Scrubber On A New Tank

[andthe_brain]

First of all Im new here,my names Steve and from the uk. I have been keeping marines for around 5 years now, with some highs and lows etc...Then I discovered this site....an everything changed lol.

I have just got myself an 80g tank, I have read this site till my eyes bleed..So i thought I would give it go, if it doesnt work then its no big loss.

so my setup consists of my 80g display tank, fed into my 20g sump and returned via a 2500l/h pump
my sump has 3 compartments and 2 baffles in the first i have my heater, 2nd dsb and rubble and algae scrubber (will get to the details) 3rd return pump and pump for scrubber, also have a 4 fan pointed at my scrubber.

when i initially setup the tank and was curing and cycling rock etc, I ran a skimmer and floss and a heater for 8 solid weeks, every week I would do a 10% water change using the water I changed from my other tank and replenishing the other tanks water....with me? I did this while i was tweaking my scrubber.

My scrubber design is an albeit simple one..return pump fed into rubber pipe, rubber pipe onto pvc pipe which has the roughed up canvas in, 2 clip on cfl lights @45 Real watts equivelant to 225 watts each bulb@2700k ( which clip on to the side of the sump) and 2 bits of acrlic holding the pvc pipe up so only an inch is in the water...

Once the tank had cycled, I added my livestock from my nano and rock etc and put the scrubber on, left it two days for everything to settle then removed the skimmer and the floss.
that was 5 weeks ago

I have cleaned it every week and seem to be getting growth on it. but the growth im getting is black...no green just black I have that since week 3, and looking at the regrowth I have now, its looking to be another black clean...am I doing something wrong?? all you guys have lovely hair algae an i have an oil slick...

also because the the scrubber is part of the sump and not contained in its own tank my sump is covered in algae, rubble is covered all the glass...is this the norm? Do I even need the rubble? I am abit reluctant to remove the dsb...as its alot of sand and its just gonna be a PITA to remove...

so whatcha think to the scrubber set up? anything I could improve on?

[SantaMonica]

Sounds like the rock you got is soaked with phosphate. You are probably not feeding much. So for that many nutrients to be in the water, it must be coming from the rocks. 45 watt bulbs should certainly be able to get some lighter colored growth, once nutrients have come down.

Clean the screen sooner than 7 days until it's no longer black. When you can't see the screen material because of the black, your filtering drops because the bottom layers are not getting light.

[andthe_brain]

How well should I be cleaning it? Been using a nail brush to clean it with

[SantaMonica]

Leave some on the screen.

[Marksfish]

There are quite a few of us in the UK converted to scrubbers. Most of us on a UK forum have our own DIY scrubbers (won't post a link as not sure if allowed) and our "chat" about them now runs into 75 pages!! There is also someone in the UK making scrubbers commercially, they are about to be released to the public after having been on trial, so things are looking up :).

My scrubber has been running 6 months now and the algae is still a bit oily, but the filtering is working as my test results show 0 phosphates and low nitrates. Have changed to a slightly different design this weekend which has more bulbs, so hopefully the green will come on now :).

For cleaning, I just run mine under tap water and run an old credit card over it, leaving the gaps in the canvas filled with algae. I am still cleaning both sides at a time at the moment, but the algae only takes a day or so come back again.

Mark

[SantaMonica]

Yes you can link to them.

[Marksfish]

Thanks SM :D

Pop over and visit our UK scrubber fans. The long thread can be found here (http://www.marinefish-uk.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/31106-diy-algae-turf-scrubbers/) and the shorter thread here (http://www.marinefish-uk.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/33659-diy-algae-turf-scrubber-take-2/).

Mark

[andthe_brain]

I knew there was a few of us out there! Lol! Good to see companies are using them...sooo, should I get rid of the rubble in the sump, an what should I do about all the algae in the sump? Or will the ATS take care of that eventually?

[SantaMonica]

If too much of your light get into the sump, you will always have growth there.