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Thread: Noob & Noob Freshwater Scrubber......

  1. #1

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    Noob & Noob Freshwater Scrubber......

    Hi all,
    After doing plenty of WWW research and separating the wheat from the chaff I finally designed my own scrubber, obviously based around the basic requirements of flow & light as laid down in Santa’s various posts on the WWW, I wanted it to be a feature and not hidden away, so I understand my idea will not appeal to everyone!
    I did alter a few things from the norm, firstly it is only one sided (both flow and light) and secondly it is neither horizontal or vertical It is at 45°, and it isn’t lit with compacts or sunlight, it is lit with both! Whether this affects anything I'm unsure as it’s my first ever build and part of the reason I decided to return to the hobby after a break of several years - I really loved the hobby but I hated the maintenance!
    Now all I have to do is clean the screen every week and my nitrates never see 5ppm (on a Hagen Test kit) and my Phosphates hover around 2ppm (again on Hagen TK), being a Freshwater setup these amounts do not cause me any concern! I am now on my 5th full screen of green after starting off yellow then brown and then every shade up to green it is now nice and green every week, and not one bit of green algae in my main display – which isn’t bad considering one side of it gets full direct sunlight each and every day!

    I'm still unsure about whether I will need to replenish trace elements through WC, but I suppose I'll cross that bridge when I come to it!

    A couple of pics (Note to self: must get a polarising filter :roll

    My setup during the cycle, 1 half inside a conservatory with a translucent polycarbonate roof and the other in my kitchen - In an old window aperture


    This was taken near the beginning of the Aquarium Cycle - Two days after screen cleaning


    With the scrubber getting a lot of natural sunlight (well as much as you can get here in the UK anyway I found that when the nutrients where low (near the beginning of the cycle) that the growth was stronger in between the gaps of the lights (IE Sunlight directly on the screen - If you look closely at the above pic you will sort of see what I mean by the darker green lines and also on the furthest side where there is no compact at all! I even questioned whether the compacts where actually more of a hindrance (in blocking sunlight) than a help :? , but now that the nutrient turnover is higher the growth is much more even on the screen and the compacts are working great!

    This was taken about an hour ago, 2 days after cleaning, Sunday is the screen clean day BTW - I'll take one this Sunday (before cleaning obviously) and share that too.....


    The scrubber tank also duoubles up as a home for a few apple & nitrile snails and they are often seen munching on the screen!


    Overall I love it, at first I just couldn’t believe the consistency of the nitrate and phosphate parameters and I started to question the water test kits, but they can’t all be wrong!
    One thing I have found is that I do get an ever so slight increase in nitrate before the end of the week, still not 5ppm, but definitely a slightly darker pink than at the start of the week when the screen has just been cleaned – This proves to me no end that the weekly clean is a must!!

    Here is another picture of my lovely & clear tank taken about 10 mins ago!


    The only downside is my friends & family seem more interested in my scrubber tank than in my dispay :cry:

    Anyway I'd Just like to say a big thanks for all the free wheat that I gathered from the knowledgeable ones, I know that without all of this information I would not of been able to achieve this and more-so return to the hobby I loved! 8-)

    ATB

    Mark

  2. #2
    kerry's Avatar
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    May 2011
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    Re: Noob & Noob Freshwater Scrubber......

    I am so glad you posted your FW success!! I have three SW tanks with scrubbers and just built a FW scrubber last Sunday. Here is the link I started. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1561 . There is plenty of info on the SW type but, FW scrubber info is scarce to say the least. I did not go into the build as its been done on this site already. Keep us posted. Great Job Sir, your tank looks incredible!!!!
    150G. Reef/Mix
    125G. 3 Regular Oscars/1 Jack Dempsey
    75G. 20+ Africans
    40G. Fish/Reef. Algae Scrubbers on ALL my SW
    10G. SW Fish/Reef.
    10G. SW Hospital/new fish quarantine/pod breeder tank
    6 stage RO/DI system 200 GPD.

  3. #3

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    Sep 2011
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    Re: Noob & Noob Freshwater Scrubber......

    Thanks Kerry, yes I have to agree not too much information about FW setups out there, some was a little misleading too, TBH I think it’s still a bit of a Taboo amongst the diehard freshwater fraternity :roll:
    I must admit I had my doubts, but I had put that much time and effort into my build I was determined it would work, even if I had to create another sun to light it that is part of the reason I have left it this long to post anything about it until I was 100% sure it all worked, and did what it said on the box

    I will watch your thread with baited breath and await your results! Good Luck!!

  4. #4
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    Re: Noob & Noob Freshwater Scrubber......

    Nice first build

    There actually are many FW ones... but they don't label them in the pics so you tend to think they are SW.

    The reason for the end-of-the-week nitrate increase is that 1-sided screens only have their roots illuminated on one side, so they get dark twice and fast, and start dying faster too.

  5. #5

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    Re: Noob & Noob Freshwater Scrubber......

    Thanks Santa, and thanks for the info you have shared on the WWW too!!
    I suppose it is perfectly logical that is what's happening regards the slight rise by the week-end, that's why I feel a double sided screen is definitely the way to go for SW but with freshwater I'm happy with under 5ppm, Its the first ever tank I have managed to keep under 20ppm and that was with weekly WC's too, so I'm more than happy with the results!

    I am still unsure of what specific strain I am actually growing here, so my next quest is to get the microscopes out and start to investigate, all I know for now is that fish love Sundays when I cut some up and throw it in the display!

  6. #6

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    Sep 2011
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    Re: Noob & Noob Freshwater Scrubber......

    Sunday Screen Clean -

    This is day 7, there is usually slightly more 3D growth after the 7 days, but as third picture shows, there may be a reason why





    The 3D eating machines:


    I decided to do a little modification to stop the slot becoming blocked at the midweek interval, fingers crossed this should do the trick:



    I noticed this week that there was no noticeable rise in nitrates, this is probably due to either the snails keeping the growth shorter or that the screen is becoming more established as each week goes on, either way Nitrates are hardly measurable and phosphates are still around 2ppm.....

  7. #7
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    Re: Noob & Noob Freshwater Scrubber......

    At some point that tank-divider material is going to let go of long algae strands because it does not have enough holes to grab on to. Also, it blocks light from going through it, so that it's almost like a 1-sided screen. So you would do well to consider switching to plastic canvas before too long.

    Otherwise, growth is good.

  8. #8

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    Sep 2011
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    Re: Noob & Noob Freshwater Scrubber......

    Thanks Santa, TBH that screen has always been the weakest link in my setup and I've known it all along, I will try and track down some of the plastic canvas stuff - Do you or anyone know of a good place in the UK to purchase plastic canvas? I struggled in locating any during the intial build hence the sub-standard tank divider screen beiing used :?: .......

  9. #9

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    Re: Noob & Noob Freshwater Scrubber......

    ebay

    "plastic canvas 7 count"

  10. #10

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    Sep 2011
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    Re: Noob & Noob Freshwater Scrubber......

    LOL, I don't know what he hell I was searching for then, cause ebay is awash with it :roll: , I think I was looking for knitted canvas for some strange reason :? .....Many thanks anyway!!!

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