The power of the scrubber

DRC Archive General Saltwater Discussion
1

I’ve been going on and on about the utility of algea scrubbers as the sole method of filtration for some time now. I gave a talk last year at the Fish Bowl giving and overview and breakdown, but I don’t think it actually sank in until many of you saw my tank at the last meeting, 2/2. It was great to see all your expressions when I told you I hadn’t done a water change in 9 months and don’t dose anything verdict_in

I’ve highlighted the low maintenance, amino acid production (aka coral food), nutrient export capability, and simplicity of algae scrubbers, but one of the things I didn’t get to show you was how little I have to clean the glass. So, I just gave the glass a good detailing and took these pics Sunday for algae growth comparison. I won’t clean my glass at all and will post updated pics in a week so everyone can see the power of the scrubber!






2 
 Looks great Bryant
3

Thanks, I wish I had cleaned it b4 the meeting. It’s like a whole new tank.

here’s a video

Be sure to watch in HD!!

4

definitely looks better than when we were there for the meeting :-)lol

5

[quote=“nerak, post:4, topic:7924”]
definitely looks better than when we were there for the meeting :-)lol[/quote]
::rofl::

6

Nice ! what kind of scrubber are u running? horizontal or waterfall ?
I ran aquaricare scrubbers in the late 80’s -90’s …many people scoffed at the idea back then…

7

Do you have pics of your sump and scrubber? You use no skimmer either?

8

[quote=“hottuna, post:6, topic:7924”]
Nice ! what kind of scrubber are u running? horizontal or waterfall ?
I ran aquaricare scrubbers in the late 80’s -90’s …many people scoffed at the idea back then…[/quote]

Waterfall, two 11x10" sheets, 4x 24" T8 on/off 18/6hrs

Sump is boring. Only heaters and GFO reactor are on. I have a skimmer, but I only run it when I accidentally kill the algae sheet and I’ll only run it for a week max when that happens.

9

Admittedly I missed your original presentation, and maybe this was covered, but what is the difference between an algae scrubber and a fuge with a great big ball of cheato or other macro-algae growing?

In my mind the premise of each is the same, utilize nutrients from the tank to feed the algae, remove the algae to eliminate the nutrients, rinse and repeat.

Does the algae scrubber do it more effectively? If so, why?

Aside from additional space required, and possible noise from the running water, are there any potential ill effects from running the scrubber as opposed to a skimmer and/or refugium?

What are your thoughts of the algae scrubbers that float in the sump with the led lights built in to the lid, or this hang on back model?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Algae-Scrubber-Tank-mounted-/271773334909?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f46f3fd7d

Yours appears to be quite large, as does Bill’s, could something this small be beneficial to say a 90 or 120g tank?

10

[quote=“Cdangel0, post:9, topic:7924”]
Admittedly I missed your original presentation, and maybe this was covered, but what is the difference between an algae scrubber and a fuge with a great big ball of cheato or other macro-algae growing?

In my mind the premise of each is the same, utilize nutrients from the tank to feed the algae, remove the algae to eliminate the nutrients, rinse and repeat.

Does the algae scrubber do it more effectively? If so, why?

Aside from additional space required, and possible noise from the running water, are there any potential ill effects from running the scrubber as opposed to a skimmer and/or refugium?

What are your thoughts of the algae scrubbers that float in the sump with the led lights built in to the lid, or this hang on back model?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Algae-Scrubber-Tank-mounted-/271773334909?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f46f3fd7d

Yours appears to be quite large, as does Bill’s, could something this small be beneficial to say a 90 or 120g tank?[/quote]

Same boat here and I’d like to hear more as well. I’ve been watching these guys (http://www.santa-monica.cc/) for a while, but never bit the bullet and bought one.

11 
 Craig that one on eBay looks pretty nice, doesnt say how big of a tank it will do. Mine is larger just due to the size of my tank but not sure it is big enough.
12
Same boat here and I'd like to hear more as well. I've been watching these guys (http://www.santa-monica.cc/) for a while, but never bit the bullet and bought one.

 They are easy to build, I looked at those as well and the cost was little pricey. I spent less then $40 to build mine.

13

The price is why I never bought one. What I like about them is how compact they are. You can easily just stick it in the back of the drain section of your sump and never worry about it and it takes up almost no space. I saw what Clownfishsushi made for his, do you both have pics of yours?

14

[quote=“icecool2, post:13, topic:7924”]
The price is why I never bought one. What I like about them is how compact they are. You can easily just stick it in the back of the drain section of your sump and never worry about it and it takes up almost no space. I saw what Clownfishsushi made for his, do you both have pics of yours?[/quote]

 I dont have any pics of mine but I'll see if I can take some later and post them.
15

wow iv gotta say im sorry I missed it looks great

16

[quote=“Cdangel0, post:9, topic:7924”]
Admittedly I missed your original presentation, and maybe this was covered, but what is the difference between an algae scrubber and a fuge with a great big ball of cheato or other macro-algae growing?

In my mind the premise of each is the same, utilize nutrients from the tank to feed the algae, remove the algae to eliminate the nutrients, rinse and repeat.

Does the algae scrubber do it more effectively? If so, why?

Aside from additional space required, and possible noise from the running water, are there any potential ill effects from running the scrubber as opposed to a skimmer and/or refugium?

What are your thoughts of the algae scrubbers that float in the sump with the led lights built in to the lid, or this hang on back model?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Algae-Scrubber-Tank-mounted-/271773334909?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f46f3fd7d

Yours appears to be quite large, as does Bill’s, could something this small be beneficial to say a 90 or 120g tank?[/quote]

Your right, refugiums and scrubbers work on the same principle and have the same advantages/disadvantages. The difference is access to nutirents (flow), light, and algae type. Algae scrubbers typically grow green hair algae which we all know is the first algae that appears once you get high nutrients. I’ve personally seen GHA all over a tank and nice green cheato surviving in the fuge, not growing much, but surviving. GHA is simply far better at removing nutrients that the macro algaes people put in there fuge. It grows faster and in thinner strands which drastically increased the surface area, ie. availability for nutrient uptake.

I’ve noticed no ill effects while running my scrubber for 3 years.

Waterfall scrubbers take up a lot of space, but the new ones that float or hang on the glass (HOG) are very compact. I’ve seen plenty of videos online of people pulling out a nice harvest from both designs. They work in a different way though. Waterfall scrubbers take in water and filter out slightly cleaner water, but at a high flow rate. SURF and HOG scrubbers take in tank water and spit out heavily filtered water, but at a low flow rate since there air powered.

Mines huge compared to most peoples scrubbers which is why I need to feed so much to keep it alive. I designed it so I could have lots of fish, but never purchased a lot of fish hahaha. By santa monica’s estimates, my oversized scrubber can extract 22 cubes of food per day given my screen area. That might seem rediculous, but I believe it given the slow, lack-luster growth I get by feed 4-5 pinches of flakes per day.

17

[quote=“icecool2, post:13, topic:7924”]
The price is why I never bought one. What I like about them is how compact they are. You can easily just stick it in the back of the drain section of your sump and never worry about it and it takes up almost no space. I saw what Clownfishsushi made for his, do you both have pics of yours?[/quote]
:-)lol

What did you spend of your skimmer?

18

[quote=“bnelson, post:16, topic:7924”]
Waterfall scrubbers take in water and filter out slightly cleaner water, but at a high flow rate. SURF and HOG scrubbers take in tank water and spit out heavily filtered water, but at a low flow rate since there air powered.[/quote]

So it becomes a trade off of how much water you want to filter at a time, or how many times a water molecule passes over/through the scrubber to remove all of the nutrients?

I like the idea of a scrubber, I just don’t have the ability to add an external scrubber to my tank, so therefore am intrigued by the HOG scrubbers. To that point, I’m not exactly thrilled with idea idea of the low hum of an air pump either.

I wonder how difficult it would be to make something for the existing sump that would work like an old wet/dry filter, but instead of bioballs, grow algae instead.

19

[quote=“bnelson, post:17, topic:7924”]
:-)lol

What did you spend of your skimmer?[/quote]
On the tank I’m putting together now it is included, but they retail for $100. The last tank, $200. I see the point you are trying to make, but I have no basis for comparison other than a direct one. My $100 skimmer should be able to handle more than the equivalent of 1/2 cube per day that the $100 santa monica scrubber can handle. So by that metric, I stand by the scrubber being expensive.

There are other metrics to consider like noise, power consumption, evap rates, bubbles entering the DT, etc.

20

[quote=“icecool2, post:19, topic:7924”]

[quote=“bnelson, post:17, topic:7924”]
:-)lol

What did you spend of your skimmer?[/quote]
On the tank I’m putting together now it is included, but they retail for $100. The last tank, $200. I see the point you are trying to make, but I have no basis for comparison other than a direct one. My $100 skimmer should be able to handle more than the equivalent of 1/2 cube per day that the $100 santa monica scrubber can handle. So by that metric, I stand by the scrubber being expensive.

There are other metrics to consider like noise, power consumption, evap rates, bubbles entering the DT, etc. [/quote]

Mine as very little noise and the main noise comes from the discharge back into the sump, I have a lid on mine with just a small crack to let excessive heat build up. It was the addition of one other power compact bulb ( running 2 v/s 1 on the fuge. No more evaporation then normal with the lid covering the bin and I have the drain water hit the back side wall of the sump which elminates any micro bubbles.