My Large Algae Turf Scrubber

[foxvalleypcgeek]

I started up my system in the middle of May and added on an algae scrubber a couple of weeks later. It has worked great and I have never had any nasty algae in the tank at all, other then glass cleaning.

It measures somewhere around 32" long by 18" tall and his lit from both sides. I just used cheap 23W 2700k CFL bulbs I got for $1 something a three pack. And some clip on light fixtures.

I already had stock tanks set up from the previous system, so it was all there and plumbed already into the system.

At first I started out on a smaller stock tank where the lights were really close, but I moved it over within a few days to a larger one where the lights are farther away. I wasn't worried about them being too far away, its going to grow anyways. Made it a lot easier to work with, and didn't have as much of a splashing problem.

I did knock one light in the water once and reached in, not thinking, and received some shockage lol. Just replaced the bulb and good to go again.

I got a Jebaeo DC 12000 to power it and three 12x18 pieces of canvas.

And the basics of it laid out in the stock tank

And all hooked up and operational

And moved over to the larger tank

I got some acrylic sheets to hang in between as splash guards

I wasn't happy with how the water was spraying out and not wanting to run down the canvas very good. Took the canvas off and cut the groove out so it was about twice as big. Much better, turns out I had the notch to small before and the canvas was too tight in there.

This was 10 days later

Then I don't seem to have any pictures until 22 days later

And then 36 days later it was a couple of my fingers thick. I was slacking on trimming it down.

And now as of October 7 it looks like this

There is a ton more red algae on the canvas now, almost looks like more then green at this point.

All in all, it has worked very well, and I would not change a thing. The display stays super clean and have not had a single issue.

 

[Hlmarlowe]

That's wicked! A do 12000 just for your ATS? Lol terrific

 

[ethridge78]

Looks good

 

[Turbo's Aquatics Verified Sponsor]

Any reason why you made it so large?

 

[foxvalleypcgeek]

Heavy feeding and no nitrates or phospates. If its keeping those in check, with no algae in the tank, that is really all that matters to me.
If I add on more I don't want to be at its limit either.

 

[Turbo's Aquatics Verified Sponsor]

Yeah I just saw your build thread, epic! Like you say, if you've got the space...you can go big. What size CFLs are you using? for the size of screen you have, you can probably add a whole lot more light if you ever need to bump up the production to keep up with the growing tank. Like, 4 lights of that size/type per side of the screen. Once you have a mature screen like you do, you can blast it with light. I would consider some waterproof LED multi-chip floods instead of the CFLs, just because of the bulb replacement cost.

 

[foxvalleypcgeek]

They are just 23 watts I think they are (2700K). So not the big ones. Difinitely room to increase with those if I needed to.

 

[Mike in CT]

Nice job, thanks for sharing!

 

[foxvalleypcgeek]

Just tested this morning haha, I suppose something like .03 would be better for some things, but Ill take what I get.

 

[zemuss]

Sweet build right there..

Well you might want some NO3 but po4 should be where it is.

 

[foxvalleypcgeek]

Sweet build right there..

Well you might want some NO3 but po4 should be where it is.

I see so many mixed thoughts on that haha. As with a lot of things in the fishy world.

 

[Mike in CT]

Nice job, thanks for sharing!

 

[foxvalleypcgeek]

Your welcome

 

[nyreef123]

That is neat. Good job.

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Nice work!

You could certainly go for more powerful lights too if you want to.

~SF