Eclips scrubber online

[Eclip]

hey guys been a long time lurker and finally have my scrubber online after some time. I filled my tank last week added soem 2nd hand live rock (was base rock) and was waiting for the substrate to settle. Well its pretty much settled and i have been doing a bit of ghost feeding and added some prawn to kick start the cycle to seed some of the other base rock i have in the tank.

The scrubber is going to be a overhead and is pretty much the same as SM's 100 but is approx 122 square inches. i am using T5 lighting with reflectors and 4000K globes as its the warmest ones i can find and should do to start with. The tank is a 50gal tank and am lighting it 1 side so that the 2inch^2 per gal applies. It was designed that big so that i can upgrade to a larger tank at some point and add another 2foot T5 unit for good scrubbing for a 100gal tank.

Scrubber during building.
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab88/Eclip666/aquarium/IMAG0001.jpg
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab88/Eclip666/aquarium/IMAG0002.jpg

I desiged the pipe to be a 1inch pipe as i was purchasing a different pump and it had a 1" outlet. I ended up getting an aquabee UP3000 and it has a 3/4" outlet so i just used a 3/4-->1" expander before the adjustable tap to control flow. I have found that the flow is pretty decent and after a bit i got it to sheet water out of the slot nicely. The screen is rought and i am just waiting for some growth to start.

How long after starting the scrubber can i start to add fish and some basic corals? I assume it is after a screen full or once it start to get green and filtering. There is not a very large bio load should i be adding more food to the tank to get some real ammonia and nitrates going then the scrubber will atleast have something to eat.

I'll take some pictures of it operating tonight and post em up. any comments and critisisms welcome

[SantaMonica]

Looks good. If the tank is new you can start adding things now as long as it's not cycling.

[Eclip]

That's cool then I've been ghost feeding a litte while waiting for my test kit to arrive. Once it arrives I may start adding some stuff.

I may wait till I have some coloured growth so I know it is at least doing some filtering before adding some bio load.

[Eclip]

I had the tank running after it cycled for a good 2 weeks. and had the scrubber running after the first week of clear ammonia and nitrite. Couldnt grow anything on it in a week so i switched it off (must not have had much nutrients). I added a pair of black clowns and switched the scrubber back on. its using 2X 24W T5 on a 120inch screen so slightly overszed screen for its intended purpose. I have noticed this morning after 4-5 days i have a very light brown film on the screen (also started a diatom phase on my substrate assuming the brown is the diatoms in the water coloumn attaching to the screen) and getting some green hairs starting to run down the screen i counded about 6 of them this morning running an 18hr light period.

I was getting ready to give it a serious think of switching to a skimmer but hopefully i should see some green growth going on now. I fed a full cube of enriched BBS for my single coral and pair of clowns and some spectrum pellets while the rest of my system settles and matures a little. Also need to get some DIY mix going shortly.

Question when should i clean it since it is a little oversized? I used cured rock and so didnt go through the massive ammonia spike at all and after a week i only have a very small film covering. i may give it till after the weekend and then give half the screen a clean and see how it goes and clean the other half 3-4 after that.

[fishoutawater]

Did you seed your screen with any type of algae? When I started mine I waited about 4 days, after seeing next to nothing growing on it I harvested a little algae from a different system and scrubbed it into the screen. It took off quickly after that.

[SantaMonica]

A skimmer has nothing to do with what grows. You are just not feeding enough. You say one cube, but that scrubber could handle 15 cubes a day.

[Eclip]

15 cubes hey. hm i built the scrubber to the original reccomendation i may have to have a look at the new ones you posted. By cube do you mean a 1cmx1cmx1cm cube or more like an ice cube. I assume the former. I dont want too much food to be going in to start with to avoid a ammonia spike untill the tank matures a little i mite start ramping up the feeding over the next week . I do notice that when i add the food that the scrubber pump sucks it up over 5 minutes or so and it vanishes so it mite be settling in the pipe above the screen so i may have to work something out. i guess it will break up and go back into the tank eventually.

I was going to run a scrubber to clean up the small substrate particles i have that circulate in the display as i have no means to remove them. Some of it settles in the scrubber which gets removed when i clean the scrubber out. was going to use it more as mechanical filtration. mite just borrow one off someone to remove the fine sand and then turn it off. Cant wait for some more green screen.

[Eclip]

my screen is only lit 1 side but that is still 6 cubes of food a day. so i may definatly have to up the feeding regime

[Eclip]

Tank is a 0,0,0 for ammonia,nitrite and nitrate and was hovering around 20ppm of nitrate before i started feeding more to kick start the scrubber. about a week after all tests came back 0 and since then i have been feeding around 1.5 cubes a day equilevent of DIY food and brine shrimp/spirilina cubes and the display has exploded with GH algae. i cleaned off the screen for the first time and its shown below. i rubbed it around and the lose bits all came off it was proberly more of a clean i should ahve but i didnt really know how heavy handed to go. It was getting some food crud stuck between the threads so i cleaned those bits out.It still had a light green film over it once cleaned.
I noticed that the end closest to the pump wasnt growing very good algae due to the flow comming out which has been fixed by widening the slot slightly at that end a little more to give more even flow.

first screen clean after 7 days of adding 2 small clarki clowns, feeeding about a cube a day.
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab88/Eclip666/aquarium/IMAG0045.jpg

tank at present with all the algae outbreak. after its second clean
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab88/Eclip666/aquarium/IMAG0074.jpg

I put an elbow on the oulet to try direct some flow and noticed that it restriced the flow back into the tank alot and concenquently raised the water level in the box so i decreased the flow to the screen to keep approximatly an inch of water in the box. This had the effect of turning the growing algae a yellow colour with green on the unlit side (possible less light with less flow combination gave green growth still) I noticed that the algae hasnt been growing fast over the past 5-6 days due to the lower flow which only clicked the day before it was due to be cleaned.

I gave it a good clean and cleaned up around the slot very well and the screen that sits in the slot i removed as much of the algae as i could form the top 5mm that pokes out of the pipe.

I have removed the elbow and increased flow again across the screen to bring back the green and hopefully rid some of the algae in the DT. I have rescued a juv mimic tang from a friend that has no idea what a cycle is. So hopefully he will be nice and fat as he grazes on the hair algae as well. Once the hair algae is gone i can scrape of bits from the screen for him to munch on. I noticed with the T5's being so close to the screen that the scrubber imparts a fair amount of heat into the tank. I have removed the lid and put a 120mm computer fan on top to help keep the tank cool. will give another photo update in a week when its time for screen clean again with DT photo.

[SantaMonica]

the display has exploded with GH algae.

The display or the scrubber started growing?


i cleaned off the screen for the first time and its shown below.

You need to clean off much more than that. Clean almost all off.


tank at present with all the algae outbreak.

You originally said you got LR from someone else. Probably filled with phosphate, that is now coming out now that your phosphate is the water is being removed by the scrubber.


i decreased the flow to the screen to keep approximatly an inch of water in the box.

You never want to do anything to decrease flow. Decreased flow is only needed if your screen is letting go of algae. If your screen is rough, and it does not let go of algae, then you want as much flow as the plumbing will handle. Don't worry about water at the bottom.


This had the effect of turning the growing algae a yellow colour

Of course... less flow delivers less iron to the algae. Up the flow.

[Eclip]

The picture was before cleaning i should have made that more clear. i removed the elbow and upped the flow again with the elbow the flow would have spilled over the top of the box as the oulet of the scrubber is in the water and provides some backpressure.

I originally wanted the water to only be at about 1-2 inches at the bottom as air transmits the light better then the water but that is only proberly minimal. Seams to be growing alot better now i increased the flow.

I agree there is more then likly phosphate in the rocks at it came from a faily amateur amateur reefer with a FOWLR system still using a canister filter.

The display exploded with the scrubber once i put fish in but i started feeding more as well so went hand in hand i guess. i cleaned just about all of it off with only leaving a slight green film remaining (didnt take a picture sorry) but it has grow to about 5mm thick in a day and a bit but doing much better with the excess flow i gave and started to turn greenish again.

I have no doubt it will return to green shortly or after this screen. i may up the flow a little more and let the box be more full of water i guess it doesnt matter too much as long as it doesnt overflow.

I'l take some before and after cleaning the next screen.

[Eclip]

starting to green back up again on the screen. i am cleaning every 3-4 days to get as much nutrient transport as possible. was at 20hr photperiod but have changed to a 18hr photperiod.

Before cleaning
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab88/Eclip666/aquarium/IMAG0107.jpg
As can be seen the higher flow area are green with the rest of the screen being yellowish turning green.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab88/Eclip666/aquarium/IMAG0108.jpg.

The slot is starting to become restricted quicker since i have bumped up the flow rate. Am going to have to make up a shield to block the light from aroud the slot to kep the algae out of there. amm,nitrite and nitrates are all still at 0 since i put the first fish in and the algae in the display isnt growing any bigger which is good. a stromb is cleaning all the algae off the sand bed and it is starting to look alot nicer.

[Eclip]

Thought i would do an update. scrubber is working great now. i have burnt the algae a few times by messing with the photoperiod but have it good now. it runs for 12 hours then in the middle of its dark cycle i have it on for 2 hours and have found that this encourages green growth more rapidly.

22nd november
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab88/Eclip666/aquarium/IMAG0105.jpg
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab88/Eclip666/aquarium/IMAG0106.jpg

17th december
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab88/Eclip666/aquarium/IMAG0117.jpg
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab88/Eclip666/aquarium/IMAG0119.jpg

have been using it on QT whitespot in my tank and has been doing a great job of keeping levels at 0.

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab88/Eclip666/aquarium/IMAG0156.jpg
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab88/Eclip666/aquarium/IMAG0157.jpg

[SantaMonica]

Good job.

[spideybry]

Love the thread. I think I will try my luck at making a simplified version like this. What are some of the things you would change on it/things to look out for while working with acrylic?

Also are you getting much 3d growth with this?

[MorganAtlanta]

Watch the instructional videos from Tap Plastics for hints on working with acrylic. You can also order acrylic pre-cut from them in 1/8" increments, which will save you time and probably give you better joints, unless you have a router table. I spent a lot of time trying (with limited success) to get good accurate cuts with a skill saw and a dremel. If I was doing another acrylic project of any size, I'd spring for an inexpensive router table, or just get it pre-cut. Use Weldon 16 for glue. Since it is thick like a gel, it will make up for less than perfect cuts.

[spideybry]

Watch the instructional videos from Tap Plastics for hints on working with acrylic. You can also order acrylic pre-cut from them in 1/8" increments, which will save you time and probably give you better joints, unless you have a router table. I spent a lot of time trying (with limited success) to get good accurate cuts with a skill saw and a dremel. If I was doing another acrylic project of any size, I'd spring for an inexpensive router table, or just get it pre-cut. Use Weldon 16 for glue. Since it is thick like a gel, it will make up for less than perfect cuts.

That sounds like a plan. I have seen them before, it is something I have been wanting to do for a while, and the scrubber idea put me over the edge. I will order from them and give it a shot :)

I was thinking of getting a router table for my dremel and using that to burr the edges on the acrylic if need be. The locations here in Philly all offer to rout the edges, but the local shops for plastics all close at 5pm and I never can get out to them cause of work.

http://compare.ebay.com/like/1904982227 ... 602_309572 (http://compare.ebay.com/like/190498222784?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&rvr_id=213473101805&crlp=1_263602_309572&UA=M*F%3F&GUID=5e19308a12e0a47a2ef25f22fe5265ef&itemid=190498222784&ff4=263602_309572)

As for the Weldon glue, I was thinking of using that one since it is more a gel like you said, and just being liberal with it. It doesn't need to be beautiful. Kinda like working with silicone I could do the edges like that perhaps (sliding my finger to finish up the seams)? Btw sorry to thread jack lol.

[Eclip]

I am getting a bit of 3d growth that is growing on the sides of the acrylic. If anything i would make it a little taller. I didnt really know where the water would sit for a given flow. It sits a tad too high for the flow i would like (half screen submerged) and it is because i am running a mesh grill on the outlet due to it blowing my sand everywhere if i dont so that restricts the flow out of the box.

I also think i need another 2xT5 light as ever since i raised my salinity after hypoing my water is turning green and it is cloudy. I have been doing some 50% water changes to rid of what i assume is a phytoplankton that is growing rapidly in my DT. The corals and fish seam fine so it isnt bothering them but it looks unsightly. I may try to get another T5 light to scrub really hard for a while to out compete the phytoplankton.

ammonia, nitrate, nitrite are all 0 and KH is at 9. lights for 14hrs a day

[Eclip]

Having a straight routered edge allows much better joins to be made. make sure you use books etc to hold weight on the join while the weldon dries otherwise your joints wont be very good.

[SantaMonica]

I doubt you can see the phyto growing in the water, since your tank is just a few inches of water. "Crystal clear reefs" have lots of phyto growing, and you can't see it in several feet of water. You probably just have some algae breaking loose.

[Eclip]

The algae i see makes the water look like a greenwater culture.

here is some of the water i have taken out as part of a water change.
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab88/Eclip666/aquarium/IMAG0198.jpg

[spideybry]

It could be green water caused by an algal bloom and not phyto. It happened to me once and I thought it was that as well lol. What does your photo period look like on the tank? It could be from the light/sunlight hitting the tank. I know I got it because the tank I had was in direct sunlight while it cycled. Something to think about perhaps.

Not my tank but you can see what it looks like.
http://aquadaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/green-water-volvox.jpg

[SantaMonica]

Definitely a bloom. Some excess nutrients must have been put in some how. Won't hurt anything, and will die off soon as the nutrients are used up.

[Eclip]

Photo period has been reduced to a few hours a day for the past week and is keeping it at bay. I noticed when i did this my scrubber started giving me darker algae. so whatever nutrients the bloom was using up is now getting to the scrubber.

Not sure which way to go.
Keep the normal photperiod to get the bloom to grow fast to use up as much of the nutrients as fast as possible as it would be better at doing this then the scrubber since it has the whole water coloumn to do it

or

reduce the photperiod and let the scrubber do its thing.

other option is to use normal photoperiod and use a 0.5micron filter to remove the algae bloom??

Scrubber is on 16hours lighting time
tank is on 12hr normally but has only been getting 1-2hours for the past few days.

I got some rock from someone and added it. Turns out it had just been through hypo which he didnt tell me and was prolly full of alot of dead and decaying stuff....

[SantaMonica]

Keep the lights on the display. You don't want the nutrients going into the water; it causes brown screen growth, as you found, which does not filter as good as green.

You can mechanically remove the bloom from the display if you want. It probably won't last long.

[Eclip]

Its been around 3 weeks now and counting so must have been alot of nutrients....

[Eclip]

It is still occurring but not as bad as before. I am finding a lot of dertutis every day building up now I have removed the sand bed. Have been siphonning it out every day. There is no fish currently in the display as treating white spot but the green water is not going away.

[SantaMonica]

If it was the dead rock you put in, it might still be going, although it should be finishing up. Are you feeding?

Pics of the screen would help.