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Thread: New To Site

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Southern Illinois, USA
    Posts
    62

    New To Site

    Hello Everyone. I set up my first turf scrubber in May of this year after reading through this site. Its gone through many changes since then as I did not have the right flow, lighting, or screen roughness to start. I finally adjusted all those problems and now the screen is growing thick light green algae. I did this project as an experiment and set it up on a ten gallon saltwater tank. I was plagued with red hair algae outbreaks in the ten gallon and my 55 gallon tank. My plan was to start the algae scrubber on the ten gallon and then switch it over to the 55 gallon. I decided against this and have built another scrubber for the 55. (not in operation yet)
    The screen on the ATS for my 10 gallon was rather overkill. It is 11in. wide by 8in. height. Although it took a while to get it going because the bio load was very low, it is now working very well. I always clean the screen every weekend. It only takes a couple of minutes and is very easy.( will post pictures when I get them loaded to p.c.)
    My ten gallon tank is now algae free(phos. near 0) and doing very well. As a matter of fact, I have been taking live rock from my 55gal. which is still plagued with Red Algae, and putting them in the ten gallon to clean them off. I have done this several times and it has worked well.
    The new ATS i am setting up for my 55 gallon is 7in. wide(5 1/2 are exposed to water flow) by about 9in. deep.Screen is 2 layers thick . I'm just wondering if this is enough for a 55gal.?? The bio load is not very big. My main concern is to try to get rid of the Red Hair Algae. This stuff is very difficult to fight. I've done enough water changes to start a small inland ocean, and it still comes back. I'm just hoping I have the same success on the 55gal as I did on the 10gal. Will post pictures soon.
    Thanks for all the great info. Bridgeport

  2. #2
    kcress's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Santa Cruz, California, USA
    Posts
    458

    Re: New To Site

    Welcome Bridgeport!

    You've seen the magic it sounds like. :lol:

    You typically need 2 square inches of LIGHTED screen per gallon of tank water.
    So a 55Gal would require a screen that is about 55 square inches in size that's lit on both sides.

    55G / 7inches = 8 inches

    So if your screen is 7" wide it should be about 8" tall of working surface.

    If it were me.. I'd consider moving that screen from your 10 gallon over and use it. Take the next cleanings off of it and rub them into a new screen for your 10gal to jump start it. Your 10 gallon should only need a tiny filter.

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Southern Illinois, USA
    Posts
    62

    Re: New To Site

    Thanks kcress. I think I might stick to my original idea and move the larger screen to the 55. The new screen
    is considerably rougher and its 2 ply but its area is quite smaller. It shouldn't take that long to get the 10 gal. going again if I seed it a bit like you said. Thanks for the info and i will post back on the results.

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