, i was going to unscrew the union and then just slide the screen out the end. that didn't work out due to the pipe loosing it's shape so I went to a more traditional setup. With the 3 zip ties.
I didn't want to have to change out zip ties every week so I made it so I can jsut take the screen and the bar to the sink.
 
d-man

d-man

Member
I agree Flower, that's why I'm going to make the whole thing come out. I will be running it off the return from one of my tanks ( I have 2 tanks going into the same sump) and will diverting water into it, so all I will do is let the water flow by it instead of diverting some of it through it, and take the whole box to the sink...... if all works well with the plexiglass that is
 
gill again68

gill again68

Active Member
Well I went and bought some supplies today. $58.00 worth. Probably could have been cheaper but I didnt bargain shop and I bought some extra parts in case I mess up. I will post some before and after shots of the parts prior to the build and during the build. I got most of my plan in my head but with that it will probably change through the project. 2 main factors for me in my setup will be to keep it as plug and play as I can. Meaning it will be in a tank outside the system and pump back into the sump until I work out my kinks if there are any. To have any real room in my sump means probably removing the skimmer. Seeing how this system could take some weeks before being fully functional is the other reason for starting it outside the sump. Next is getting the cleaning part down. I want to see how that goes and if I can manage a design that will allow for quick and easy access / removal. I probably wont start the build till tomorrow or Saturday but when I start I will try to post updates.
Look for me to jack this up and ask for help.
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
Hahaha, Gill, thats the beauty of DIY you can jack it up all you want as long as it gets results :)
Like I mentioned I messed mine up a bit to begin with because my original plan didn't work for me, Did't cost but about 3 bucks to get a new top pipe and cut a slit in it though.
I'm sure you'll get it going :)
 
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