Newbie Question (Combining Bean Animal Overflow and Algal Scrubber?)

[mark_d50]

Hi everyone,

First post on here (or any aquarium site in fact), so "hello". I spent literally hours yesterday (don't tell my boss) reading page after page of posts from Santa Monica over on the TalkingReef forum regarding the algal scrubber. First, as a microbiologist, I think it makes perfect sense and am eager to try this out on my first ever salt water tank build - I have only ever had freshwater aquariums but am looking to make the step up after having just spent two weeks diving some gorgeous reefs in Bonaire (very southern part of the Caribbean).

My question: in addition to using the algal scrubber design (simplistically brilliant, Santa Monica and/or Herb) I was also very interested in trying to make a silent overflow using the Bean Animal design. However upon thinking about the design, I am not sure that these two elements are easily compatible? I would either have to build a tiered system where the Bean Animal overflow standpipes (three, which have to be submerged in order to function properly) drain into a small sump that then gravity feeds down the Algal Scrubber into the final sump with LR etc before being return pumped to the DT; OR have the Bean Animal standpipes terminate as per usual in the sump and then have a pump dedicated to simply lifting water from the sump onto the Algal Scrubber and on to the final return pump.

The second option seems the trickiest as it requires balancing the flow rates of two pumps, which I know is near impossible even for identical brand pumps. So am I really needing to design the former version or am I missing an easy work-around?

Any insight from the esteemed members of this site would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Floyd R Turbo]

Well there is no balancing needed on the separate feed pump concept. You have a pump in the sump that takes water out and then if drains out of the scrubber right back into the same sump. The only time that balancing comes into play and should never be done is when you have 2 sumps and the tank drains into the first which is pumped into the second (which is at a higher level than the first) from which the water is returned to the display.

I run a BeanAnimal on one of my tanks I maintain and an L2 waterfall on the sump with a dedicated pump. The BA runs at 3000GPH so there is no way I can run a 200-300 GPH scrubber off that, feasibly.

People do run the siphon line directly to the scrubber though. The slot pipe design works well doing this if the flow is matched to the scrubber needs, as the slot pipe is not like an open pipe that would allow the water to 'fall out' and let air in, causing a break in the siphon or preventing the siphon from starting. The slot pipe allows the air to purge and the siphon to start. The 2nd pipe (open channel) allows for the head pressure to be maintained on the slot while also allowing a secondary path for water to flow.

Technically the siphon pipe should be submerged, but I think that is just related to getting the siphon started. Personally I have not tried direct siphon-to-slot pipe but I know many have and it supposedly works fine.

[mark_d50]

Excellent advice, thanks Floyd.

[SantaMonica]

Welcome.

Glad you like the scrubber idea :)

[mark_d50]

Thought I'd post a quick update - I built the system and it has been running for 12 days now (cycling time - patience, patience patience -argh when can I put things in?!).

I built the bean animal overflow and while I could achieve much higher flows, it is only moving ~275GPH now (I overbuilt the overflow box but have my siphon drain almost half closed - in case of later upgrades) and fed the main siphon line directly onto my scrubber (obviously this is pre-water):

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Since then, the screen has been coming along nicely - here is a series of photos showing the steady progression of growth from a bare screen to almost complete coverage of deep green hair algae now - pretty awesome given it's only day 12 on a new tank. Time to give the screen its first cleaning?

Day 3
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Day 5
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Day 8
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Day 11
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Nitrates are up at 35ppm, ammonia is 0.1/0.2 but i never really got much more of a spike than that (possibly still coming), nitrites are 0.05/0.1. phosphates went up for the first time last night (to ~0.2). None of this really concerns me as I realize that my screen is still maturing and while is clearly happy, is probably overwhelmed by nutrients at present - once it is nice and thick/dense, I expect to see the trates and P drop down somewhat. I have nothing in my DT now, apart from some BR, LR and substrate - sump/fuge has more LR and live sand. Got a fairly impressive brown diatom bloom down in the sump/fuge and the first signs of that having made it up to the sand in the DT. Again, I expect this to clear of its own accord once they run out of silica. But I guess a question is: when would you suggest adding a small clean-up crew to my DT? My LR really didn't have much or anything in the way of macroorganisms (snails stars etc) - have only seen two tiny snails since adding the LR about 4 days ago. Should one expect to see a bunch of critters on LR after a few days or am I being too optimistic?

Thanks!

[SantaMonica]

Did you rough the screen up? If so you could let it grow another week.

Wait for the nitrite to be zero before adding anything.

[mark_d50]

yeah - roughed it up really good. ok on the nitrite, thanks!

[mark_d50]

So...follow up question.

I took SantaMonica's advice and left the screen for another week before doing my first clean (it was a pretty dense green hair algae mat, but came off easily when rubbing it with my hand). I didn't completely remove all of the green algae for fear of over-cleaning it, but in the last few (5) days since cleaning it, the screen is growing a lot more brown algae (more likely diatoms) and a lot less green algae. Of course, this also coincides with a reduction in nitrates to less than 10ppm, so I wonder if the green algae just doesnt have much to sustenance? Extra info: on the same day I cleaned the screen, I added my first critters: 6 astrea snails and five hermit crabs, which are doing a great job of removing the green algae that had started to grow in the DT. I thought that as they ate/pooped they would produce more nitrate to feed the scrubber algae, but that doesnt seem to be the case. Any thoughts or recommendations would be appreciated. Nothing seems overtly wrong, but I'd prefer to see a nice lush green screen again, not a brown one :)

[SantaMonica]

Nutrients are coming down; green won't continue without a strong supply of ammonia/urine.

[mark_d50]

got it, thanks. time to get my first fish then, I think. the clean-up crew don't generate enough ammonia then?

[SantaMonica]

Not as much as fish