My 300 gal tank scrubbers - inspired by Santa Monica

[vykhang]

Hi all,

This is my version of scrubber. After 4 yrs, it has become so hard to maintain my 300 gal reef/fish tank due to nitrate and phosphate. Just doing 10-15% water changes on 300 gal tank per week is driving me crazy not to mention salt cost. After seaching the net and came across this website, I've started my own version of scrubber. It has been running over a year for me and I've not change (add only) water since (I don't belive in changing water if all chemicals are in spec. I've meant to post some picture for Santa Monica to see but just been lazy. Today, I've took my scrubber apart for cleaning and decided to take some pictures and show it.

The Tank
The main tank is 300 gal (6'x3'x32") with 2 overflow and the sum is 80 gal (60"x22"x18"). I like to use only one return pump(reeflow snapper) for everything.
So I installed 2 gate valves on the outlet of the pump. 1 return to the main tank and the other feed back to the scrubber(800g/hr).


The Design
First, the scubber needs to be small enough to fit inside the sump area. Second, it needs to be quiet as possible.
So an octagon design is the ideal for me.

With some help from a friend, we cut and put together a octagon acrylic container ( 21" wide, 8" tall).
http://www.etecenter.com/aquarium/01.jpg
As you can see, there are grooves cut on all side of the container at 2 different heights alteranating. The deep cuts are for the 4 way lights and the shallow cuts are for the srubbers.



Second, the light fixtures. Each light is housed in a 5" acrylic tube to prevent water splashing with 4 holes drilled on top for heat ventilation. All electrical cords are run inside 1" pvc pipe and sealed with silicon on the edge and electrical contacts to prevent any water condensation.
http://www.etecenter.com/aquarium/02.jpg

http://www.etecenter.com/aquarium/03.jpg

http://www.etecenter.com/aquarium/04.jpg

http://www.etecenter.com/aquarium/05.jpg



Next is the scrubbers. For 300 gal using the formula of 1" for every 10 gal, I used 4 scrubbers at 9" wide a piece giving me 360 gal of scrubbing surface area. The water input is a 1-3/4" quick disconnect for easy cleaning.
http://www.etecenter.com/aquarium/06.jpg

http://www.etecenter.com/aquarium/07.jpg

http://www.etecenter.com/aquarium/08.jpg

http://www.etecenter.com/aquarium/09.jpg

http://www.etecenter.com/aquarium/10.jpg
With the octagon design as you can see, I needed only 4 lights but they do cover 8 sides of scrubbers.



Now on to the sump. Since the sump is 22" wide and I need something to hold the container up and out of the water so I've mounted 2 holder on each side of the sump for the container to sit upon.
http://www.etecenter.com/aquarium/11.jpg

http://www.etecenter.com/aquarium/12.jpg

http://www.etecenter.com/aquarium/13.jpg

http://www.etecenter.com/aquarium/14.jpg

http://www.etecenter.com/aquarium/15.jpg

http://www.etecenter.com/aquarium/16.jpg
The scrubbers are 1" above the water line to minimize the water noise. Water line is maintained by electronic sensor.


Can't speak for everyone but the results has been absolutelly wonderful. Nitrate and Phosphate are un-detectable. I can't thank Santa Monica enough because little to no water changes. I just maintain chemical additives and add water to my reserve tank. I hope you guys enjoy this ... it's time to get some more wine. Let me know what you guys think.

Did I say thanks SM ????

[SantaMonica]

Wow that's the neatest design I've seen in a few months. Glad it's working out!

[sklywag]

Wow! Is right. I sense an engineer or something. Can almost hang that over the dinner table for a chandelier. And be aware of ETs looking for a way home.

Now for a suggestion. Maybe add some Mylar to the outside of the octagon to direct some of that light loss back in towards the screens for more efficiency.

[vykhang]

Sklywag - You're right about the Mylar, I do paste the mylar around the outside. I took them off so I can have better pictures to show how the whole thing works.
And yes on the engineering :)
Thanks for the comments. I'm trying to come up with a tray that can slide underneath the whole thing so I can scrape out the algae without disconnect the scrubbers. There is a lot of room under the stand for working but... I always try to find a way to make things more convenient. Maybe this fall when the weather cool down. I'll work on version 2 of this.

[Moe]

epic!

[rygh]

Sweet compact design!!!

Interesting that it is big enough, and there is enough light for a 300G system.
What is the wattage on those bulbs?
I think I am totally overbuilding my 250G one. Oh well.

The only huge problem with the design : The angles make it a bit hard to convert to LED.
I mean how can you do something that fancy, but then use clunky old CFL bulbs.
:twisted:

[ocean rock]

very clever design if you put the ats screen into the water you would get hardly any noise at all .

[vykhang]

Rygh - The lights are 27W CFL. My design was to use the lights bulb for 2 screens (unlike the 5 gal bucket where 2 lights per screen). LED would be pretty nice but there's no way to get them to work for this design.
Ocean rock - Thanks for the tip, I put in a new screen extending 1/2 below the water line and boy..... what a different!!! 800 gal/hr does make allot of noise and now there are very little. Thanks again.

Anyway, anyone know how long does fire shrimp live?... mine just died 2 wks ago and I had him for 3 yrs now.

[rygh]

Interesting, 27*4 = 108 W, for a 300 Gallon tank = 0.36W/gallon.
Seems a bit low, but really depends on bio-load, not tank gallons of course.
Plus you get better efficiency, since more light goes directly to a screen due to angular design.