Coolhandgoose's 55Gal

[coolhandgoose]

Hi guys,

I've decided to ditch my pellets and skimmer combo and redesign my plumbing to accomodate a scrubber.
My main reasons for doing this are that I'm not sure if I have dino's or cyano, either way my sand bed is disgusting and brown and looks snotty with bubbles. I'm hoping that by creating a scrubber it will outcompete any nuissance algae in the display tank and allow for some awesome coral growth which has been stagnant as of late.

I kind of jumped head first into cutting the slot in the pipe without measuring my flow first. It was fairly easy since I just clamped the pipe to a 2x4 and used a plunge router with a 1/8" bit and a guide to cut it nice and straight (well as straight as the 2x4). So I'm going to figure out how much flow I have coming from my return line and cut the slot to length from there using the 1 inch per 35gph rule. Will I need to create some type of backup in case the slot gets clogged?

I'm planning on it being lit from both sides. I have two of those home depot silver tin work lights with 27k soft light cfl's.

Screen size. Once I figure out how wide the slot will be, length will next. The display is 55gal, with about 25 gallons in the sump, so should I be creating about an 80 square inch screen? I seem to recall that you want the bottom of the screen to be just touching the water as well.

Thanks for any assistance!

[kotlec]

There is a very nice FAQ taht very well answers all your questions. Feeding is a key factor here not tank volume.

[coolhandgoose]

The new guidelines seem really small. So if I feed only 1 cube a day, which is about right, I only need a 3x4" screen and 12 watts of lighting power?

[SantaMonica]

Yes, 6 real watts on each side. You could probably go up to 10 watts.

[coolhandgoose]

Okay well I'll check out my flow rate tomorrow to see how much I'm getting from the return line. Is it okay to go bigger? I'm just thinking if I need say a six inch slot, I'd like to do a screen that's 6x6. This would be triple the requirement, could I do 36 watts of lighting for 9 hours and still get roughly the same result?

[SantaMonica]

No, bigger only grows a thinner layer, which never grows out from the screen because there is not enough nutrients to build the algae "ladders". So you never get the long green hairs.

[coolhandgoose]

Thanks for the info. I think I'll redesign it so I use a mj1200 for the flow instead of the overflow which will probably be way too much. Since I'm only feeding on average one cube of emerald entree or Pacifica plankton I'm going to go for the 3x4 screen. Does anyone have any experience using an mj1200? Any major head loss issues by pumping it up about 20 inches? I wonder if it's too much flow I can just add a ball valve with some kind of overflow.

[coolhandgoose]

So here is the scrubber with about a 3x5 screen. It's only lit on one side at the moment since one of the lamps I bought is short circuiting. I'm using an mj1200 pump, flow seems pretty good. The lights are 9 watts.

Scrubber, with an adult beverage for size comparison
http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab227/coolhandgoose/photo1-16.jpg

In the water
http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab227/coolhandgoose/photo2-16.jpg

http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab227/coolhandgoose/photo3-10.jpg

[SantaMonica]

Consider switching to side-reflectors that hang down.

[coolhandgoose]

Not sure what those are

[SantaMonica]

Search for Srusso's scrubber.

[coolhandgoose]

Well I'll see how these work for now. I have them on a timer for 18 hours on and 6 off. Right now just getting a light dusting of brown on the screen after two days.

[kerry]

Thats about normal, It may take a few cleanings to get the green stuff.

[coolhandgoose]

Should I give it 14 days before the first cleaning? Or 7?

[kerry]

The first cleaning can usually go up to 14 days or clean if its is becoming detached from the screen as this not what you want.

[coolhandgoose]

Thanks for the reply. One more question, should I keep running carbon for now until my scrubber is up and running? Will i still need carbon later? I guess that was two questions :)

[Ace25]

Thanks for the reply. One more question, should I keep running carbon for now until my scrubber is up and running? Will i still need carbon later? I guess that was two questions :)
Carbon doesn't affect the growth of an ATS. I personally believe carbon will help remove some of the negative things an ATS creates, but there are just as many people not running carbon and having success as those that do run it, so I wouldn't say it is necessary to run carbon, just a personal choice.


Consider switching to side-reflectors that hang down.

Not sure what those are

like this:
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/5558785/2/istockphoto_5558785-hanging-metal-cage-utility-work-light.jpg

[kerry]

I have never seen carbon really do anything for my tanks. I have not touched carbon in over a decade unless you count the time a couple months ago I tried it in my sump because someone said the little bit of foam on my water surface could be corrected by carbon. Well after a month with weekly changes of the carbon it turned out to be BS!!!

[Ace25]

I have never seen carbon really do anything for my tanks. I have not touched carbon in over a decade unless you count the time a couple months ago I tried it in my sump because someone said the little bit of foam on my water surface could be corrected by carbon. Well after a month with weekly changes of the carbon it turned out to be BS!!!

Your not going to visually see carbon doing anything unless your water has a colored tint to it, then it will turn it clear, but if your water is clear to begin with I can't imagine how a person could tell from observation if it is doing anything, but it is. ;)

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2010/1/aafeature

•Only about 20 - 30% of the measurable TOC in reef tank water was removed by skimming

Actually, in the first skimmer article in Jan 2009 AA, we used a skimmable model system, the protein Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) in freshly prepared salt water as well as authentic TOC from reef tank water. This protein could be skimmed down to the ~ 10% level (that is, we could remove ~ 90% of the BSA through skimming). You can check out that article to see the comparison between BSA removal rates and TOC removal rates. For reasons discussed in the 2010 AA article, we dropped the BSA inquiries.

In some as yet unpublished work, we have shown that GAC is very effective at stripping aquarium water of its TOC load; from 60 - 90% removal, if I recall correctly, depending on specifics. We looked at ROX, HC2 and Black Diamond GAC's. The ROX was the winner by far.

[coolhandgoose]

I was using carbon because someone told me that having finger leathers and SPS in the same tank can cause some kind of chemical warfare and using carbon will help get rid of the toxins.

[SantaMonica]

Maybe. If the leather is big, and is directly upstream of your sps, and if your tank is small. But you'll see it if it's a problem because the sps most directly near the leather will be affected most.

Remember that even "toxins" from leathers are still food for bacteria, which still feed your corals.

[coolhandgoose]

So I had algae growing in to the slot and spraying everywhere. I scrubbed out the slot with some sandpaper and put some aluminum foil over the top pipe to hopefully prevent algae growing at the very top.

[coolhandgoose]

Here is the growth after 1 week, tell me what you think.

http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab227/coolhandgoose/photo2-17.jpg

http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab227/coolhandgoose/photo1-17.jpg

[coolhandgoose]

I checked my tds on my ro/di and it was at 30! So iv gotta replace my filters and di resin. I'm thinking I may have a really bad diatom outbreak and not dinos.

[SantaMonica]

Can't really tell until you pull it out.

[coolhandgoose]

Well there's definitely no green right now, just brown.

[SantaMonica]

Clean it at 10 days and take pics.

[coolhandgoose]

It's been ten days here's the photos of both sides.

http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab227/coolhandgoose/photo1-19.jpg

http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab227/coolhandgoose/photo2-19.jpg

No green just brown. I'm fighting cyano and diatoms in the DT though.

[SantaMonica]

More light.

[coolhandgoose]

I'm using the 9 watts each bulb for 18 hours what do you recommend?

[SantaMonica]

13 watt bulbs.

[Floyd R Turbo]

Also don't use the aluminum foil over the pipe, use saran wrap instead (it clings to the pipe and the screen and prevents spray)

[coolhandgoose]

Ah good tip about the Saran.

[coolhandgoose]

Got the 13 watt bulbs will update.

[coolhandgoose]

Is it possible to have too much flow? I'm finding the water sprays everywhere especially where the zip ties attach to the screen.
Also you should see the sump, it's brown and full of diatoms. The screen does look a little greener

[Floyd R Turbo]

too much flow and too narrow a slot will cause spray, so I guess the answer is yes. Try widening the slot a little (very little at a time) and use the saran wrap all along the pipe - that is what helps block the spray