UAS LED Algae Scrubber build

acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
I would use the scrubber site time line, time frame as far as running the lighting schedule for the scrubber, but might need to adjust it as you see fit, but to me would be more beneficial as you suggested to run it more opposite of your DT lights for PH swings.....Some people do and don't have PH swings, just so many variables to say yes or no........
I would think you'd want the air pump running 24/7 regardless if the lights are on or off.......
I would think SantaMonica and Floyd would be correct with the competing forces.....GFO is competing for the same nutrients, but I'm not sure I would cut out the GFO all together until the scrubber is starting to show signs of taking off....At that point you might want to wean off the GFO to see what the scrubber is actually doing for you.....
Personally I'd keep the skimmer running....I think the idea of putting "all your eggs in 1 basket" is possibly a bad idea.....Only for the mere fact is that in this hobby there isn't a definite as to what works and what doesn't.....Not saying a scrubber can't work, but we all know and agree that not 1 type of filtration method or means is 100% effective, and my thinking is that both can run simultaneously and both produce positive results.......
 
marvelfan

marvelfan

Member
Starting to see some brown fuzzy growth this last couple days. Going out of town on Friday for a week. So I'll check it when I get back. I have a suspicious I"m not getting the best bubble to screen contact from the look of things. I'll have to work on a solution to this .
 
marvelfan

marvelfan

Member
I do have some pics. The scrubber doesn't look to pretty. I got a bit carried away trying to mount the lights.
I used velcro to mount each of the individual LED heatsinks. The LED's are attached with thermal paste. Since the solderless LED's are long and I wanted to mount them as far back on the box as possible, I ended up cutting very large elliptical shaped holes to attached LEDS. Some light shines out the back, but It seems to work.
I was out of town last week. I had an auto feeder set up to feed once a day a combination of Freeze dried shrimp, flake, pellets and reef chili. My controller shut down the main pump for 15 min a day while it auto fed. This worked out great.
Now that I'm back in town I'm back to daily feeding Frozen Brine/Mysis/Cyclops and 2-3 times a week I feed Reef Chili.
The interesting thing is that there was just a little browning on my scrubber before I went out of town. At this point the scrubber had been running for at about 2 weeks. I had no noticeable algae on the scrubber.
When I got back from my 6 day trip the scrubber ws covered in green sweet smelling algae. I wish I would have taken a picture. The only issue is that not only was the scrubber full of algae, but the glass in front of the screen was caked with algae.
Now, I should have just cleaned the glass and left the scrubber for a while more, but instead I excitedly cleaned the scrubber off and then the glass.
It has been a week since I cleaned it all off and so far I only have a slight bit of brownish growth.
I'm wondering of the higher phosphate dry foods made a big difference in the growth.
Since I cleaned the scrubber my dry rock is starting to grow a brown/greenish covering. Its not hair algae at all, but it is darking in some spots then others. I'm not sure if this is just the normal eventual coloration of the dry rock to live rock or if it has to do with high nutrients. I have to perform some tests this weekend and change out my GFO. I do have some hair algae on my Zoa's. It seems to come and go. I try to pick off what I can and then it seems to disappear for awhile, then it suddenly reappears. It was on my zoa's when I moved them from my old tank.
That's what's up so far. Been super busy with school and work since the initial setup of this new tank. I'm doing my daily water changes. The system is working great. I did a 10 gallon change manually via the system 2 nights ago, just because i could :)
Here are a couple crappy pictures I took on February 16th. Hard to get a good picture with the color spectrum coming off the scrubber lights.
I'll get some pictures of growth on the next batch.

Back of Scrubber - Lights mounted to case.

View of Screen - Held in place by gutter clips - Airstone below screen

First bit of browning I saw on the screen.
 
marvelfan

marvelfan

Member
Update. I"m fighting some cyano right now. I ended up taking out my scrubber during a major water change and haven't put it back in yet. Think I'll be trying to add it back in tonight or tomorrow night. I need to find a better way to displace bubbles over teh screen. I'm able to grow nice green algae, but it is taking a month or more before I need to clean it. and their are bald spots on teh screen. Most of the grownth is ending up on the glass and the back of the acrylic behind the screen.
Still messing with this! I have more motivation now thanks to the cyano from the overfeeding.
 
marvelfan

marvelfan

Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by acrylic51 http:///t/393850/uas-led-algae-scrubber-build/40#post_3522339
I'm lost????? The scrubber is going to solve the Cyano issue?
What the scrubber will do is help remove nitrate and phosphate over time, which feeds the cyano. It won't get rid of it directly, but it may help out compete it for nutrients. I've read stories of cyano seeding in the scrubber which gets it out of the main DT, but I'm hoping to just get rid of it completely. I don't even want it in my scrubber. As the cyano recedes it releases nitrates and phosphates. I've removed the majority the cyano manually already.
Oh.. and I found a new air stone .. bubble curtain... and it seems to be really working well.. the best bubble coverage I've had so far. We shall see!!!
 
snakeblitz33

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarvelFan http:///t/393850/uas-led-algae-scrubber-build/40#post_3522344
What the scrubber will do is help remove nitrate and phosphate over time, which feeds the cyano. It won't get rid of it directly, but it may help out compete it for nutrients. I've read stories of cyano seeding in the scrubber which gets it out of the main DT, but I'm hoping to just get rid of it completely. I don't even want it in my scrubber. As the cyano recedes it releases nitrates and phosphates. I've removed the majority the cyano manually already.
Oh.. and I found a new air stone .. bubble curtain... and it seems to be really working well.. the best bubble coverage I've had so far. We shall see!!!
The scrubber grows whatever is prevalent in the system. Cyano is a sign that there is way too much nutrients in the system, and so it will grow on your scrubber if that is what is present. There isn't anything wrong with that, and yes, you can remove the cyano from the scrubber and reduce the cyano in the system. Also, if you can get hair algae to grow on the screen, then it is a lot more efficient than cyano at removing excess amounts or organic and inorganic nitrate and phosphate. As the cyano dies back in the display tank, the excess nitrate is "sucked up" into the tissues of the hair algae on the screen, where it is readily removed from the system.
I have run scrubbers on quite a few different tanks now and I can tell yah one thing, after adding a scrubber to most tanks, I can cure almost any cyano and hair algae problem there is. Cyano actually turns grey and dies! I've also seen pockets of bryopsis die on parts of the rock because the phosphate left inside the rock is litterally "pulled" out and there is none left. Hair algae as a form of nutrient removal is a very, very efficient biological filter, however, I also see other filter mediums to be just as effective at keeping a tank clean.
 
marvelfan

marvelfan

Member
Thanks for the input Snake. I'm starting to think that maybe my issue was that I didn't clean my scrubber enough. I was waiting for scrubber to get really thick before scrapping it, but it wasn't growing int as thick as I expected. and it was blotchy due to insufficient flow. After a while I was seeing a lot of algae in the skimmer after a while, so it was probably overgrowing area. This time I'll watch it closer and scrap it every 7-14 days.
One of the whole reasons I wanted a good running scrubber was to prevent having to upgrade my skimmer.
 
snakeblitz33

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
You might be interested in this thread:
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/388488/progress-shots-of-110g-show-tank
 
marvelfan

marvelfan

Member
Thanks Snake! I just read through it on lunch. You had some real success with it!
I'm going to give the Upflow scrubber another chance. I bought a bubble curtain (little pricier model) air rod and attached it with zip ties to my screen the bubble production from it is much more even across the screen then the cheap $2 airstone I originally bought. I'm thinking I should start to see some real good growth soon. If it doesn't work out over then next month or so, I'm going to try to build the original style waterfall scrubber and see if I get different results. I can still use my lights and I have an an extra water pump laying around somewhere.
On a totally different subject, just because I need to vent... my water change system failed last night. I have to blame my ReefKeeper controller on this one, but in the end I know I'm to blame for not having even more fail safes in place. I have the Reefkeeper email me every time a pump, doser turns on and off, as well as when my temperature and pH fluctuate out of range. I was sleeping, so I didn't get the email until I woke up, but my Reefkeeper somehow copied my Alkalinity doser setting and placed in on the channel for my pump that controls the clean water into my sump when a water change occurs. This made the water pump channel become a pump and not a switch activated channel. (Don't know how this even occurred!!!) therefore my switch (which does work.. i checked it) was completely taken out of the equation and the pump never stopped.
To rub it in some more. i just mixed a fresh 44 gallons of water the other night for daily water changes. By the time I got up around 6:45 AM ALLthe new water was pumped into my sump, which then overflowed onto the floor. .. yeah.. I'm not too happy. Thankfully its still an unfinished basement and the water just ran out into my floor drain. No water by the walls or anything. But the system should not have failed! At his point I think I'm going to have to just do manual changes with the system until I can add another fail safe or figure out a better system.
Salinity was affected; but not too severely. 1.021 when I woke up.. it was 1.026. The change happened over about 4 hours from what I can tell. No livestock seems affected thankfully.
On the bright side ...At least I got a partial water change completed!
 
marvelfan

marvelfan

Member
Here is my current set up. I do have some good news. The cyano that was slowly creeping back in the form of rust colored sand seems to now be retreating. My sand is almost pure white again! Very promising. It almost looks like the cyano may be growing on the scrubber instead. I'm not sure though. I'm wondering if changing my RO/DI filters out has had anything to do with it, but it may just be the scrubber. I installed the Fusion 700 air pump and I think I'm getting much better coverage.
Here are pics from yesterday:

The LED's are mounted to the black box. and I have two suction cups holding the box on (I may rebuild the box, its a mess, but its functional.

I have one Red LED in the middle bottom that is missing. I need to replace it, but I'm still running 7 3-watt LED (21 watts) for a 6x8 screen (48 sq-in). I believe the rule is 1/2 the value of the sq-inches for the LED wattage. So i should have minimum of 24 watts. However I'm thinking I can cut the a new screen down to 3x4 and place the LED's a little closer together.

I'm starting to see some blotchy growth. It may be cyano. I'm not sure at this point. I have the screen hanging by some suction cups (upside down shower soap holder with zip ties). I have a bubble curtain zip tied and weighted down to the bottom of the screen .

Its hard to capture the bubble wall in action. I may need to make more adjustments. I'm really thinking a smaller screen would be beneficial.
 
marvelfan

marvelfan

Member
I have a quick update. First of all, all cyano and hair algae is pretty much non exist. I haven't had to clean my glass in almost a week. Something has definitely changed for what seems to be the better. I'm feeding 2 cubes of food to the fish every other day and feeding corals 2 times a week (about half the amount I used to feed).
I'm getting little to no growth on my screen.. however.. I don't have anything covering the screen anymore so the light penetrates through the screen and hits everything behind it.
What happens to be behind the screen is one of my filter socks. I'm finding that the algae is growing on the outside of the sock! Which I'm more then find with! I can now clean my filter sock every 7-14 days and remove all the nitrates and phosphates!
I also think my growth is much less then it normally would be due to the cheato in the sump, which is growing fast! I'm pulling a new clump out almost every week.
That's the update I have right now. I'll try to take a pick of the sump later with the filter sock. The combo of the flowing water and light seems to be enough to promote decent growth on the outside of the sock.
 
sweatervest13

sweatervest13

Active Member
Hey, algae growth is good. On the screen or filter sock. As long as it can be exported, you are getting rid of phosphates and nitrates!!

How many fish (and what fish) do you have that you're feeding 2 cubes every other day?? Could you get away with feeding 1 cube each day?? IDK if that matters too much on the bio-load, but the fish may like being fed each day. But if that feeding schedule is working for you and the fish are happy no need to change.
 
marvelfan

marvelfan

Member
I have the following Fish and Invertebrates that eat the mysis/brine:
2 Clowns
2 Cardinals
3 Chromis
2 Firefish
1 Watchmen Goby
1 Six Line Wrasse
2 Cleaner Shrimp
Several Crabs.
I put the two cubes in in one batch and then are completely eaten withing 2 min.. water is clear with very little settling to the bottom of the tank. Nassarius snails and the Goby seem to clean up the rest.
I will be adding a Blue Hippo Tang, Flame Angel and Yellow Tang over the next couple months. (At least that is the plan). That would be my max stock list. Then after that I would slowly add more corals. I really want to maintain some SPS, Birds Nests and an Anemone in the long run, but so far I've lost an anemone, and my Alk swings seem to have killed off my ORA Green Birds nest (Its basically gone at this point.. only a couple little polyps on the very top are left.
My last readings seemed pretty good.
Calc 430,
Alk 11.2
Mag 1400
Ph 8.07
Phos 0.0
I'd love to get my pH up to 8.2-8.4, Last couple days its been 7.7-8.0. Not sure what I can do to help raise it. I don't know if I should dose more Alk solution, that doesn't seem like a solution to the overall issue.
 
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