algae scrubber

[dorky]

hey fellow reefer,
Ive been doing aquarium for about 4 years now. Im getting my own place soon. i just want to know what purpose does algae scrubber serve. can be use with or w/o skimmer. i might use it for my next tank once i understand how it work. so please explain it to me thanks

 

[ultramafic]

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/eq...-lowest-cost-easiest-way-eliminate-green.html

this should give you some info. If you set one up properly they can be quite helpful. If you set one up incorrectly it'll seem like it wont do much.

 

[gmoney243]

very true. if done correctly it can maintain long term ultra low nutrient levels. it also can work with other equipment such as skimmers and biopellets. if combined with other methods it just doesnt grow as fast because of less nutrients. it will never cause a crash beccause of nutrient deficiencies unlike other methods. it will however in most cases kill other macro algaes in a refugium. theres other benefits of having algae growing in your tank as well such as planktonic foods for corals and pods and such to eat. i often feed some of my algae to my tangs when cleaning weekly they love it.

 

[dorky]

hmm thanks for the advice

 

[jomatty]

I am battling a algae issue on one of my tanks and just finished building an algae scrubber that runs off of my overflow. It seems to be working fairly well and is growing algae but has only been up for a day or two. I was going to put one on my larger tank as well, but decided against it as I want to have some algae growing for the tangs to graze on. The one I built is not perfect, as there is a little bit on the end that is not getting water running over it. I built it a little larger than neccessary though so I am hoping that the rest of the scrubber that is getting good flow over it will help, and if not I may try to redo it, but overall it was an easy and inexpensive diy project that i am fairly optimistic about working well.

 

[jedimasterben]

I am battling a algae issue on one of my tanks and just finished building an algae scrubber that runs off of my overflow. It seems to be working fairly well and is growing algae but has only been up for a day or two. I was going to put one on my larger tank as well, but decided against it as I want to have some algae growing for the tangs to graze on. The one I built is not perfect, as there is a little bit on the end that is not getting water running over it. I built it a little larger than neccessary though so I am hoping that the rest of the scrubber that is getting good flow over it will help, and if not I may try to redo it, but overall it was an easy and inexpensive diy project that i am fairly optimistic about working well.

Flow is more important than light, TBH. You need 35GPH or so of flow per inch of the scrubber screen (from the point where the water starts flowing, so if your screen is 4" wide and 20" long, you still only need 140GPH over it, but the more the merrier).


I've got a waterfall-style scrubber on my tank right now, half is LED lit, the other half is a 60w actual CFL (like 2700k) and has it's own generic waterfall pump running it. My next scrubber will be a horizontal scrubber that will take up an entire 10g (basically, silicone a glass baffle at an angle and have the water flow over it down into the bottom of the tank). Unfortunately horizontal scrubbers aren't as efficient, you need around four times the screen area and 50% more light to get the same efficiency as a single-sided waterfall scrubber, but it will work out better for me this way so it's worth the extra inefficiency IMHO.