Newbie Scrubber

[holidayz]

Hi Everyone

My name is Ray and I'm new here. Felt so lucky that I bump into this fabulous site.
Many thanks to everyone, I've learnt a lot here.

I've been battling with algae problem for a long long time. It has been so bad that I almost wanted to give up this hobby. All my rocks are covered with algae, although both N and P are non measurable and other parameters all fine as well. Really don't know what went wrong until I'm here and find out it is those algae keeping my N and P non-measurable. My fish and corals all fine (well, maybe I should thanks those algae which I hated them down to the bone!) but I cannot keep purple color sps. I'm hoping using the knowledge learnt here will help me win the battle with the algae and eventually being able to keep purple sps.

I started off with a "half-legged" scrubber, with drilled holes instead of a slot, badly reflected and under power light, and many other no no(s). Woh !! Even with that, I'm seeing great results! Algae comes back much slower after I clean them off the rocks! Before, they come back THICK within a week. After 1 week, I removed my bio-pellets and test water parameters everyday, all cool! 2nd week, I removed my PhosGuard reactor, parameters still good 3rd week, I removed the skimmer....really standing on my toes.....haha, still good. I do still keep my weekly 15% water change. More than 2 months now, started to see some P, 0.08. Still no N. Lucky, I just finished my new scrubber and I hope I've done it right this time.

It is a almost straight slot now, 3mm wide. 4 sides and the top cover with reflective materials except bottom (wrong calculation on materials). Screen is (will be) 11" X 5". I don't know if I shall cut and use my existing screen, which is still growing brown after 2 months (see pic below), or I shall use a fresh screen.
Light is 2 9X1W LED on both sides. That is enough for a 11 X 5, right? How many hours should I light it up with this light? I know there are more flaws on the unit, please advise how/where I shall improve.

Woh....getting long. Again, many thanks to everyone!!

Here are the pics

http://algaescrubber.net/forums/atta...6&d=1339725384
http://algaescrubber.net/forums/atta...7&d=1339725386
http://algaescrubber.net/forums/atta...8&d=1339725389
http://algaescrubber.net/forums/atta...9&d=1339725391
http://algaescrubber.net/forums/atta...0&d=1339725462

[holidayz]

Oh....forgot the current brown screen.
http://algaescrubber.net/forums/atta...2&d=1339729793

Is it better to cut and re-use this screen?

Thanks!

[SantaMonica]

Welcome.

Will have to try the LEDs and find out. It's not a whole lot of power, so I'd start with 18 hours. You can re-use the screen if you want, although it would be neat to have them both running for a while.

[holidayz]

Thanks a lot SM for the quick reply and suggestion!

I'll make a new screen and run them both until the new one kicks in then.

I thought I read here somewhere 1W led = 3W compact fluorescent? Maybe I remember wrong.
I've ordered 2 extra lights with Red/White, initially for testing purpose to see if R/B is better or R/W is better.
Will see if I can remove the middle "mirror" and put that in, making 3 X 9W on each side, total 54W, that will be better?

[SantaMonica]

I did not see a mirror, but lights are always better than mirrors.

[holidayz]

Yeah, the picture hard to see....
All grey areas are mirrors. The top black cover using the reflective materials bought from you.
So I'm planning to remove the middle section between the 2 existing lights and put a 3rd light there.
Haha, if I can, they bond so well....If I can't, will run it the way it is and see what happens. Worst comes worst, build another one.
Hope I don't have to, this one took me more than a week. I'm really bad at these.....

[Wopadobop]

Where did you get those lights? Those seems pretty amazing. have been toying with using these http://www.homedepot.com/Electrical-...&storeId=10051

they are very small and only 20 bucks a peice.

[holidayz]

I'm from Canada (Toronto) and I got it from a LFS. No online purchase. I like that they're water resistance, safer when I put the scrubber on top of the sump.
But I saw them here as well in the States. http://reefkoi.com/index.php?main_pa...oducts_id=2199

[holidayz]

Here is the screen 1 week.

[holidayz]

After about a month of my old "testing" scrubber, algae growth on the DT is kind of controlled...if I clean them off the rocks, takes long time to grow back.
But since then, this Brown patches of don't know what started to grow on my rocks. Alhough previously, algae on rocks are brown as well, they can be brushed off very easily. These new brow patches, cannot be removed. The pic below show a rock that I just tried brushing for over 5 minutes, those brown patches just won't go away.
What are those? Can the scrubber eventually get rid of them?