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Thread: New to scrubbing. A few questions

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Jun 2009
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    New to scrubbing. A few questions

    Hello, I just found this site and concept today while surfing other forums. I have a 90 gallon tank populated by a cumberland slider (close relative of the more common red eared slider). I've had a few battles with algae developing on my white sand substrate which detracts from its esthetics. I am interested in setting up a scrubber, but I have a few questions:

    1) Since a scrubber does pretty much what a canister filter does, are scrubbers effective enough (if done properly) to completely replace a canister filter?
    2) If not, do you scrubbing veterans know if a scrubber can be established that will combat algae growth, but not dictate all of the nutrients to completely disrupt/eliminate the beneficial bacteria one would find within a canister filter?
    3) ALthough not completely related to scrubbers, my other option to combat algae is to install a refugium-type setup for aquatic plants + my canister filter. It seems that scrubbers might require less maintenance, but does anyone have any planted aquariums and scrubber experience to compare the two in regards to cost and time of maintenance?

    Thanks!!

  2. #2
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    Re: New to scrubbing. A few questions

    Your goal of a canister filter might indeed be the same as your goal with a scrubber, but other than that, canisters have no similarities to scrubbers. The primary effectiveness of a canister is mechanical filtering, of which a scrubber does none. Depending on what you put in the canister, it can remove any and all particles out of the water. For a reef, you don't want to remove any particles at all (they should all flow back to feed the corals and small fish). But for your turtle-only tank, you don't need food particles, so having perfectly clear water is fine.

    From a nutrient point of view, however, you need to clean your canister daily. Every hour that you let the trapped particles stay in the canister is another hour they rot and put Ammonia into the water, which of course turn into Inorganic Nitrate and Inorganic Phosphate, which of course causes the algae on your sand. Two days is the most I would wait, since you are having algae problems. If you weren't having problems, you could wait longer.

    The beneficial bacteria you mention is what converts Ammonia to Inorganic Nitrate. If you have a water-only tank (no rock, sand, wood, nothing), then you'd need the bacteria in the canister to remove Ammonia. But you have (at least) sand, so this is probably doing most the same work for you. Scrubbers, however, do not operate with bacteria at all. Scrubbers remove Ammonia in an entirely different way: The algae eats it. So a scrubber does exactly the same thing to Ammonia that a canister does (removes it), but it does so much more effectively, since it does not convert it to Inorganic Nitrate. And in addition to not producing Inorganic Nitrate, a scrubber takes Inorganic Nitrate out of the water. But to more directly answer your question, no, a scrubber does nothing that would harm the bacteria in a canister, other than make the canister a fifth wheel (nutrient-wise).

    So overall, a scrubber does everything (better) that a canister does, except filter out particles (of course, you could also fill the canister with other chemical things, but we are looking here at just nutrient removal via bacteria). A scrubber removes Ammonia, but also removes Nitrite, Inorganic Nitrate, Inorganic Phosphate, metals, CO2, and it adds oxygen and (in SW) baby copepods. Lastly, if you leave the scrubber in an open area, and put a fan on it, you get lots of chilling too.

    Your last question is actually related the most. A fuge with macro/plants actually does all the same things (nutrient-wise) as a scrubber, but on a lesser scale. But since a scrubber has its light much nearer to the screen, and much more continuous from one side of the screen to the other, a scrubber pulls out much more nutrients than a fuge does. It's all done on the power of photosynthesis, which is proportional to the power of the light.

    One thing about planted tanks: The plants and the scrubber will compete for CO2, and the scrubber might win because it has the stronger light. If you have a scrubber, you won't need plants for nutrient removal, but if you want plants anyway, you will have to experiment with lowering the power of your scrubber (by leaving the light off for more hours), or by adding CO2.

    There are several people on several forums who are trying scrubbers on planted tanks, so maybe they can give their opinions.

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Posts
    7

    Re: New to scrubbing. A few questions

    I am one of those folks that runs a skimmer and chaeto. I've gotten very good results with an undersized (and underlit, which only serves to slow the entire process down) screen in conjunction with a 10 gallon sump full of chaeto. The screen is completely covered with green hair algae and the chaeto grows very well also. I added the chaeto because I just did not have the space to make my screen large enough, so I thought it was better to be safe than sorry. I'm currently in the process of building a new tank with much more room in the stand, and my plan is to go scrubber only. I'm still considering possibly going with a small compartment in the sump with some sort of macro algae (chaeto caulurpa etc.) for a pod nursery, but I don't really think I will, and the reason for that is mostly because I don't believe it's necessary, and to be honest...it just adds another thing that I have to tend to. I am also starting to think that the macro may actually slow down the pod migration from the sump to the display tank.

    I'll be posting my new build if I don't get too wrapped up in it, and we'll see if scrub-zilla is enough to take care of my new 185 on its own...but I'm pretty confident that it will.

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