Algae scrubber

saltwater newby · Jul 13, 2016

hello everyone,
Is anyone out there running an algae scrubber?? If so, what results are you getting? Please post pic of your scrubber and algae produced by it. Is anyone feeding the algae to their livestock?? How often are you removing algae from it? Etc...
I have an algae scrubber from Joey Olive. It's a nice piece of equipment. So far my Po4 readings are .03 and No3 are still high at 20ppm but I do have 13 fish and I feed at least 2 times per day both results are from salifert test kits. I just recently dropped a small piece of the algae in my tank to see if my fox face and kole tang would go for it, which they did but another piece drifted away and it's somewhere in the display tank(I hope it doesn't become a problem) The pic I posted was right before I hooked up my algae scrubber, it's been running now for about 3 months I bought it at reefapalooza in the Orlando fl show. From the addictive reef keeping booth. Thanks in Advance for the feedback .

Joeganja · Jul 13, 2016

I ran an algae scrubber. First it grows this redish algae until it gets green. I recommend cleaning it every 4-6 weeks depending on how thick your algae is. My algae scrubber got my nitrates down to 0 and it was a diy. 13 fish? How big is the tank? You may just be over feeding or your skimmer may not be strong enough. Or your algae scrubber may not be big enough. I have a 90 gallon and my scrubber mesh was 12x10 inches.

Diesel · Jul 13, 2016

Algae scrubbers are a great piece of equipment and they work all the time.
I used to have one on the frag tank.

saltwater newby · Jul 13, 2016

Joeganja said:
I ran an algae scrubber. First it grows this redish algae until it gets green. I recommend cleaning it every 4-6 weeks depending on how thick your algae is. My algae scrubber got my nitrates down to 0 and it was a diy. 13 fish? How big is the tank? You may just be over feeding or your skimmer may not be strong enough. Or your algae scrubber may not be big enough. I have a 90 gallon and my scrubber mesh was 12x10 inches.

I have a 75 gallon Red Sea reefer with 18 gallon sump. I have a bubble magus curve 7 skimmer so I'm sure my filtration is good enough. I do have a lot of fish (13) but 6 of them is a school of small chromis and 2 clowns. I also use Red Sea spec carbon which I just ran out of but I have a new gallon of brs brand to go in next which I hear good things about. I feed LRS and frozen mysis plus a sheet of seaweed every day. I clean my scrubber once a week though, should I wait lingers? I do remove a descent amount, the sheet gets covered. According to the manufacturer of my scrubber, he says my scrubber is bigger than what I needed based on the different size scrubbers they make.

Joeganja · Jul 13, 2016

saltwater newby said:
I have a 75 gallon Red Sea reefer with 18 gallon sump. I have a bubble magus curve 7 skimmer so I'm sure my filtration is good enough. I do have a lot of fish (13) but 6 of them is a school of small chromis and 2 clowns. I also use Red Sea spec carbon which I just ran out of but I have a new gallon of brs brand to go in next which I hear good things about. I feed LRS and frozen mysis plus a sheet of seaweed every day. I clean my scrubber once a week though, should I wait lingers? I do remove a descent amount, the sheet gets covered. According to the manufacturer of my scrubber, he says my scrubber is bigger than what I needed based on the different size scrubbers they make.

You stated you feed twice a day? I only feed once a day and especially with seaweed how it just spreads all over the tank you may be over feeding a bit. Clean your scrubber when it's has green hair algae growing on it and it's a thick coat or getting near thick. You want there to be a lot of algae so it absorbs the nitrates. If you can take a photo of your algae scrubber before you clean it.

saltwater newby · Jul 13, 2016

Joeganja said:
You stated you feed twice a day? I only feed once a day and especially with seaweed how it just spreads all over the tank you may be over feeding a bit. Clean your scrubber when it's has green hair algae growing on it and it's a thick coat or getting near thick. You want there to be a lot of algae so it absorbs the nitrates. If you can take a photo of your algae scrubber before you clean it.

It look me pretty thick and green when I clean it, but I'll send you pics to show you. I'm pretty sure I over feed. I'm just a believer that fish when well fed are just healthier. Of course with the upkeep of water changes and good filtration. Lol

Tony Jibster · Jul 13, 2016

I made this super simple algae scrubber for my 15 G reef + 10 G sump. I have three fish in my system, and my nitrates are barely detectable after 2-3 weeks when I do my water changes (maybe there is some if I squint real hard). Likewise, I don't detect any PO4; however, I do not use a very accurate test so I don't believe the zero reading on it. I do not have a skimmer, but I do run some GFO in a homemade reactor.

saltwater newby · Jul 13, 2016

Joeganja said:
You stated you feed twice a day? I only feed once a day and especially with seaweed how it just spreads all over the tank you may be over feeding a bit. Clean your scrubber when it's has green hair algae growing on it and it's a thick coat or getting near thick. You want there to be a lot of algae so it absorbs the nitrates. If you can take a photo of your algae scrubber before you clean it.

This was the first time I ever cleaned it I don't have any pcs from last weekend. I clean out twice as much algae now . I clean out one side every week. That pic doesn't show half of what I take out

bigdan3489 · Jul 13, 2016

I was planning on buying a Santa Monica Filtration algae scrubber next week, has anyone had experience with those? I am going to purchase a Drop 1.4.

Cory · Jul 13, 2016

I made my waterfall scrubber. I have a substrate free tank. With my ats its always zero po4 and zero no3.

If i dont scrape it for 3-4 weeks algae starts to grow in the tank. It should be scraped every 7-14 days maximum.

saltwater newby · Jul 13, 2016

Cory said:
I made my waterfall scrubber. I have a substrate free tank. With my ats its always zero po4 and zero no3.

If i dont scrape it for 3-4 weeks algae starts to grow in the tank. It should be scraped every 7-14 days maximum.

I usually clean it out on weekends. Mi nitrates are still high though. I'm thinking. It can be the feeding or just too big of a bioload. I also have a skimmer. What's your set up and livestock and feeding habits??

TaylorPilot · Jul 13, 2016

I have had a Rev 4 L2 model from Turbo Aquatics for about a week. I am already getting a green slimy algae growing on the screen. I imagine in another week it will need its first cleaning. My little 40B had gotten pretty bad from overfeeding (wife and 2 year old), and all the rock is covered in algae. I will be curious to see how fast the skimmer can out compete it. I have a little (extremely hungry) yellow tang in the tank who does his best to clean the rocks, but it just grows too fast. Hopefully pretty soon I'll have to start feeding him nori again. Right now he can graze all day and never be hungry. LOL If I could go back, I would have put it on the tank from day one.

saltwater newby · Jul 13, 2016

TaylorPilot said:
I have had a Rev 4 L2 model from Turbo Aquatics for about a week. I am already getting a green slimy algae growing on the screen. I imagine in another week it will need its first cleaning. My little 40B had gotten pretty bad from overfeeding (wife and 2 year old), and all the rock is covered in algae. I will be curious to see how fast the skimmer can out compete it. I have a little (extremely hungry) yellow tang in the tank who does his best to clean the rocks, but it just grows too fast. Hopefully pretty soon I'll have to start feeding him nori again. Right now he can graze all day and never be hungry. LOL If I could go back, I would have put it on the tank from day one.

From the research I did before getting my scrubber I saw many vide and threads about people getting rid of nuisance algae with the use of an algae scrubber. I think you'll be fine

Cory · Jul 14, 2016

saltwater newby said:
I usually clean it out on weekends. Mi nitrates are still high though. I'm thinking. It can be the feeding or just too big of a bioload. I also have a skimmer. What's your set up and livestock and feeding habits??

I had sand before too. Sand is nice looking, but holds way too much poop, and food. Thats where my excess nutrients was coming from. Removed the sand, both po4 and no3 were zero, when previously po4 was a stubborn .03-.11ppm via hanna.no3 was zero. I painted the bottom to look like sand, so its not too bad.

Without sand, you know where the nutrients are just by looking.

In my 25 gallons with 5 fish, 4 chromis and 1 yellow clown goby, i feed about half a teaspon of micro pellets per day. Spread out throgh the day every 2 hours they get a tiny bit. Havnt lost a chromis yet, but i think i may lose one because i may have accidentally blinded him by turning on the basment lights at night. Hes not eating now.

I dont use a skimmer just carbon. I dont water change. I just have some filter floss i throw away when i feel like it. Montipora is good, frogspawn exenia are good. Some sto y coral i dont know the name of is good. Have a kessil 160 on the tank.ato is kalk fully saturated. Thats it.

Cory · Jul 14, 2016

Before ats/ after ats (not my tank but happened the same.

Cory · Jul 14, 2016

Yiu can have sand with an ats, but consider sand as a fish, it eats and poops. You just need to double the ats size to keep up with nutrients. I didn't have the room to make my ats bigger when i had sand, so i removed it.