Lee's Upflow Scrubber

[leedrane1]

Hi Team,

First of all thank you for all of the great posts on this forum, this has been a great place to go and grab information. I built a quick and easy upflow scrubber a couple of weeks ago and would like some feedback on how it is doing so far. It is set up in the first section of my refugium and is running from the corner to the separating glass. I used a full 13x18 screen and 2 80 watt Spiral Bulbs, that is the actual wattage. Anyway, I have done the initial 2 scrubbings at 8 days and 15 days, and wanted feedback in regards to the algae that I am seeing. I know that it takes a while to establish hair algae, but want to make sure I am headed in that direction. My tanks runs very high on Nitrates, so this is my attempt to reduce that problem in the long term. Just a couple of things about the tank, it is a 180 gallon set up, with a 40 gallon sump(usually between 20 - 30 gallons of water in it), and a 55 gallon refugium (probably 40 gallons of water in the tank). Thanks ahead of time for any feedback or advice that you provide. I have a couple of ideas for improvements, as I get the time to make them......but wanted to get this going and show my friends that this actually works.


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Regards,

Lee

[SantaMonica]

Welcome.

Looks like both pics are upside down, out of the water. By now you should have some thick growth at 14 days. Pics of the lights would help.

[leedrane1]

Thanks!

Yes, those pics were taken during the second cleaning earlier today. It is hard to get a picture with the way that the system is set up, but here are a couple of shots. The screen is ziptied at the top and bottom to a black acrylic backing, which is why I have it angled the way that I do (didn't want to cut it down). Basically just 2 CFLs close to the glass and aimed at the screen. The bubbles are coming up both sides of the screen and all the way across. I am running the lights about 16 hours a day, but can increase that if it is needed.


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[SantaMonica]

Well, you could see how it does, but I think you are loosing a lot of light out the sides. I think that if you changes to directional bulbs like these, you do better (and use less power)...
http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-LED-Spotlight-Bulb-TriBand-Spectrum---ONE.asp

[leedrane1]

Great, thank you for the advice. Those are the bulbs I was looking for locally when I started the project. I definitely lose a lot of light, as algae is growing in the refugium a little now as well. Do you think that 2 of these bulbs would be enough for a 13 x 18 screen? When I get a bit of time I was thinking of getting white acrylic or something similar, and readjusting the screen so as to get more direct light on it as well as blocking the light going into the other compartments of the refugium. My end goal is to get a waterfall scrubber added under the MT, on top of the sump, and have this one running on the refugium as well.

[SantaMonica]

Probably will take 3 bulbs. The screen is way too big for what you need though.

[leedrane1]

Really? How many cubes should that screen (guessing it is 1 sided) handle per day? My Nitrates stay above 100ppm, even with HUGE water changes. I have a 14 in Lionfish, another 4 inch juvenile black lion, a zebra eel that is 3 feet, a snowflake that is over 2 feet, 2 tangs, a dragon wrasse that is small at the moment but will grow quite a bit and is a heavy eater, and a few smaller fish. I feed the tangs and clowns daily, just a few pinches flakes or some purple algae. The others get fed a couple of times a week, which is usually quite a bit. When I averaged it out I figured I needed probably 4 or 5 cubes a day to break even. I think that one of the DSBs (probably the refugium) is full of nitrates, which is keeping the system high. My plan was to go really big and try and suck as much as possible out and then reduce once I had a decent level going. What size would you recommend? Right now I have a double pump Octopus skimmer that is rated for a larger system, but even with reduced feeding the Nitrates are staying high. This has seemed to always be an issue for me, probably because we typically keep aggressive tanks.

I took the reflectors off of the lights today and turned the screen so that it is almost flat against the glass, and placed the lights vertically in front of it. I was planning on ordering the lights that you recommend and hopefully they would be here when we come back from vacation. If you think this may be overkill then I could cut the screen and go with two of those lights to see what happens.

[SantaMonica]

Ok then maybe it's too small. Of course, I think in terms of zero maintenance... feeding and removing algae, that's it. You need to be removing a softball size of packed green algae every day, probably, for the amount your probably feeding, which I would imagine is 20 to 30 cubes a day.

You might re-think your scrubbing. A properly built one would eliminate your water changes, and bring nitrate down very low, and really reduce your glass cleaning. I think a floating-surface scrubber would be best and easy to build.

[leedrane1]

Thank you for the suggestion. Do you mean a floating design, like the surf2 but larger? What size do you think I should aim for? I really don't have much algae in the Main Tank, none in the sump, and the algae growth in the refugium has mostly started since I added the UAS, which I know needs work anyway. That being said, the levels are very high and I like the concept behind the scrubber.

In regards to the cubes, I thought that the screen that I had would be good for 8-10 cubes a day, if I am able to get it running correctly. I think this is close to what I actually feed over a week. 8 x 7 = 56 cubes a week, I feed maybe 1 cube daily for the Tangs, but total of 10-12 two or three times a week when I feed the Lions and Eels, so around 45 cubes a week. Of course I could be off on those calculations, and the ones that I estimated for the screen as well.

Taking into consideration that I want to reduce the Nitrates and reduce water changes, it sounds like finding the right type and size would be awesome. Currently I am using the intake side of my refugium, but could move a scrubber into the sump if I needed more room.

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[SantaMonica]

Well let that one run for a while and see what happens. I would get 3 of those LED bulbs.