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Thread: Pete's Algae Scrubber for a Planted Tank

  1. #11
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    That's why I love this site, I learn something new every day, cheers redbone.

  2. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Redbone View Post
    Well, I've got about 200 gallons total water volume. By the old guidelines that's 200 sq. In. The screen mesh is 12" x 18" = 216 sq. In. Better a little big than a little small. And with aquariums, each setup is unique. It is more art than science. I have a mixture of well and RO fed in, about 7 gallons total per day. The quality of the well water varies throughout the seasons. I suspect that the plants will do better with the scrubber because it will allow me to add more fertilizer. We'll see.
    I can understand how bigger is better would make sense in most cases. However for scrubbers this is not the case, and that is one of the reasons why the sizing guidelines got shifted to feeding-based. There was a pattern that developed with screens not growing correctly and the solution in most cases was to feed more, which usually resulted in the screen greening up. Then there were people with very large systems that built under-sized scrubbers that easily handled the bio-load. Soon it became apparent that sizing based on tank volume was the wrong method, and logic led to the conclusion that since food is the only input to the system, that the algae would grow only proportionately to the input to the system, and tank volume had absolutely nothing to do with it.

    When your screen is too large, the algae is encouraged to 'spread out' across the entire substrate (screen) and basically starves itself, it will grow yellow or caramel colored and spongy, or brown and slimy, at least with SW. Not sure what the end result is in FW actually. Usually the fix is to increase feeding, add iron, increase flow, etc. But the bottom line is that your horizontal scrubber (I'm vaguely familiar with that model) was likely 1/10th as efficient as your new waterfall scrubber. So with the same or more surface area and better lighting, on both sides, I just think you're going completely out-compete your plants wicked fast.

    But then again, like you said, they get their nutrients from the substrate mainly. So does this mean that you inject the ferts into the substrate?

    The last tank I had before switching to SW was a heavily planted heavily stocked FW 55g and I loved it, so I'm jealous of your tank because it is very beautiful!

    ...and not to plug my own devices but did you see the LED version I make (link in signature)? You posted the pic of the SM100 but that's not currently being made right now anyways...

  3. #13
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    Floyd I did see your algae scrubber, but I am still wary of the LEDs. I have 240 7 watt C9 Christmas lights that I set up each year, and I'm still waiting for the LEDs to get bright enough to replace the incandescent C9s. So far, I've been able to replace the blue incandescents with LEDs because the blue LEDs are the brightest and the blue incandescents are the dimmest, but the red, orange and green LEDs are still just too dim. But lighting, like batteries, is moving forward in leaps and bounds. These T5 HO fluorescent tubes are impressive, both in total output and spectrum. Spectrum is where I find the LEDs lacking, they tend to have narrow output spectrums, where the fluorescents can have multiple bands by mixing phosphors.

    I know that this scrubber is going to be way more effective than my old MMFI. The MMFI had 4’ x 4” = 192 sq. In of screen, lit by two 40 watt T12 fluorescents. The new scrubber has over twice that amount of screen because it has two sides and it has twice the amount of light. It should be twice as effective. The unknown for me is the MMFI scrubber was a submersed screen, the new one is immersed. I really doubt that this new scrubber is too big, but I can always trim the screen hey? And adjust the photo period. Right now I’m starting at 12 hours a day alternating opposite the tank lights.

    Although I do have some bio-load from the fish, most of the load is from the daily input of well water and the bi-weekly plant fertilizers. I’ll post pictures when I get some growth.

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    They're out there, you just have to know where to look and be willing to spend the $$. My buddy's house has color-changing LEDs during Christmas that you can see from about a mile away.

    When you are comparing LEDs, you have to remember that you need to compare apples-to-apples. Equating the comparison of C9 Incandscent X-mas lights and low-power LED X-mas light to the comparison of T5HO 2700-3000K Grow Lamps and 660nm Deep Red High-power (3W) LEDs is not apples-to-apples. I can understand how you're not 'sold' on LEDs, but Christmas lights and HP LEDs on stars are not in the same league.

    As far as the narrow spectrum, you say that like it's a bad thing. The point is that you want to use a specific spectrum! Look at Chlorophyll A and B peaks and that's all you really want to hit, the rest is wasted bandwidth. You can find hundreds of LED plant growth lights with 660 and 455 LEDs and that's it, and then outperform every other type of growth light, so much so that the vast majority of that industry has shifted to LED. Scrubbers are able to pick up on this and utilize the same principles, since chlorophyll is chlorophyll. Things are exactly equal, but pretty much.

    Search for the LED scrubbers and you'll see some of the best, greenest growth.

    Anyways sorry I got off on a rant there...didn't mean for any of this to come off on the offense or defense...

  5. #15

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    I'd like to see about a hundred Neons in that tank.

  6. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by sklywag View Post
    I'd like to see about a hundred Neons in that tank.
    The problem that I have with small fish though is that they end up in the skimmer overflow. I've given up on them.

    Took this pic last night.


  7. #17
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    Now I'm really jealous. Gorgeous

  8. #18
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    Very nice!!
    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.

  9. #19

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    great looking tank! good to know there are ppl out there willing to try ATS on planted tanks. I am building one for a mixed reef w/ marine plants so a SW planted tank with corals .
    please keep us posted on the growth and over all performance of your scrubber.

  10. #20
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    I'm in Maryland where we took the storm hit Friday night, very impressive lightning display. Lost power for three days. I was worried that without water flow the algae scrubber would rot but it did fine. This waterfall scrubber actually held up better than the MMFI submersed scrubber through a no flow event, I was pleasantly suprised. Here are pics after one week, actually a little longer but three days of no power. Interesting that the algae is sparse directly in front of the lights, and denser above and below.






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