Please Help with my set up

[jimmy656]

Hi guys , I've recently attempted to set up an upflow scrubber. My first problem was that my sump setup there is a metal bar going through the middle section of the sump. My other issue was that i bought a clip on desk lamp for the light. It would not fit in my cabinet. So i put the scrubber on the back of the sump.

Could I put the scrubber near the return pump to the tank or will it created bubbles in my display tank?

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It has been running for about 4 weeks now and I'm not seeing much growth. I have and air pump that runs 160L/HR. The bulb I'm using is a 23w CFL warm white. It runs for 18 hours a day.5559

I've also been cleaning it weekly under tap water.

Would someone be able to tell me if I'm doing something wrong and also are there any flat lights so that I could make a Scubber fit in the front of the tank. I only have about a 6-7cm gap between the sump and the cabinet door.

Any feedback would be really appreciated :D

[SantaMonica]

160 liters/hour is only 0.04 lpm. You generally need at least 0.5 lpm for a small scrubber, which is 10 times that. And it does look like air is only coming out of the first part of the airstone, probably because there is not enough air to make it to the end of the airstone. So I'd say that a much larger air pump is needed. You could also try removing the airstone and just see how much air comes out of the tubing; it might work better than the current air pump.

I can't find any flat lights on Aus Ebay, but you could build you own with 3w red leds. Or get a drop-down CFL utility light with a side reflector from your home store. There are many flat lights outside of Aus though.

You should not have any bubble problem if you put the scrubber up at the water line, so the bubbles go into the air directly.

I would fix the air pump first and just use the light you have now, and see how it looks after 10 days.

[jimmy656]

Thanks a lot for the feedback. I'll definitely getter a larger pump and see how it's goes. Thanks again :-)

[jimmy656]

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So your advice on the bigger pump helped dramatically. Thanks for that.

Just wondering I have 2 scrubbers about this size running now. But the algae is not the nice green colour that I see most people getting. Any advice on how to get my scrubber to have green turf algae.

I think the scrubbers running like this are still really helping my tank but I'd just like to get the max potential from the scrubber.

[SantaMonica]

Now it's the light. It's probably still filtering good, but a stronger light and more hours will get greener growth.

Toothbrush off off the dark stuff, and double the wattage, and increase hours to 22.