My "Santa Monica 100 Scrubber"

[chrissu]

I thought I'd put up a post about my own experience buying a Santa Monica 100 Scrubber. Here is a rundown...

On Feb 15th, I contacted Santa Monica (Bryan) at http://www.algaescrubber.net/forums/...e=compose&u=53. Bryan got back to me a couple hours later and provided his contact information. I talked with Bryan later that same day over the phone and decided to place an order for his pre-made scrubber. Bryan comes across as a professional, well spoken guy who knows reef tanks. You can tell he has a passion for reef keeping and the whole scrubber concept in general. During our conversation Bryan set my expectations that it would take a few weeks to have a unit built. I placed an order during this call.

We emailed back and forth a few times and about 10 days after placing the order, I received this email from Bryan...

Re: Santa Monica 100 Scrubber Order
Sent: 25 Feb 2010 18:15
by SantaMonica

Box is done, will be working on it this weekend....

MY current DIY ATS works OK but it's still a far cry from the clean, enclosed ATS design that Bryan designed. My tank is a 92 gal corner bowfront and since Bryan's scrubber is designed for up to 100 gallon aquariums, I should be fine.
-Chris

[chrissu]

I received an email from Santa Monica (Bryan) letting me know that the scrubber build is completed and on it's way.

Re: Santa Monica 100 Scrubber Order
Sent: 09 Mar 2010 18:45
From: SantaMonica
To: chrissu

OK it went out today USPS signature-required. I think they said about 7 days. If you need setup help give me a call

Bryan

[chrissu]

Here is a current picture of the tank. It's late at night and I just flipped on the lights to take this pic so most of the fish are hiding. There are some fake corals for now. Real coral will come later.

[chrissu]

This is the cabinet and inside you can see it has a really simple ATS that I made. My idea was to just test out the ATS concept with this setup. I found that this simple DIY setup with only one side of the screen receiving light really does work. It's not my long term solution though and I can't wait for my real scrubber to arrive this coming week!

When I receive it, the first thing I'm going to do is take it down to Coral Corral, my LFS in Tampa. Their acrylic guy will build a custom sump to my speces for the scrubber. Here are the ideas that Bryan (Santa Monica) suggested for the sump. If you have any other suggestions, please let me know!

- Make a cardboard mock up of the sump to make sure I have the right shape and that it will fit in the cabinet doors and work with the scrubber demensions. Provide the acrylic guy with the cardboard mockup and the scrubber.
- Scrubber will rest on top of the sump and there will be acrylic borders to hold the scrubber securely in place.
- There will be a mounting plate for a sock underneath. I may not use the sock down the road if I delve into corals but with my fish only setup right now, it is nice to have the really clear water that a sock helps with.
- There needs to be a place to put a 5"x10" bag for activated charcoal (or whatever). Need to have water passing over this bag so I may need some sort of chamber that the water has to pass through where the bag will sit.
- I will be incorporating a 3/4" venturi valve into the return hose. This will help insure maxumum aeration of the water for the tangs. I'll need the sump to have a chamber that insures the air bubles settle and don't make these way back into the tank.
- The sump should be about 15" high to maximize the volume of water that the sump will hold while still providing plently of space above the sump for scrubber maintenance.

What I already have:
- UV Sterilizer rated for a 250 gallon tank.
- PH meter, a thermostat controller unit and a couple of heaters.
- A RODI water filter hooked up to an electronic open/close valve and an automatic top off controller unit.
- A powerful pump (not sure what the model is but is is pretty big and pushes lots of water. My LFS recommended it for my tank but its actually rated for a larger tank than mine so it should work fine with the scrubber. I will be using just the one pump for everying.
- A Koralia powerhead.

- I don't have anything to support corals at this time with this fish only setup. That will come sometime later this year but if there is anything that the sump can use to support corals better in the future, that would be good to know and incorporate now.

Fish/Crabs:
2 small Regal Tangs (each about the size of a quarter)
1 small Purple Tang
1 Bartlett's Anthias
1 black and white Ocellaris clown fish
1 orange and white Ocellaris clown fish
1 Blue Reef Chromis
1 Green Chromis
1 Firefish Goby
1 Red Crab
1 Emerald Crab


Below is a drawing of approximately what the sump shape should be in order to fit through one of the doors.

[chrissu]

Here is a close up of my current ATS. The tank is being treated with a 1/2 strength dose of Cupramine and yet the algae is still able to grow, albeit not quite as robustly as it does when there is no Cupramine in the water. My light is a water resistant 65watt cfl outdoor floodlight (300 watt equivalent). The shape of the base of the light provides a good place for the light to hook over the edge of the container securely and is easy to move out of the way when needed. Not to spec with what is recommended at this site but good enough for a test run until the Santa Monica arrives.

[chrissu]

Hey Bryan,

I know you monitor all these posts so I might as well update you here.

The scrubber should be here any day now. I called USPS and referenced the number you provided. They see the ship location and date but cannot provide much more detail about the shipment when there is a signature required upon delivery. No big deal as long as it makes it through. I'll definitely give you a call when it arrives. My plan is still to take it into my LFS and let them build a custom sump for it.

Later,
Chris

[chrissu]

Good news! My Santa Monica shipment arrived in Tampa this past Friday in great shape. Here are a few highlights that come to mind right now.

-I've included a close up picture of the Santa Monica emblem but otherwise the unit looks just like Bryan's you tube video posts. Overall, the unit looks clean and professionally built.

-The Nova T5 lights are bright and they mount surprisingly close to the screen while remaining positioned safely behind its clear acrylic barrier. Closer than what I was thinking in comparison to the videos I saw.

-The Nova T5 lights also do not have cooling fans and I like that because it makes for a quieter solution. Not sure if that is something that Bryan did or if this light is built this way but it works for me. The system is even quieter if you keep the top cover plate in place. Everything is enclosed!

-A half inch or so of water accumulates along the inside bottom of the unit and strands of algae are already growing well here so I imagine that lots of extra algae will grow here providing even more growth than the typical ATS's I've see on this site.

-I've had my system running for 4 days now and the screen is already growing algae (see picture).

-Even though the dimensions of the unit are posted as approximately 25" x 7.25", I found that the unit actually requires more space than that to fit in my corner tank cabinet. The 3/4" union and nipple extend out a couple of extra inches and you need another inch or two beyond that for your vinyl tubing bend to mate up with the nipple. Make sure that you have closer to 29" of space to work with inside of your cabinet.

-The real test will be in seeing my water quality improve over the next week or so.

[sklywag]

Very nice. I look forward to seeing some pictures of before and after. I'm excited to diy my own soon to have a healthier system.

[chrissu]

It's been about a week since my last post. For me, this ATS project has always been about having great water quality and here are my final thoughts on my Santa Monica buying experience.

My Santa Monica has been growing a ton of bright green algae since receiving it two weeks ago. This is especially true of the growth along the bottom inside the ATS where the water and long algae growth accumulates as a slur of powerful nitrate removing magic. In all honesty, I thought my DIY worked well but this Santa Monica system grows algae at a rate of about 4 times faster than that of my old DIY ATS. That growth has resulted in probably 4 times the water cleaning/filtering power without a doubt.

I've been testing the water quality almost daily. Salfert Nitrate and Nitrite tests always show "0" since the ATS started growing the algae. The water tests don't even take on a hint of color and that is in spite of the fact that I've been intentionally overfeeding my fish with 4-5 feedings a day for the past week! The regal tangs and other fish are getting big bellies and they swim all over the place with a healthy vigor to them. Back when I had a big oversized Protein skimmer running, I could easily overfeed the fish and send my Ammonia, nitrates and nitrites to dangerous levels for the fish so I always had to be careful. With all these new "zero" readings all the time, I was starting to question the accuracy of my own Salfert test kits so I took a sample of my water in for testing at my LFS this past weekend. I know the guy there and he is used to seeing my readings so some amount of Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate in the water in the past. This time, I asked him if he wouldn't mind testing everything. Nitrite, Nitrates, Ammonia, Phosphates, Alkalinity, and PH. Every test came back perfect! He says to me "I don't know what you're doing differently but whatever it is, keep doing it. Everything is perfect." That is when I knew this experience had paid off.

I did not know Bryan (aka Santa Monica) before making this purchase. In fact, I've only talked to him over the phone twice. I just stumbled upon these Algae scrubbers on Youtube and then I found this site. Bryan hasn't pushed me to give him a great review or anything like that. I just decided to buy one, try it out, and post my findings. I'm glad I did this little experiment.

Could I have built my own ATS as good as a Santa Monica and saved some money? I don't think so. The Santa Monica is just easy to work with and its so effective at what it does. It just works really well.

The bottom line is, I highly recommend a Santa Monica ATS to anyone who wants a quiet, inexpensive, efficient way to keep your water quality the best that it can be. Don't waste your money on yet another expensive protein skimmer, a deep sand bed, or what not. Stop throwing your money away on excessive large water changes just to stay ahead of the nitrates problem (that was me). Just get yourself one of these Santa Monica ATS units, plug it in, and let your worries go for good. It will pay for itself just with the salt that you will save from reduced water changes, not to mention all the other benefits you will gain from having contsant pristine water quality moving forward. You will not regret it.








Sklywag, what particular pictures were you interested in seeing? Below are a few pictures of my FOWLR tank right now. There are 4 tangs total so I keep the salinity at 1.010 (15 ppt), which has worked out great.

Chris

[sklywag]

Chrissu. Glad to hear it's what you expected and/or even more. I see you altered your display a little. Your sand is pristine.
I was hoping for before and afters like others I've seen. Seeing results is always nice in the hopes that we others have the same.
I actually just finished the lights on my scrubber today.