Algae Scrubber Output Plumbing?

AquAttila · Dec 16, 2019

I have a question as I am concerned that I should have plumbed by output of my clearwater algae scrubber into my skimmer input. Is this the recommended method? I am asking because right now I have the output of the scrubber right into the sump - what I noticed is that if I don't clean the scrubber in time, the algae of course ends up in my sump and then the strainer don't catch all of the algae and end up in my tank. Any recommendations is appreciated! I do recall reading some place (probably on R2R) that some do plumb output of the scrubber to the input of the skimmer.

Thanks!

Feet4Fish · Dec 16, 2019

The output of mine enter the sump prior to my mechanical filtration which in turn can catch any runaway algae. You could always put a coarse foam in a bubble trap or maybe have the output of your ATS go into a sock. I am not sure if I would completely rely on the skimmer as some bit of algae might be too big to get captured by the skimmer.

AquAttila · Dec 16, 2019

appreciate the quick response! yeah, I was thinking of the filter sock idea. I was thinking the skimmer as the output of the skimmer goes into a sock and would catch any algae that way. I may go with your idea and just put a filter sock on the output of the ATS for now and see how that works out... easier then plumbing anyways.

AZMSGT · Dec 16, 2019

Mine drains into my sump Prior to the skimmer. I didn’t want to create a bunch of complicated pluming. I have a filter sock tied to the output

stezlaki · Dec 16, 2019

Ours dumps into the same chamber that the skimmer sits in. The one time I have cleaned out the scrubber chamber (while still in place) I had a little algae escape, but othet than that, I haven't ever really noticed any algae escaping the scrubber. I clean the screen once a week.........well.......usually. We do not have any algae growing in the tank (and we started with a neglected tank that had furry algae covered rocks that were flowing like a torch). I'm glad the algae is gone, but I almost feel kinda sorry for the algae eaters that we have! If some algae from the scrubber made it's way to the tank today, I wouldn't really care. It's not going to to grow in there!