New scrubber

[screwgunner]

It is the second week of my scrubber beeing up and runnin so far about .25 % of the algae in my mane tank is gone it has been alot of work i have to rinse off my over flow screens twice a day along with my sponge filter. I tried to post when i started it but it would not let me . I have a pro clear sump that has two pipes comeing out of the top side that flows over a drip plate and over the five gallon bucket of bio balls through a spong filter and all over again . All i did was to take out the 1.25" pipes and drip tray and bio balls ,Replaced the pipes with my own slotted vertion, one end of the pipe did not get slotted .25" the rest is so i can slide my screen in from one end of the pipe so i can slide the zip tie over the pipe again and again. then i used two caps off of hot sause bottles to plug the end with they work great . i know that 950 gal, per hour is alittle high for only 20 " of screen. But it is a nice brownish green already. then i cut a hole in the top of the sump for a light to hang in between the two sceens and i have the other one on the back of the sump i think three sides lit is good since i only needed a 12" by 12" any way for a 125 gal. .I will try to keep you up dated and my be a pic or two if any one is inerested in seein my set up! Thank you for this great place , I LOVE IT

[screwgunner]

For the resson for my hair algae attack two large turbos and four smaller ones died behind my rock and started the hole thing . Tank has been up for 1year and 8 mounths no problems till now !!!!

[SantaMonica]

Yes post some pics. How much are you feeding?

[screwgunner]

two or three pinches of flake and a frozen cube of brine or grated shrimp once a day i have not been feeding them but every other day but my sailfin tang started getin lateral line but he looks good now. So i will keep feeding at once a day if every thing goes good i my start to give them seconds!!!!!!!! I do give the tangs seaweed once a week .

[SantaMonica]

Scrubbers are now sized according to feeding. Nutrients "in" (feeding) must equal nutrients "out" (scrubber growth), no matter how many gallons you have. So...

An example VERTICAL waterfall screen size is 3 X 4 inches = 12 square inches of screen (7.5 X 10 cm = 75 sq cm) with a total of 12 real watts (not equivalent) of fluorescent light for 18 hours a day. If all 12 watts are on one side, it is a 1-sided screen. If 6 watts are on each side, it is a 2-sided screen, but the total is still 12 watts for 18 hours a day. This screen size and wattage should be able to handle the following amounts of daily feeding:

1 frozen cube per day (2-sided screen), or
1/2 frozen cube per day (1-sided screen), or
10 pinches of flake food per day (2-sided screen), or
5 pinches of flake food per day (1-sided screen), or
10 square inches (60 sq cm) of nori per day (2-sided screen), or
5 square inches (30 sq cm) of nori per day (1-sided screen), or
0.1 dry ounce (2.8 grams) of pellet food per day (2-sided screen), or
0.05 dry ounce (1.4 grams) of pellet food per day (1-sided screen)

High-wattage technique: Double the wattage, and cut the hours in half (to 9 per day). This will get brown screens to grow green much faster. Thus the example above would be 12 watts on each side, for a total of 24 watts, but for only 9 hours per day. If growth starts to turn YELLOW, then increase the flow, or add iron, or reduce the number of hours. And since the bulbs are operating for 9 hours instead of 18, they will last 6 months instead of 3 months.

HORIZONTAL screens: Multiply the screen size by 4, and the wattage by 1.5Flow is 24 hours, and is at least 35 gph per inch of width of screen [60 lph per cm], EVEN IF one sided or horizontal.

Very rough screen made of roughed-up-like-a-cactus plastic canvas.

Clean algae off of screen every 7 to 14 days, so that you can see the white screen material.

[screwgunner]

I have a 42 watt in between and a 26 on the end

[screwgunner]

it is late and my lights are off on my tank so if i feel like it i might take a pic or two when the lights are on

[SantaMonica]

Well I'd say that 35 watts of the middle one is hitting the screens. The outside reflector is good. So total watts is about 60. This is enough wattage for a 60 square inch screen, say, 5 X 6. Since yours is 12 X 12, it will have trouble getting past a light brown coverage into 3D mode (high filtering). But medium filtering will be fine.

60 divided by 12 = 5, so you could feed 5 cubes a day, and you are only feeding 1. So you could double your feeding now if you want. Or triple.

To get closer to the 5 per day, however, you'd probably have to downsize the screen to 5 X 6, to allow the really 3D green growth to form. But if you are just going to stay with 2 cubes, you can just stay with what you've got since it's already built.

[Floyd R Turbo]

You have crosscuts in the pipe. These are not recommended. Also did you arrive at 950 GPH by measuring the flow or is that calculated based on your pump and head loss?

[screwgunner]

I had to cross cut or make slot wider water was not comming out fast anough 4 weeks now and my screen is half dark fuzzy brown and the other green . week three i added a copper band and he thinks he owns the tank already, I tryed them before and both died in under a week .this one is going stronger than the others ever did . I beleave it has to be because of the scubber . I am no longer using the spong in my filter it is only taking out food .hair is still growing in main tank .I will do a 30 gallon water change and take out as much hair as i can. I will take before and after pic's . and pic's of my screen before cleaning.

[Floyd R Turbo]

Copperbands eat almost exclusively Aptasia so you must have some. When he eats it all he will die.