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Thread: Building My First Scrubber?

  1. #1

    Join Date
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    Building My First Scrubber?

    I'm editing this 1st post and the title of the thread. It's turned into a build thread more than just the initial question.


    Where do you find the screen?
    Depot? Online? Where?

    Thanks

  2. #2

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    Re: Where Do You Buy The Screen?

    are you in uk or usa?

  3. #3

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    Re: Where Do You Buy The Screen?

    USA Colorado.

  4. #4
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    Re: Where Do You Buy The Screen?

    Try going to craft or sewing stores, or just get one of these online:

    http://www.everythingplasticcanvas.com/ ... -x-18.aspx

  5. #5

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    Re: Where Do You Buy The Screen?

    Found it at the local Hobby Lobby. It's that plastic stuff that old ladies use for sewing patterns with thick string. It has 100 squares per square inch. 10x10 I bought a piece thats 10" x 13" for 89 cents.

    Looking at the design guides posted on this website:
    [color=#4040FF]0.5 actual (not equivalent) fluorescent watts per gallon MINIMUM [0.13 watts per liter].
    1.0 actual (not equivalent) fluorescent watts per gallon for HIGH filtering [0.26 watts per liter].
    1.0 square inches of screen per gallon, with bulbs on BOTH sides (10 x 10 = 100 square inches = 100 gal)
    [1.64 square cm per liter]
    2.0 square inches of screen per gallon, if vertical but lit on just ONE side. [3.28 square cm per liter]
    4.0 square inches of screen per gallon, if HORIZONTAL [6.56 square cm per liter].
    1.5 actual (not equivalent) fluorescent watts per gallon if HORIZONTAL [0.4 watts per liter].
    18 hours of lights ON, and 6 hours of lights OFF, each day.
    Flow is 24 hours, and is at least 35 gph per inch of width of screen, EVEN IF one sided [60 lph per cm].
    Very rough screen made of roughed-up-like-a-cactus plastic canvas.
    Clean algae off of screen every SEVEN (7) days NO MATTER WHAT.
    [/color]

    My system has about 50g of water. A 5.5g tank is 16" long and my plastic canvas mat is 13" long. So, I'll go ahead and use the full width of the mat. The tank is 10" deep and I'll be drilling a hole for a 1" bulk head near the bottom, so I figure I'll have about 8" of mat vertically. 13x8=104 square inches. I'm going to light it on both sides with 18W CFL bulbs using cheap 6" clamp-on shop light fixtures. I'm using a Magnum canister filter to push water from the skimmer section of my sump over to the scrubber. It only puts out about 250gph though. Not sure thats enough to do the job. It's what I got right now, so it'll have to do.

    Can post pics if people want to see.

  6. #6
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    Re: Where Do You Buy The Screen?

    Make sure the pump has the gph that you need.

  7. #7

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    Jan 2011
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    Re: Where Do You Buy The Screen?

    It's built, but the camera batteries got hijacked to run the kids' Wii video game. Of course, they run the batteries down, but when it comes time to charge them, everybody has amnesia. Can't remember how to plug those batteries into the charger and then plug it into the 110V wall outlet. Can't take any pics until they charge up again.

    I definitely need a bigger pump. The canister hasn't got the ummph. Instead of a fully wet screen, I've got 7 or 8 trails of water flowing down and a lot of dry screen. I ended up using a piece of 1" PVC about 16" long for my manifold. I used a dremel cutting wheel to put a slice 13" long in the pipe. Then I shoved the long edge of the plastic mat into the slice. Snug fit. I capped one end of the PVC and on the other end I used a 3/4" male threaded bushing. I got a 3/4" female hose barb nipple and screwed that onto the pvc bushing. Connected my 3/4" vinyl hose to the nipple and then connected the other end to the outlet on the canister. It's pushing water uphill about 10 inches. Not a lot of flow.

    Also, I need to rig up a bracket so I can clamp each light in a better spot. Right now, the lights are just clamped to the top rim of the tank and kinda shining down in there. I am thinking of a bracket that allows me to shine each light directly into the side of the tank. Is there any reason why the scrubber don't work if I shine the lights through the glass?

  8. #8
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    Re: Where Do You Buy The Screen?

    They won't be as strong.

  9. #9

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    Re: Where Do You Buy The Screen?

    I might cut the spray bar down to only 8" wide and go with an 8x10 screen. Thats 80 square inches on a 50g system. If I cut it down to only 8" wide I can flip the spray bar 90* and run is across the short side of the tank. Then I can clamp a light on each end of the tank and get them pointed more directly at the screen. But shortening the spray bar, I should have increased flow over the screen.

  10. #10
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    Re: Where Do You Buy The Screen?

    That is better.

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