Algae Scrubber in nano ?

[Reefkid88]

 So I have been thinking about making a small algae scrubber for my new build. So my question is,in a nano is it beneficial to run one as my main form of filtration or is it not even worth it ? 

[Porkpie5000]

I'm thinking about trying one of the Santa Monica DROP filters in my IM 10.

[Reefkid88]

6 minutes ago, Porkpie5000 said:

I'm thinking about trying one of the Santa Monica DROP filters in my IM 10.

I saw them for a little over $100 but know I can make the same thing for almost half the price,and thought eh why not ?! 

[Porkpie5000]

1 minute ago, Reefkid88 said:

I saw them for a little over $100 but know I can make the same thing for almost half the price,and thought eh why not ?!

Absolutely. This may be one of those times where I go with convenience over thrift.

 

I'm anxious to see what you come up with. 

[Clown79]

I can't see why it wouldn't work in a nano.

 

If you can diy one that's even cooler

[Reefkid88]

I'm thinking:

 

-Small to medium project box - $3-$8

-Sheet of Knitting screen - $1-$5

-Small air pump - $10-$12

-2x SemiLed Royal's & 2x SemiLed 660 Reds - $4

-Air line tubing -$1-$4

-4x Frag rack magnets - $26 (I know you can find some cheaper).

-RapidLed Moonlight driver-$10

-Small Heatsink-$10

 

 So all in all it may or may not be benefical enough to build your own or make one. 

[Tamberav]

On 10/26/2018 at 6:03 PM, Reefkid88 said:

I'm thinking:

 

-Small to medium project box - $3-$8

-Sheet of Knitting screen - $1-$5

-Small air pump - $10-$12

-2x SemiLed Royal's & 2x SemiLed 660 Reds - $4

-Air line tubing -$1-$4

-4x Frag rack magnets - $26 (I know you can find some cheaper).

-RapidLed Moonlight driver-$10

-Small Heatsink-$10

 

 So all in all it may or may not be benefical enough to build your own or make one. 

 I think it is a good idea, teenyreef is trying one on his 40g. I always wanted to try one and would love to see a build done for one. 

[Reefkid88]

I just have 35g less than him lol and always wondered if it would even make it worth while to do it. I have seen some on eBay,Fish-Street has one,or I can build one..hmmm... 

[Tamberav]

3 minutes ago, Reefkid88 said:

I just have 35g less than him lol and always wondered if it would even make it worth while to do it. I have seen some on eBay,Fish-Street has one,or I can build one..hmmm... 

 

They seem more effective than cheato. I want to set one up in my cold water tank which is 7 gallons but I am a bum with questionable DIY skills at times. 

[Porkpie5000]

I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the Santa Monica DROP.6 for the second chamber on my IM 10. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. 

[AFI]

On 10/29/2018 at 11:22 AM, Porkpie5000 said:

I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the Santa Monica DROP.6 for the second chamber on my IM 10. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. 

Any updates?

[Reefkid88]

29 minutes ago, AFI said:

Any updates?

 

 As of now no,I ended up not running one and opted for a AC30. I was originally 

 

 

[Porkpie5000]

On 1/4/2019 at 2:02 PM, AFI said:

Any updates?

I ran it for about 2 weeks and barely even got any slime. I would have kept running it but the vent hole in the top always had a small amount of spray coming out of it and it was a salt creep nightmare. I will probably try it again and dial back the air pump so I don't get all of the salt creep but for now it is sitting in the extra equipment drawer.

[Superdave]

For what it is worth, I allow algae to accumulate on the outflow/spill over part of my hang on back (a very old Bio-Wheel 110) filter.  If it gets too long or starts to break off and potentially make its way into the tank, I pull some off.  I still have a big of very thin green algae here and there in my tank, but I figure my informal "mini" scrubber is doing something.  Some return filter portions are very smooth so might be worth scuffing it up a bit if need be.  The Bio wheels were made of a much "rougher" (by comparison) plastic.  

 

When I still had a discus tank years ago, I used a very large bio-wheel (350 I think?) that had had dual return/spill overs back into tank.  I always let algae growth there as well and eventually (after a couple of years) it turned into some sort of freshwater sponge!

[Jimbokro]

I have a DIY scrubber in the center chamber of my Fluval 13.5 for two months with good success.  It uses a vertical 11” mortar screen in a three sided box with a bubbler located at the bottom that is fed by a $10 air pump.  It runs about 14 hours a day and has produces 100g+ of algae every 6-7 days.   The vertical enclosure is just narrow enough to allow for placing it at a slight angle to make the bubbles roll up the screen as they race to the surface.  Light is a 12” x 1” “stick” led (11 red/1 blue) that is 1” off the outside of the class shining in.  It is reasonable quiet and productive thus far.  The box is made of scrap acrylic & stuff that was lying around.  So far, so good👍

[xthunt]

1 hour ago, Jimbokro said:

I have a DIY scrubber in the center chamber of my Fluval 13.5 for two months with good success.  It uses a vertical 11” mortar screen in a three sided box with a bubbler located at the bottom that is fed by a $10 air pump.  It runs about 14 hours a day and has produces 100g+ of algae every 6-7 days.   The vertical enclosure is just narrow enough to allow for placing it at a slight angle to make the bubbles roll up the screen as they race to the surface.  Light is a 12” x 1” “stick” led (11 red/1 blue) that is 1” off the outside of the class shining in.  It is reasonable quiet and productive thus far.  The box is made of scrap acrylic & stuff that was lying around.  So far, so good👍

I made something extremely similar for a chamber of my lagoon 25, black acrylic and all. Didn't use mortar, just a roughed up screen. Unfortunately couldn't get hair to grow, just brown gunk under the screen. Didn't have bubbles though. 

[Jimbokro]

I enhanced the mortar by embedding Aragonite in the mortar which I felt was too smooth.  I scrape with a piece of acrylic very hard and the Aragonite chips saves the algae on the smoother mortar from being scraped off.  

 

Gotta have bubbles.  I’ve use river scrubbers with some success but that gotta be large.

[xthunt]

On 5/12/2019 at 10:40 AM, Jimbokro said:

I enhanced the mortar by embedding Aragonite in the mortar which I felt was too smooth.  I scrape with a piece of acrylic very hard and the Aragonite chips saves the algae on the smoother mortar from being scraped off.  

 

Gotta have bubbles.  I’ve use river scrubbers with some success but that gotta be large.

Got more info how you made that screen? What mortar did you use? Did you lay the mortar on a piece of acrylic or a knitting screen?

[Jimbokro]

I started with a clean piece of the typical plastic screen material and scratched the heck out of the one side.  I put in on a piece of plastic sandwich wrap and lathered it with about a 1/16” thick coating of grout (I was out of mortar) and threw a handful of aquarium gravel onto the grout and covered it with another layer of wrap.  I used wife’s rollin pin to force the gravel into the grout.  I let it dry for a few days and then put it in a bath of saltwater for a few day (don’t know why I thought that was a good idea).  The fixture has a piece if bubble wand at the base of the screen and I put it in the center chamber.  The fixture faces outside with the light shining in.  It is sized to allow it to sit in the chamber with the top angled about 15 degrees toward the light causing the bubbles to “roll” up the screen.  I clean it with a sharp edge of a piece of acrylic.  It’s been in service for a few months in this configuration.  The gravel remains in place and keeps the scrapper from removing the base of the algae.  I have even scrapped it down with a course plastic brush without damage.  The screen is about 2.5” by 10”.  NO3/PO4 almost undetectable.  👍

[xthunt]

Im going to try it again, mostly out of boredom, not necessity (and I’ve got that chaetomax light doing nothing). Going to use an old gutted out IM media basket, add bubbles, and make the growing surface from these instead of mortar: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Coral-Frag-Tile-XL-3-Inch-Square-5-Tiles-FAST-FREE-USA-SHIPPING/303111227377?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

Should be able to score and snap the tiles to glue right on the back of the basket. I think the basket already sits at a slight angle that will let the bubbles roll up. Or Ill make the basket sit level and push against the glass to help with light bleed, and angle the tiles inside the basket. 🤔

 

[xthunt]

Got it built:

 

 

 

And have bubbles and light:

 

 

I'll see if anything grows on it....

 

[bpipher]

On 8/23/2019 at 4:25 PM, xthunt said:

Got it built:

 

 

 

And have bubbles and light:

 

 

I'll see if anything grows on it....

 

That will probably work pretty well!  You might want to cap it to avoid the salt creep.  Do you regularly test your water?  I'm curious to see if it has any profound effects when it takes off.

[xthunt]

A week went by and its still bone white. Have light on it for 14hrs/day. Turned off my skimmer when I put the scrubber in. Keep my nitrate at 5, and phosphate is never above 0.01ppm on Hanna checker. Haven’t used po4 media in a while, but the tank is barebottom. I had a feeling nothing would happen because I don’t have much of an algae problem, so I’ve been feeding corals and dosing aminos every other day. It might get something on it in the next week, maybe. 

 

 

 

[xthunt]

On 8/28/2019 at 2:54 PM, bpipher said:

That will probably work pretty well!  You might want to cap it to avoid the salt creep.  Do you regularly test your water?  I'm curious to see if it has any profound effects when it takes off.

 

I did make a cap for it, well just a piece of acrylic I lay on top of it. I test maybe twice a week for alk and nitrate to see if I need to dose anything. I hope it starts working, Id love to have a visual and physical export and give me an excuse to see how much I can feed. 

[xthunt]

This is my third time cleaning it. Seems to get better growth each cleaning. First two times seemed to be more slime than algae. Probably still breaking in. The green is a lot fuzzier when under water. Still waiting for thicker hair.