need some advice... new to ATS

[SantaMonica]

It it were even there would be no streaks. I'd fix that first, if it keeps doing it.

[Aeros]

Your scrubber looks great. Give it a few months to really mature. The slime will relent to a form of solid algae once you get your lvls down.

[coralcruze]

Your scrubber looks great. Give it a few months to really mature. The slime will relent to a form of solid algae once you get your lvls down.

thats what I was looking for... a bit of reasurance that I was heading in the right direction. No sure why SantaMonica would not indicate it. I appreciate your input. thank you.

[coralcruze]

It it were even there would be no streaks. I'd fix that first, if it keeps doing it.

I'll check if this happens again. I do have the long groove down the middle of the pipe and also slots every 1" or so. I've read some people say not to cut slots and others say that slots are the way to go. I will pick up a 2' piece of 1" PVC fromn HD and cut a new one with just a 1/8" slot down the middle. any better way to cut the slot than using a dremmel? I guess I could try my router.

[kentth]

I user my table saw. Gives me a straight and consistent slot. It is also right at 1/8" wide.

Kent

[coralcruze]

I user my table saw. Gives me a straight and consistent slot. It is also right at 1/8" wide.

Kent

actually thats what I did with mine but almost cut my finger off. only reason it didn't take my whole finger is because I had the acrylic blade on there with hundreds of teeth close together. If it was another blade it would have been ugly...

I set up a jig but apparently that was not enough to keep the 1" tube on the saw. I was attempting to plunge cut 1" from the right side and stop 1" from the left side. when I got to the left side it got stuck and flew off the saw... scary moment.

Did you cut it straight through? if so how did you close the ends afterwards? thanks

[coralcruze]

WEEK 4 REVIEW:

as a side note I scraped off the screen again today (4th week) and again it looks just like last week. no GHA at all. used a tooth brush and used half the pressure so it was about 85% clean. tested po4 again this week and it rose to .34 (hanna)... last week it was tested at .27 (hanna). Santamonica told me to turn my po4 off and so I did. I can't keet letting po4 rise this much with SPS corals ect. so I have no choice but to turn the reactor back on as obviously my algae scrubber does not work yet or is not working as efficienly yet. I still believe that it will work >>>IF<<< I can get the right GHA to grow on it. being that SantaMonica does not offer much feedback in that reguard I'm at a loss as to how long I would realistically have to wait to see po4 start to go down.

oh... absolutly no streaks this week. I get a nice even flow on the screen.

[kentth]

I used a 100 tooth finish plywood blade. set the blade all the way below the table. set the fence about 1/2" from the blade. marked the pipe and the fence so I knew where to start and stop.

After positioning the pipe against the fence and over the blade, started the saw and slowly raised the blade to a depth of 1/2". Moved the pipe to each extreme. Have never had one take off on me. I think I have probably made 6 or 7 pipes now.

My first scrubber the pip was 7" long and the screen was 9" down. Then a made a SM clone and made the cut 13" long and screen 5" down. I have done both with and without slots. Without seems to work the best. The final one I did, i cut with the saw and then, slightly widen the slot with a flat file.

Kent

[kerry]

I re-cut all mine to be without the slot. I also used my table saw with the blade set very low. AND BE VERY CAREFUL AS MENTIONED. It looks to have a smoother more even flow with out the cross-cuts.

[coralcruze]

Thanks guys for the imput... I have one of those portable table saws. I think thats the problem here. For me to raise the blade while the saw is on would mean that I will need to take one hand off the piece.

What I did was clamp two pieces of wood on either side of the blade and set the blade to a specific hight. The two pieces of wood were set to allow about 3/8" off ech side of the blades surface. this soace allowed the pipe to ride on the inside of the wood pieces. I think the other problem here is that I did not have a good grip on the 1" pipe. I think the next one I will implement 90 degree elbows on each end of the pipe to help hold it while being cut. The pipe spun just enough to catch. a small amount of wobble is all that was needed to catch the blade sending the pipe flying and exposing my finger onto the blade. I was standing to the side of the saw as I could see what I was doing (start and stop point) better. None the less this was the only accident I have ever had in the shop. Thank goodness it wasn't bad. It just scared the heck out of me and took a nice chunk of skin off the tip of my finger. Three weeks later its 100%.