turf scrubbers

desertdawg

Member
It's always fun to see the new projects, I had mine running for almost a year before I had to tear my tank down to tile the house. It's just starting to grow again but it's mostly black algae that I need to clean about every 5 days. The good news is it's starting to turn green again... slowly but it's there.
Here's a picture from earlier this year, I was scraping about a full cup a week off if it...
 
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jstdv8

Guest
BTWK12
Ok, looks sweet, you better hurry up with that sump though because having it up like that will be a disaster as soon as some algae starts growing up into the slot.
When algae grows there it starts randomly spraying here and there as it grows, just really light trickly spray, but it would be a mess up that high, in a sump you never even notice it.
Got the right idea though and you should be able to get it seeded like that while you get your sump going :)
Another thing you could do is take a large piece of like 3" PVC , cut a big slot in it like 1/4" wide or better and slip it over the end and just let it sit there. This will keep the light out and algae don't grow in the dark. I did this to mine until I make my splash shields someday, not the prettiest thing in the world, but it works.
 
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jstdv8

Guest
also, if you have those swirly power compact bulbs in that reflector like that they may not last. Those are hte bulbs that got me the best growth, but inside that refelctor always seems to overheat the fat round disk on the bulb itself and the bulb shuts off. Sometimes they come back on after you take them out and let them cool off, but they never seem to last long, my reflector is a bit smaller than yours so maybe you won't have that issue. Ive went through a bunch of bulbs because of this.
Now I run the same bulbs but they are for outdoor lighting and are enclosed and have thier own reflector built in, havn't had one of those go out yet.
 

gill again68

Active Member
I was wondering about the bulbs as well. Good thing is thats an easy change if needed. Man yall are moving fast with your projects. Cant wait to get started with mine. Does anyone know where I can find bulk heads beside the internet? Couldnt find them at Lowes. Maybe I just didnt know where to look.
 

btwk12

Member
i am going to get a 10 or 20 gallon tank today after i get off work just to put under my stand for now. i slept down there last night and it was so bright i coudnt sleep at all.plus when my wife got home last night she freaked out. so it will be going under the stand this weekend. i am going to use a mj 1200 with a valve in it to feed it.with a mj 1200 wide open to return it. the head loss should be about 40''. if this don't work out i might be waiting on my sump. i will put the intake from the feed pump within 2'' from the water line in the dt so if the return fails i should not flood.
 

btwk12

Member
yes corey. i believe he might be selling them at algaescrubbers.net. plus its on the long thread somewhere on this site, but theres too many pages so nobody ever see's it. it won't let me reply with a quote anymore, idk whats going on
 

spanko

Active Member
So why all this plumbing, fabrication, additional electricity usage etc. etc., what is the end goal?
Just asking.
 

d-man

Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by spanko http:///forum/thread/382073/turf-scrubbers/80#post_3334135
So why all this plumbing, fabrication, additional electricity usage etc. etc., what is the end goal?
Just asking.
extremely high bio filtration.
2Quils that is a very nice one. I hole mine turns out half that nice. I probably should have used black plastic in mine too, but I'm going to be enclosing it and my sump/fuge to reduce sound.
 

d-man

Member
I don't know if it's as strong as they are saying, but people are clamming that it can replace all other filtration. I've even read claims that you might be able to replace doing water changes to reduce trates and trites with it (ya right). I'm just going to use it as a add-on.
 

spanko

Active Member
To me it seems less capable of an idea than a fuge and good skimmer would be. First off more maintenance-electricity. Secondly a nice fuge if done correctly gives more additional water volume, the ability to have sand, rock, and macro algae instead of just algae on a sheet, and the environment for a cryptic zone with other low light, water filtering critters in it.
 

al&burke

Active Member
I plan on using an ATS with a fuge. It can't hurt to try, have the feed going to the fuge through the screen first
 

al&burke

Active Member
How long have sump and fuges been around, before the days of forums I would suspect, I can imagine the doubts with sumps when they first came out, Just thinking out loud
 
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jstdv8

Guest
yeah, that one is awesome. Its made by SantaMonica, who is the guy responsible for mayking these things DIY and figuring out where they failed in the past and how to make them work for our tanks ecte ct.
I think he gets 600.00 for that little model. Its fully enclosed and uses T-5's for lighting so it grows algae like no tommorow. just spendy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Quills http:///forum/thread/382073/turf-scrubbers/80#post_3334132
Did you guys see this one yet? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8hWqYq5Z6s
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
Quote:
Originally Posted by spanko http:///forum/thread/382073/turf-scrubbers/80#post_3334186
To me it seems less capable of an idea than a fuge and good skimmer would be. First off more maintenance-electricity. Secondly a nice fuge if done correctly gives more additional water volume, the ability to have sand, rock, and macro algae instead of just algae on a sheet, and the environment for a cryptic zone with other low light, water filtering critters in it.
Spanko, Most of these are built in the sump, they take the place of Cheato or other macro algeas.
I had cheato and a skimmer running on my tank and never got my levels down. When I started this up the levels went down to undetectable once the screen grew in the first time and they have been there ever since.
It doesnt use any more elctricity than a skimmer
its far less expensive than a GFO reactor which seems to be all the rage and probably don't workeven close to the level these do.
you still have your sump to have whatever other kind of stuff you want in there and your extra water volume.
Its like cheato on speed. sucks far more out of the water than a huge ball of cheato and you export those nutrients out of your system completley once a week.
IMO people spend hundreds and hundreds (if not more after refills) on GFO and this costs almost nothing.
 

d-man

Member
the 2 big differences that I see between this and macro in the fuge is the air and being able to wash it with fresh water to get rid of the pods. I agree doing weekly washes might be a pain, but I'm trying to get my life on more of a schedule anyway so I'm cool with setting a schedule around my tank and a lot of us have weekly tank chores anyway. As far as I see the point is to be able to grow turf algae that (as far as I read) is way more powerful than any macro you can grow in the water.
 

spanko

Active Member
a fuge does the same dilly, its prettier and you can sell the algea out of it......
Nuff said, carry on.
 
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