Hi all,
This is my version of scrubber. After 4 yrs, it has become so hard to maintain my 300 gal reef/fish tank due to nitrate and phosphate. Just doing 10-15% water changes on 300 gal tank per week is driving me crazy not to mention salt cost. After seaching the net and came across this website, I've started my own version of scrubber. It has been running over a year for me and I've not change (add only) water since (I don't belive in changing water if all chemicals are in spec. I've meant to post some picture for Santa Monica to see but just been lazy. Today, I've took my scrubber apart for cleaning and decided to take some pictures and show it.
The Tank
The main tank is 300 gal (6'x3'x32") with 2 overflow and the sum is 80 gal (60"x22"x18"). I like to use only one return pump(reeflow snapper) for everything.
So I installed 2 gate valves on the outlet of the pump. 1 return to the main tank and the other feed back to the scrubber(800g/hr).
The Design
First, the scubber needs to be small enough to fit inside the sump area. Second, it needs to be quiet as possible.
So an octagon design is the ideal for me.
With some help from a friend, we cut and put together a octagon acrylic container ( 21" wide, 8" tall).
As you can see, there are grooves cut on all side of the container at 2 different heights alteranating. The deep cuts are for the 4 way lights and the shallow cuts are for the srubbers.
Second, the light fixtures. Each light is housed in a 5" acrylic tube to prevent water splashing with 4 holes drilled on top for heat ventilation. All electrical cords are run inside 1" pvc pipe and sealed with silicon on the edge and electrical contacts to prevent any water condensation.
Next is the scrubbers. For 300 gal using the formula of 1" for every 10 gal, I used 4 scrubbers at 9" wide a piece giving me 360 gal of scrubbing surface area. The water input is a 1-3/4" quick disconnect for easy cleaning.
With the octagon design as you can see, I needed only 4 lights but they do cover 8 sides of scrubbers.
Now on to the sump. Since the sump is 22" wide and I need something to hold the container up and out of the water so I've mounted 2 holder on each side of the sump for the container to sit upon.
The scrubbers are 1" above the water line to minimize the water noise. Water line is maintained by electronic sensor.
Can't speak for everyone but the results has been absolutelly wonderful. Nitrate and Phosphate are un-detectable. I can't thank Santa Monica enough because little to no water changes. I just maintain chemical additives and add water to my reserve tank. I hope you guys enjoy this ... it's time to get some more wine. Let me know what you guys think.
Did I say thanks SM ????
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