New scrubber

[Donj]

Hope someone can answer a question for me, on my new tank build, a 125 long, my 90 was getting a little crowded, so I set the 125 up, built a new sump from an old 40 long, and added a white plastic tub on the other end, this was added to receive water from my algae scrubber, the scrubber has been on a week tomorrow, already getting a good bit of growth, mostly brownish ( by the way transferred all liverock and livestock, sps, lps, and fish ) I assume maybe diatoms, question is, the tub or vat is getting a brown slimey growth as well, should I leave this alone, wipe it down or what, there is not alot of growth on screen but it is covered in brown, do I still clean on 7th day, thanks for your time, Donj.

[SantaMonica]

It's because your scrubber light is not contained, and is illuminating the tub. Use better reflectors, or move the lights closer to the screen.

[Donj]

i built this scrubber based on your specs,youve been a great help to me, ive used the plastic screen, roughed up, 2 8'' reflectors,with 23 watt cfls, 1 on each side, light 4'' off screen, my return is a mag 18 to 1'' pvc teed to a 3/4'' pipe which my screen is attached to, flow is about 500 plus gph to scubber, i did not use a darkened acrylic box though,when you did your bucket version did it work for you? and how did you keep diatoms or any algae out of a white bucket? I really dont know how to keep light out of my vat as the lights are at least 6'' down in vat with a 1.5'' hole drilled at 7'' up from my 40 gal sump into the vat, ill try to get pics, any advice from you would be most helpful, as I really would love to see this work. one side note, there has been zero algae on my glass, hope thats a good sign, thanks,DON

[SantaMonica]

It will work, but some people don't like growth in the sump. The more you can shield the light, the less growth you'll have in the sump. Once nutrients come down really low, the growth in the sump will slow down or stop.

Less glass cleaning means less nutrients in the water, so it's working well so far. Pics would be nice.

[Donj]

[Donj]

last pic was from day one, after 7 days cleaned screen,i am now on the 6th day of week 2,will post a pic before cleaning,do i just clean one side or clean completely? again thanks 4 all your help,Don

[SantaMonica]

Nice wide reflector.

You can make the screen less wide if you want... the part outside the reflector does not do any good and just uses up flow. Or you can add another light.

Clean the whole thing.

[Donj]

I have another light on the other side( can't see it in the pic.) if you think I should I'll add 2 more, the growth in just 2 weeks is impressive, my question is, should I clean it all the way down on 2nd cleaning, I will post you a pic.[img]

[Donj]

[SantaMonica]

The situation is that it is a wide screen, and the part of the screen that is not in front of the bulb is not doing anything but wasting flow. So you can add another bulb for that area, or save flow by reducing the screen width.

Clean it all off each time.