Mega Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover - DIY!

[cjh]

Although almost no aquarist knows this (athough every marine biologist does), algae produces all the vitamins and amino acids in the ocean that corals need to grow. Yes these are the same vitamins and amino acids that reefers buy and dose to their tanks. How do you think the vitamins and amino acids got in the ocean in the first place? Algae also produces a carbon source to feed the nitrate-and-phosphate-reducing bacteria (in addition to the algae consuming nitrate and phosphate itself). Yes this is the same carbon that many aquarists buy and add to their tanks. In particular, algae produce:

Vitamins:

Vitamin A

Vitamin E

Vitamin B6

Beta Carotene

Riboflavin

Thiamine

Biotin

Ascorbate (breaks chloramines into chlorine+ammonia)

N5-Methyltetrahydrofolate

Other tetrahydrofolate polyglutamates

Oxidized folate monoglutamates

Nicotinate

Pantothenate

Amino Acids:

Alanine

Aspartic acid

Leucine

Valine

Tyrosine

Phenylalanine

Methionine

Aspartate

Glutamate

Serine

Proline

Carbohydrates (sugars):

Galactose

Glucose

Maltose

Xylose

Misc:

Glycolic Acid

Citric Acid (breaks chloramines into chlorine+ammonia)

Nucleic Acid derivatives

Polypeptides

Proteins

Enzymes

Lipids

Studies:

Production of Vitamin B-12, Thiamin, and Biotin by Phytoplankton. Journal of Phycology, Dec 1970:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1529-8817.1970.tb02406.x/abstract

Secretion Of Vitamins and Amino Acids Into The Environment By Ochromanas Danica. Journal of Phycology, Sept 1971 (Phycology is the study of algae):

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1529-8817.1971.tb01505.x/abstract

Qualitative Assay of Dissolved Amino Acids and Sugars Excreted by Chlamydomanas Reinhardtii (chlorophyceae) and Euglena Gracilis (Euglenophyceae), Jounrnal of Phycology, Dec 1978:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1529-8817.1978.tb02459.x/abstract

hi, i've got a question. Do you mean a single algae specie can produce that many kinds of vitamins, carbo, amino acid etc? Or do you need a mixture of algae specie to achieve that?

[SantaMonica]

One species produces that many, but the exact ones produced vary.

[SantaMonica]

Cleaning Guidelines:

Black/oily growth, but no green: Clean every last bit of it off every three days.

Dark brown growth, but no green: Clean all of it off every 4 days.

Light brown growth, but no green: Clean most of if off every 5 days.

Mostly brown growth, but some green: Clean all of the brown off every 6 days, but leave some of the green.

Half brown and half green growth: Clean most of it off every 7 days.

Mostly green growth: clean most of it off every 10 days.

In all cases, stronger lighting will help you get to green faster, even if the extra lighting is only temporary.

Also, when there is lots of green, you are getting the most filtering. So to minimize nutrient spikes which might occur after cleaning the green off, consider cutting the screen vertically into two halves, and cleaning only one of the halves every 5 days. This give 10 days of growth for each half (about the max you can go), but always leaves the other half to do the filtering.

After several months, you may start getting some thick brown algae that feels like fuzz, and it won't come off. That's turf algae. You don't want turf because it's thick and dark, and it blocks light from reaching the screen (also, because turf does not grow fast enough to be a good filter.) Scrape the turf off with a hack saw blade. Matter of fact, if you start getting turf, you can just start doing all your weekly cleaning with a hack saw blade.

[dominik]

Hi, this is the growth i get after 5 days

[SantaMonica]

Dark = frequent cleaning

[ambystoma82]

is there any preference for scrubber to be in acrylic or glass for better growth?

[SantaMonica]

All that matters is light, flow, and screen roughness.

[SantaMonica]

Here is the micro table saw that I use to cut the slots in the pipes:

http://www.pennstateind.com/store/MTS3.html

It comes with two blades, and if you put them together like a pancake the thickness will be perfect for a 1/8 inch slot for a single layer of plastic canvas. I've cut about 20 slots and the blades are just starting to need replacing. There are other similar micro saws if you search for them ("mini table saw", etc), as well as some slightly larger "mini" table saws which get a bit expensive for just cutting pipes.

[SantaMonica]

Here is what it seems the 25 is going to look like. The pink part on the top is the lid. The open part on the front is where the bulb and ballast go. The bottom is open, and will sit on a 5-pound metal plate. The back side will have the water tubes and drains:

[SantaMonica]

Success Updates:

Mrmikeasaurus on the RC site: "i had one that worked great after about 2 months... youll love how clear the water is"

Coralrookie on the RC site: "I have one.. keeps phosphates down, ph in check. Minimal water changes and I do not run a skimmer"

Zangmann on the RC site: "I've been running an ATS for about 18 months with no other form of filtration (not even a filter sock). It most definitely works. Conversion from a 5 year old FOWL with consistantly high nitrates (50+PPM) and off the chart P04. Now everything is rock solid at 0."

Spamreefnew on the RC site: "I have an ATS witch is much like floyd r turbo's, it is my ONLY filtration and has been for 6 months now. It has been the BEST 6 months of reefing in my life. skimmers are only good for sps only tanks IMO. scrubbers are the best option for everything else. my water is clear, my coral is healthy, my fish are fat,,i mean fat!,,,and my pods and shrimp,,that's right shrimp,,,reproduce like crazy. I could never say all that when i ran a skimmer."

Lps_blasto on the RC site: "After using [scrubber and skimmer] both, I've come to the conclusion that I'd never run a reef tank without a scrubber. But I would run a reef without a skimmer. I could only have one, I'd pick the scrubber, no contest. Don't get me wrong, I'm not part of the "anti-skimmer" crowd. I use a skimmer. I've been running some form of protein skimmer for over 2 decades. I had one back in 1985 when all they were was a wooden airstone and a poorly designed venturi. I just won't rely on ONLY the skimmer anymore. I'll always have a simple turf scrubber on any reef that I have."

King_Richard on the RC site: "I setup a tank about 8 months or so ago. The tank started out as a seahorse tank and all was fine and dandy until an oil spill occured in the gulf area. I used NSW at the time for water changes and due to the spill, I quit doing water changes for about 6 months. In that time I lost focus on the tank (college student) and by december time the tank had started to slip away from me. Holiday season hit and we were away for some time, came back and found one of our seahorses dead, within the next week, our other seahorse died also. We also loss a mushroom that we had but our scooter blenny was still alive and well. Not entirely sure why the seahorses died, they quit eating the water clarity was becoming a nightmare so it could've been a number of things. A few weeks ago the water was so green that I literally could not see into the tank. Now the good news. With this tank, I've been striving for a natural system, no filters, no skimmers, no carbon, nothing except nature's methods. I had been looking at algae scrubber designs off and on for some time and out of desperation I decided to give it a try, originally I didn't think I had enough room for one. I didn't do anything fancy, just picked up some screen from walmart and pieced together some 1" pvc that I had laying around, I then hooked it up to my drain located in the sump, the whole process took about 5 minutes. Now two weeks after setting up a 1" pvc with a slot and a screen hanging from it, water is now, almost, crystal clear again. I really wish I would have taken a before and after picture because you wouldn't believe how nasty it was compared to now. And all in two weeks! I'm sold, I think I spent about $6 for a roll of screen. This is by far the cheapest, most efficient method I've come across. I even tossed out my chaeto the same day I installed the algae scrubber, well actually I kept it in a spare tank just in case, lol. To be honest though, I had a decent amount of faith in the method before I attempted it, based on previous observations with algae in some of my older tanks that would grow algae along the baffles. I always assumed that algae was doing something good. The water should be crystal clear again before the end of the month, excepts for the pods and stuff occosionally floating around!"

Johnarky on the RC site: "I've been using the scrubber for 6 weeks now and water quality is great. I turned off the skimmer and removed the sock over a week ago and everything is still good. I think I'll continue in this way for another month or so and if everything goes well I'll start the transformation into a seahorse tank."

Green_reefer on the RC site: "I have been using an ATS since [four weeks ago], about 1 week after my tank finished cycling. I designed it over-sized and built an acrylic box to house it over my sump and use 4x24w T5's to light it. My [display] hair algae outbreak after my cycle was gone within 4 weeks, even the algae in my overflow has disappeared. I grow all different colors and textures of hair algae on different parts of the screen, but GHA is the dominant. Other than a pipe organ frag that has doubled in size since I got it, I can't really comment on coral growth as my tank is too new. After reading all the posts on combating algae outbreaks on new tanks I can definitely say that an ATS works to control algae. The only coral introduced that did not have full polyp extension within 2 hours of being in my tank is a sun coral that was introduced over the weekend. Digitata, Pocilipora, Stylophora, Acropora, Candy Cane, Zoa's and Gorgonians (photo and non-photo) all showed great PE (even after being shipped for 24hrs). It could be the NSW that I use, but the lack of algae [in the display] and great water quality from the ATS doesn't hurt."

Alaska_Phil on the RC site: "I added an algae scrubber to my system 5 months ago. I inherited care of this tank nearly 6 years ago and I've been battling one type of algae after another ever since. I'd tried everything imaginable, GFO, frequent massive water changes, starving my fish, daily manual removal, and hords of snails and hermits. But my nitrate and phosphate was always undetectable due to all the algae [in the display]. I use a 6" wide vertical screen style with spiral PC light. when I started it my display was over run with brown cotton candy type algae. it grew on everything, rocks, sand equipment even the cords for my power heads. It took about a month for algae to really start populating the screen. At that point the only real difference I noticed was the lack of diatom algae on the glass. I'd had to clean it daily, now I only have to clean it about twice a week. After 2 months, i only had algae growing on my rocks, but my equipment was staying clean. I'm assuming the rocks were leaching phosphate back into the system. After 3 months the rocks were still covered, so I got impatient and plucked it out manually. I completely filled a 1 gal pitcher with algae from my 50 gal display! After that the algae on the screen really took off. But it never came back to the display. Even after my life got rather busy and I neglected doing water changes for 3 months. Now, I still get a little algae in the tank, I pluck out a few little tuffs about once a month. I clean half my algae screen every 2 weeks. It takes that long for it to build up again. I'm still running my skimmer, but it's just back-pak II, so not a very efficient one. I've always run carbon since I have a mixed reef with leathers. Never noticed any bad smells or water discoloration. I could probably have gotten the same result with a high end skimmer, or zeovite, or bio-pellets too. But so far I'm really happy with algae scrubber."

Williah on the RC site: "I added an ATS 1 1/2 years ago, and after 10 months I got rid of my skimmer, but I was very careful and watchful before I did it. I will point out I use a phosban with mixed GFO & active carbon in it. I will continue to use this to deal with phosphate and other nasties in the water, regardless of the other subject. Also I do a water change every 2 weeks regardless. With either setup, I found a water change every 2 weeks kept everything looking happy, so I'm going to continue with this timetable. Now, I had 2 major goals when I started experimenting with ATS: 1. coming up with an affective, long-term method for reducing my nitrate levels (I was between 50-100 at the time); 2. to increase phytoplankton levels in my water column. 1. My nitrates have been 0 or barely above 0 since I got my ATS working. I NEVER had this before. This definitely never happened with just a skimmer. I like to feed heavily and since going with a working ATS I've been able to do just that without freeking out about my nitrate levels. 2. I wanted to maintain high levels of phyotplankton to my tank, and it was my understanding that the skimmer would remove the phyto from the water. People said to turn off the skimmer while feeding, but I wanted a constant presense of the little criters, and the methods behind an ATS seemed to allow this. Since I went ATS and removed the skimmer, my filter feeders have exploded in size (at least 3x the original size). They all look larger and healthier and beautiful-er (laugh, people, it's funny). Could be a coincidence but I believe more food plus more phyto in water has been the direct cause."

Der_wille_zur_macht on the RC site: "My TS was not running for very long, but it was essentially the ONLY nutrient export on my 360 g, except for a small bundle of chaeto. At one point I tried to run a skimmer on the tank but it produced zero skimmate - there was nothing in the water for it to skim. In the short time that I had it operational, I made a few observations: I noticed a SIGNIFICANTLY higher growth rate of naturally occurring filter feeders in the tank. Mini feather dusters, stuff like that. There was noticeably more "stuff" in the water column. It wasn't enough to distract from viewing the aquarium, but it was clearly enough to make a significant difference for filter feeders."

Williah on the RC site: "I removed my skimmer a year ago and added an algae turf scrubber as a replacement. I did this with the thought of creating a more nutrient rich yet low Nitrate environment. The result has been an explosion of growth with my corals."

King_Neptune on the SWF site: "I had a scrubber going for almost a year. They work awesome! But I swapped over to a skimmer in the end. My water paramiters arent as good as my scrubber, and I dont even have 1 percent of the pods I used to....but it looks alot more pristine and clear. [Meaning, there are no more food particles in the water, like there is on a natural reef. A few months later...] Im having Nitrate troubles these days. Everything else is perfect..as in undetectable. Scrubbers will work off of nitrates alone correct? I think I will start one up again."

Gnorman on the SWF site: "through the years we would have times where unwanted algea would take over, and then we made this sweet little filtration called a turf scrubber. [...] since we have added one ( its a DIY project ) we have never had a problem with unwanted algea."

Floridabob on the SWF site: "personal experience!!!! nitrates and po-4 very high for long time, water changes helped. made diy algea scrubber and within 1 month everything was at zero. so ....imo good cheap build for big results"

Mangrovejack22 on the MOFIB site: "I stumbled across a thread on ATS's over a year ago and decided to give it a try. I could never get my skimmers adjusted right, and was always tweaking them trying to either stop the milk jug diy (off the collection cup) from overflowing onto the floor, or scraping thick sludge build up out of the cup itself. took me less than an hour to build my first scrubber following SM's guide and links to others diy's. I'm now onto my 2nd generation of it and couldn't be happier with the results over the last 18 months or so. I've seen pretty much every expected phase of nitrate reduction as mentioned in his threads. i've had patches of hair algae spring out of the rockwork in high flow, even though i had no algae growing anywhere else in the tank, and watched those patches dissappear over the next few weeks. I spend 10 mins a week cleaning the screen and pump intake prefilter sponge, and every few months change some cheap home depot CFL's, which do the job for me. I highly recommend giving one a try if you are on the fence. I only wish i had documented the nitrate reduction in my tank to support the changes"

Fishstink on the RS site: "i used one one my 75 gallon system and it went from nuclear (off the chart) to undetectable in two months. going to have one in my 270 frag tank with no skimmer, we will see how it goes as i will be doing the pappone feeding method twice a day"

Mgraf on the RS site: "I always ran a skimmer until I set up a algae scrubber, IMO the scrubber works better. Less upkeep, less hassle, and more food to the corals. Seems like many are resistant to change, but changes and new ideas open up new doors to the hobby. I guess it is all a matter of what works for you! I prefer a little "marine snow" floating around in my system, corals look great, and a scrubber will clear out just about any algae blooms you will come across."

Drbark on the RS site: "I have a 115 gallon reef with about 40 gallons of sump space. It has been running for 2 yrs now. Half of it is growing macroalgae it in. 6 months ago I added a turf scrubber in. I was running my skimmer 24/7. I noticed with the scrubber that corals started growing faster. The dealer I bought the scrubber from said to run the skimmer from midnight to 12 noon only. I noticed the corals were growing even faster along with my refugium and turf algae growing faster. The tank looked healthier. I have been running the skimmer on half time for only 2 months now. Might not be that much time yet. Too chicken to turn the skimmer of completely. I have a very heavy bioload because people just give me stuff and I have a hard time saying no. Just wanted to throw this out their since people were talking about the all or none thing. I just run it half time."

Sikpupy on the RS site: "Been a long time (about a year) algae scrubber user. I can attest that is seems to work because I have 6 gobys, 2 tangs, a clown, Anthia's, royal gramma and another fish or two. My tank is just about clear, maybe a teaspoon diameter "total" all over of very soft hair(?) algae. I have a coast to coast which has a baseball size clump of hair algae I have let grow for pods. Other than that, the tank is totally free of algae. I may, may get a small dusting of algae on the glass once a week. It usually takes 10 days to build up enough to see it on the front. If fact, i am so algae free, my poor Blenny is starving with a sunken belly, lol."

Accident on the MFK site: "I put mine in the hood on my 150. Working in conjunction with a fresh water drip system, all the bad stuff sits at zero. All the brown algae is gone now. Forget how long it took to die off, but it was tough stuff."

Geosquid on the MD site: "after going through your thread about 3+ years ago I've used only a diy scrubber as a filter. That was the healthiest tank I've ever had. I sold the whole system and moved to VA for a new job recently but I have a new tank on order right now and can't wait to get going."

Kevvin27 on the LR site: "If I had known about algea scrubbers when I was first setting up my tank I would have started out with it right away. Everything in my tank looks so much better now with just the scrubber running then it did when I had a skimmer...and so much easier to clean and quieter too."

Rwing on the RA site: "Many of us have had the unfortunate experience of dealing with algae breakouts. For some these problems are a minor nuisance, but for others this problem can drive them right out of the hobby. In dealing with my algae problems, I became determined to educate myself with why I was experiencing this outbreak as well as how I could stop it and hopefully prevent it in the future. I hope that the experience that I gained can help others who are plagued by this nuisance. My plan of attack was to look at my home made filtration system and determine if I could make some improvements. I came across some articles about Algae Scrubbers that seemed very interesting. They looked really easy to build, and I thought "What have I got to lose?". I purchased the items needed to build it and had it installed in 1 evening. I used 2 5700k power compact bulbs and reflectors that I bought at Home Depot. I anxiously awaited for something to grow, and low and behold, in about a week I had a nice little algae crop growing. Within 2 weeks I was scraping it off, and have been ever since. I was starting to feel like I was going to beat this [nuisance algae] menace. When I [originally] started asking questions about controlling algae I was told to run a multitude of reactors and various chemical solutions. After reading many articles about algae, I chose not to run any reactors of any kind...I use 2 algae scrubbers to filter my water, I currently run a protein skimmer, and I do regular water changes . That is it, and my results have been remarkable! Sometimes I think we make things a lot more complicated than they really need to be. This entire process [scrubber plus some other changes] took about 3 months, but I can honestly say that my tank is now completely free of nuisance algae, and I am very confident that it will remain that way.

Slovak on the RA site: "In theory, all sounded reasonably good. How would this hold up in a real world application? The early adopters reported nearly too-good-to-be-true results. Just like everyone swore that all the approaches I already tried would work miracles. Besides, you can’t believe everything you read on the internet! Then again, what did I have to lose? I built my algae scrubber from 1/2-inch plastic tubing and a 8 1/2 x 11’’ plastic mesh screen found at Michael’s craft store. Two light fixtures with energy-saving bulbs and a timer for a total expense of less than $40. The results didn’t come overnight. I ran my skimmer in parallel for a couple of weeks simply because I feared a tank crash. The water flow and the lighting periods needed tweaking. For an impatient person it’s difficult to watch algae grow. Besides, there is nothing to clean as with a skimmer. After 4 weeks of this experiment I started to notice less algae in my overflows and on my pumps. 8-10 weeks and I could see the rocks again. My corals looked healthier, polyps were opening larger every week. There are many additional benefits from this approach: Less maintenance, as the algae screen is only cleaned every 7-10 days. I have even taken a 3-week vacation with only feeding and glass cleaning performed, and the tank was as beautiful as ever; There is also a significant cooling effect in the summer as the water runs over the screen. More energy efficient, as I traded a 50+W skimmer pump running 24 hours per day for 2 13W energy-efficient bulbs running 18 hours per day; The system is silent! One less pump injecting air into the water - nearly every visitor has commented on the quiet system - my office desk is 5 feet away from the glass; The algae growth is directly proportional to the load of the system and the amount of feeding. Once set up, there is nothing to adjust! My tank has been algae free for nearly 9 months. I perform weekly filter cleaning about every 10 days, with general tank cleaning / coraline scraping once a month. Water changes are back to 15 percent every month. All corals and inhabitants are very healthy. The anemone has split multiple times and the largest one is now over a foot wide. The hammer coral that started from a handful of heads is now over 10 inches in diameter and boasts over 100 heads. I now supply many local reefers with ample frags and my enjoyment of the hobby has finally returned!"

Vannpytt on the scrubber site: "since my scrubber started growing green, the polyps on the sps has been INSANE. During light off period (when light is on the scrubber) the polyps extend 5mm looking amazing. Later update: the tank is clean, the SPS are more than happy, a few of my Acros extend polyps all over the place, especially the milleporas, and the fish are fat. The Salifert nitrate test show <0.1 and the same with the Merck Phosphate test. Life is good. Skimmer is offline. Running carbon and doing a small waterchange every month to reduce the sulfate buildup when doing 2 part Randy's recipe. Going to take the carbon out also, just not yet. Had some startup problems with Acro's stressing out and RTN'ing each other. Seems fine now."

Donj on the scrubber site: "I would just like to add a little something about scrubbers, even though im not getting the green hair algae [on the screen] yet, the benefits so far have been incredible, the life in my system is thriving, the amount of little critters from having an ats is unbelievable, with lights out I can take a flashlight and see what seems to be millions of little critters. I have a 125 gal. tank with a fairly heavy bioload, with fish and mostly sps and lps coral, all are doing very, very well compared to when they were in my ninety gal with no ATS. About 4 weeks ago, I added a pair of mandarins (male n female), the male had a shrunken belly at my LFS, since then he has put some weight on, I would never have attempted this in a system thats been up for only a couple of months, its hard enough to keep 1 mandarin alive, much less 2, but there not only alive, there getting fat , this is pleasing to me as this is one of my favorite species of fish. The coral growth is mind blowing as well, just gotta say thanks for your site, as I would have just kept on blowing more $$ on equipment I dont really need, had I not stumbled upon this site."

Craig1 on the scrubber site: "Thought I'd post an update. After over two months of use, so far, so good! Algae is growing nicely on the screen, more than enough to clean off each week. But for the results: Feeding at least a cube of food a day; 0/0/0 in the big three; Plenty of pods all over the place; No other filtration except for the rock; Almost zero algae in the DT (Few bubbles remain); Zero water changes in over two months; Have to dose Ca & Alk now, since not being replaced by the water changes; Coraline is growing like crazy now. For all the skeptics out there, the science works. Truly a revolutionary idea on the home tank, if done properly.

Chip on the scrubber site: [pic of "before", nitrate = 100], [pic of "after", nitrate = zero].

RumpyPumpy on the scrubber site: "My 55 gal reef system has been running for 7 months (I'd been keeping freshwater fish for 20 odd years previously) using only my home made (and probably not very efficient) scrubber (ok, for the first 2 or 3 months there was a bit of Purigen in the sump too but I don't think it did much). I have made no water changes at all over that time (obviously I have topped up with RODI water to replace evaporation), and other than food, I've only added Alk, calcium and occasionally some Seachem Reef Plus (still on my first bottle). The tank is not heavily stocked with fish, (a Yellow tang, pair of clowns, a coral beauty and five chromis) but I feed quite heavily (I think), everything is growing, the water is clear and I have only lost one fish since the start (a small clown which I believe was attacked by one or more of the other fish when introduced them). All the corals have grown and the hermits and other inverts appear to be thriving (although I did lose a shrimp too)."

New2scrub on the scrubber site: "my reef aquarium has never looked so good! I have built a scrubber that looks much like the sm-100 for my 45 gallon reef tank and the results are out-standing! the only thing that i do differently is i change a little water once a month, but not much. I have crystal clear water, pods everywhere, and have raised baby shrimp in my sump without any intervention! to me that is proof that scrubbers work well and provide much more food for the critters we keep!"

[SantaMonica]

Several updates:

1. Does anyone know of a diver, or can you post on a site with divers, who can take some pics and videos of reef water? What is needed is this: The diver takes a camera and a piece of black cloth/plastic/etc to a reef location; he holds the black sheet about 24 inches from the camera, and takes hi-res pics and video of the plankton floating between the camera and the sheet. Hi-res would be important because of the small particle sizes. Being near corals would be important because that's where the corals feed. And doing it at night would be a great plus, since that's when more plankton is out. Daytime will suffice, however. The purpose of this is to show that reefs really are packed with food particles, and are not "polished" the way reefers "think" they are.

2. Replace bulbs every 3 months, even when they look fine.

3. Clean pump in vinegar every 6 months, even if you think it runs fine.

4. "Turf" is not the goal; Green hair is the goal. It filters the best, because it lets light get to the roots, and it lets water flow throughout the strands. If you start getting real turf, remove it with a hacksaw blade:

5. Since the current scrubber recommendations are different from the original recommendations at the start of this thread, here is a new scrubber introduction which could replace post number one: http://www.radio-media.com/fish/AlgaeScrubbers.doc

6. The two most important quotes I've found so far:

"Where deep lagoons are formed, coral growth, especially of Acropora, can be prolific"

"Contrary to popular belief, species diversity is not at its highest on the scenically attractive reefs found in clear oceanic water. It reaches a peak for any given region on fringing reefs protected from strong wave action, where the water is slightly turbid."

-- Corals of the World, Vol 1 page 27

Why? Because it shows that there is more coral growth in lagoon areas than on reefs. How is this? Since lagoons have more algae, they have less nutrients, and more organics (food), than reef fronts (data easily found in reference studies). And that's what corals, especialy SPS, need to grow. Reef fronts (where mostly Acro's grow) actually have higher nutrients and lower organics (food) than lagoons. Why then are there mostly Acro's on reef fronts? Because Acro's don't break under wave action like other corals, and therefore Acro's have less competition (also taken from Corals of the World, Vol 1 page 27).

7. Do you like to research reefs and corals and nutrients etc? Start here:

http://www.reefbase.org/resource_center/publication/main.aspx

[SantaMonica]

After over a year of testing, here is the first functional prototype of the Santa Monica 25 Nano scrubber, made pretty much from the plans that were posted here last year.

[SantaMonica]

[SantaMonica]

[tunicate]

Hi SantaMonica,

Why is there a need for top drain on your 25 Nano scrubber? Wouldn't just the bottom drain suffice?

[kenny1111]

are u selling it?

[SantaMonica]

Two reasons for the extra drain:

1. Protection from overflow: Since this unit is not designed to set on a sump, and instead will be setting on top of display hoods or shelves, it cannot leak or overflow.

2. 3D scrubbing: As the algae grow, the bottom drain slows down and the water rises; this creates 3D filtering, where the water and the light can flow in and throughout the strands of algae. This is much more powerful than 2D scrubbing, where the algae is flat against the screen.

Yes it will be for sale.

[tunicate]

I've learned from your earlier posts that for a scrubber to work efficiently, the screen should not be immersed in water. Hence, I'm not sure how to reconcile this concept with 3D scrubbing.

Another thought is that when algae growth is substantial enough to start restricting the flow out of the bottom drain, water level in the scrubber chamber will rise & eventually start draining out the top chamber. This is when 3D scrubbing is happening? At this point in time, wouldn't the glass between the scrubber & the light be also grown with a layer of algae, effectively reducing light penetration onto the screen? So I guess regular cleaning of this glass is a prerequisite task. However, I'm note sure how easy it is due to space limitation.

[SantaMonica]

Once it starts growing, some thickness to the water is ok as long as it is still rapid. It's just that to get it growing in the first place, it requires a thin rapid flow. Yes it slowly rises, but the type of algae that does this is the light-green hair algae which lets light go through it for an inch or so.

[tunicate]

Got it. Thanks.

[gargamelron]

when are you selling and what is the cost?

[SantaMonica]

Has to be tested by several people first, so not sure about the time. Cost will be between $199 and $299 USD.

[SantaMonica]

Here is a video of what Dr. Walter Adey (inventor of the scrubber) was doing 20 years ago, in addition to working on scrubbers:

http://vsx.onstreammedia.com/vsx/pbssaf/search/PBSPlayer?assetId=68119&ccstart=0&pt=0&preview=

[SantaMonica]

Successes:

Calvin415 on the scrubber site: "I think the results are outstanding, by far the cleanest tank I've ever had with the least amount of maintenance. I clean the scrubber once a week, skimmer once every two weeks, and clean the film off the glass once a week... I don't hold back on feed, I feed frozen, pellets, arctic pods and phytofeast all the time!"

Srusso on the RC site: "My last harvest was my heaviest yet! I am not weighing my harvest yet but man when your scrapping over an inch thick layer of algae off your screen you feel like you can truly feed your tank any mount of food!! I actually tell other people its "ok" to feed the fish! I should have made it clear that this is two total inches. Once on each side of my screen."

Eums on the RC site: "Tank PH is rock solid stable at 8.41-8.44 PH (with the skimmer it would swing 0.15). Only need to clean the front glass every week or two. Nuance algae is gone (got a frag with GHA and the GHA died off). Cleanup crew is small (2 turbo,7 astraea, 4 certh, 5 margarita, 5 trochus, 1 Nassarius). Dont need to worry about over feeding, has no impact to the tank other than more food for the micro fauna. Increased micro fauna (tons of red feather dusters, pods, etc). Happy fat fish from all the food available, water clarity improved (tint gone, no longer running carbon)"

Maglofster on the RC site: "So far I am amazed! Almost no algae in the DT since startup, and I have been flooding the tank with food. For example, today: 6 cubes Supershrimp, 2 cubes Formula2 and 2 cubes Lobster eggs. Without the scrubber I'm sure there would have been lots. Also I only have Riffkeramik (from Korallenwelt) which is supposed to give lots of algae (during startup) due to it's content of silcates, almost none of that either. So to summarize.. I'm a happy camper!"

King_richard on the RC site: "My little update on the scrubber. For the first two weeks of my redone scrubber I was rinsing the screen and occasionally scraping it every 3 days or so since the black stuff was covering it rather quickly in areas. It's about time for another cleaning of it either today or tomorrow but I did a water change the other day and tested only for nitrates which are now pretty much 0, I can't see any color difference and the natural seawater that I use has the same reading of 0. So within the two weeks of my rebuilt scrubber, my nitrates have dropped from the almost 5ppm to 0ppm. Also, in the older thread, I was the one who had the nasty case of green water, well our water is now crystal clear and my standards for calling it crystal clear are rather high, lol. The only things in the water column are food that we feed and live food from the dsb and scrubber that make it into the display tank. It's clear enough that you don't see the light rays penetrating through the water if that makes sense."

Acts4me on the RC site: "WOW is all I can say! I have had my scrubber running since [2 months earlier]. I posted pics of the algae farm I had going on. I have cleaned my scrubber twice and almost all of the algae is gone from my display tank. I thought it would take much longer. I still have a few patches but the bulk is gone. I am going to build scrubbers for the rest of my tanks starting tomorrow. The ATS is the single best addition to my tank I have done as far as equipment goes."

Fragfarmer on the scrubber site: "this is really helping my tank a lot!! I've been plagued with slimey green cyano in my tank for months. It's disappearing. Getting thinner and lighter shade of green every day. I'm so happy to see coraline growing on my glass again, instead of green slime. Thank you!! I can't completely express my gratitude from behind this keyboard."

Harry_y on the RC site: I made mine [scrubber] out of a storage bin. The nice thing is my tank is doing better now than it ever has, I feed heavier and I'm not skimming out the food that the corals want"

Slow_leak on the RC site: "I have run ATS since September following these guidelines. SPS have grown and people in local club have commented that SPS are growing out nicely. I have a continuous diatom problem before the ATS and that was gone in two weeks. Only trace valonia remains. SPS are easy this way. Soft corals have not flourished as well in this lower nutrient system, but that is not my goal. Unfortunately I had one fish that never reacted well to captivity die after year. The ATS handled it very well. It is a very very forgiving system that most people run with an old set up or incorrectly maintained. I haven't had any [coral] bleaching since I started and will keep it long term."

Fragglerocks on the RC site: "starting levels: Nitrate was around 30, P04 was a whopping 2.21 YIKES! after a month and half with the scrubber: Nitrate: ZERO!!! P04: 0.11 and still steadily dropping! Tested with Hanna meter. My feeding schedule - I feed 2 frozen cubes a day of assorted store bought foods, i try to mix it up a little, but the equivalent is 2 cubes per day. I also feed a pinch of flakes once a day and dose 2 cap-fulls of DT Phyto once a week. I have no protein skimmer anymore, I sold my Tunze months ago. I no longer run phosgaurd since adding the scrubber. The only thing I do is a 2 part dose weekly, Iodine every once in a while, and I run carbon in the sump. I don't do water changes anymore, just top-offs. and with all this feeding the fish are fat, corals healthy and growing (mix of SPS, LPS, and softies...), and macro in the DT has been dwindling since adding the scrubber. Actually, the reason I wanted to add the scrubber to begin with was the overgrowing macro in the DT. I wanted a natural and gradual way to get rid of it without the use of chemicals, and this has worked wonderfully. Just make sure to clean the screen weekly. I just wanted to add that the day I learned about algae scrubbers was one of the best days in my saltwater journey, thank you Chris! The scrubber has put an end to one of my biggest concerns with my tank, and a great side-effect is that it oxygenates the water and all the corals/fish are extremely well fed and thriving. all of my sps are super happy now and the growth is exponentially faster than when I diddnt have the scrubber and only ran the skimmer. In fact, I had a tri-color colony about 6 inches x 7 inches that had been slowly STN'ing for over 6 months, 3 weeks after I added the scrubber it started coloring up again, stopped stn'ing, and has been showing signs of new growth. I encourage you to set up a small experimental tank. get a biocube or aquapod and fill it with your choice of sps, good lighting, and sufficient flow. Add a scrubber and let us know what happens".

Bguile on the RC site: "I think I'll go ahead and chime in on this one since I've been running skimmerless on my 210g since [7 months earlier] and setup a new 40g that has basically been only ATS since it was built [3 months ago]. I haven't done a water change since it's been running, water parameters stay unusually stable and my ammonia, nitrates, and phospates are all or very very close to 0. In fact, I started overfeeding the system when it only had inverts in it to start the algae growth on the ATS. I had NEVER fed so much to a tank filled with fish for fear of algae and cyano. Back [7 months ago] I decided to try going skimmerless on my [other tank] 210, after I wasn't getting the success I thought I should with it. I immediately noticed that the small corals I did have began opening and growing like gangbusters. However, I wasn't keeping up with water changes as I should have been and algae and cyano went crazy too. Just as I decided to build a smaller reef tank and make the 210 a FOWLR, I happened upon ATS' looking for nitrate reducing solutions. So after I tested the ATS on my 40g. I'm in the process of redesigning it to an enclosed unit, but it's maintaining the system the way it is. To really clean up the sand I need to add approx another 100W of light [to the scrubber] but since it's becoming a FOWLR, I haven't put much urgency on it. In closing, I must admit I'm VERY excited about the results that ATS's have shown me and that my limitations (read, money) have now been removed for me to run as many specialized tanks as I would like without the need to purchase an expensive skimmer. Oh...I wanted to add that I NEVER had any of the diatoms that usually shows up in new tanks using the ATS. Since it's been installed, I've only run into one problem when I started seeing a hairy type algae poking out of my sand. I found out I was choking off my return flow by not removing the included mechanical filter on my Eheim. Once I removed that within days the algae was gone and I once again have clean grey/white sand!!"

Nac on the scrubber site: "Nitrate and Phosphate levels are at zero at last test. No water changes ever, and had fish for 6 weeks now. Algae on the live rock, which was growing like crazy, is starting to slowly subside. The growth on the screen is still pretty dark, I'm cleaning it twice a week. I put both lights on one side of the screen, might add wattage."

Dlp40 on the scrubber site: "Well since my last post a few weeks ago I think i have finally gotten my ATS working. I tested the water today and from 20ppm nitrate to 0.00ppm and po4 of over .2 down to unmeasureable. Not to say i haven't had my snags in the 2 months I have been using it, but it's well worth the trouble. I mean I havent done a water change in 2 months, this has already paid for the ATS twice. another testimit on how much i like this DIY filter is, even when i had the wrong screen and lights on it, my algea from the tank disapeared. I had a few rocks completly covered with hair algae and it disapeared in less then one month."

Maxhtic on the UR site: "No need to spend your cash for all these unecessary "media"... my oppinion and personal experience. Alga Turf Scrubber mate... and you will NEVER spend any more money on filtration, saving extra cash every month for livestock. Simple as that - give it some chance and you will change your reefing procedures for ever."

Albass15 on the UR site: "build yourself a turf scrubber. I only do a 20 percent water change once a month and my nitrate and phosphate is zero."

Mrbncal on the RC site: When I set this 75 back up 4 years ago I battled with my Euroreef skimmer for 7-8 months. Every couple of weeks it would go into overflow mode for a couple days and flow teh skimmate back into the tank. Things looked horrible every time it would overflow. Just got sick of dealing with it. I unplugged it and let the tank go. Three months with no attention. Almost tore it down. 90 days later when I scrubbed the front glass I was surprised to find that things had gotten better since turning off the skimmer. So i left it like that for about a year and a half. But hair and bubble algae had a serious foothold. I couldnt feed much. Then I read the articles on ATS's and eventually decided to try one. So I built a bucket scrubber and haven't looked back. Is it tank of the month material? No. But my maintenance time is a lot less than those guys also. I still have great growth on corals and most important I enjoy the hobby again. My only source of cal/alk is kalk in the top-off water and I run a bag of chemipure hanging in the sump. I have not changed any water since [6 mo ago] (30 gal). (I had a hot day prior to hooking my chiller up and things got a little soupy, stupid gamble and I lost a few corals). I have been running ats since [14 months ago]. Anemones, tubeworms of all types(cocoworms), photosynth gorgs and LPS as well as green slimer and birdnest, pocillipora have all grown very well. My scrubber is underpowered, I use a MJ1200. So my algae is browner than what it should be. I am using 120 watt equivilent indoor/outdoor CFL bulbs. They have a 3500K rating, which is why they are kind of yellow. I alternate changing the bulbs out. So one bulb is replaced every month and a half (this is apprx, I try to use the bulbs 3to4 months). I have some plans to redo the scrubber but it works so well right now I keep putting the rebuild off. I have a slow drip on the pipe in the pic above, you can see some salt creep everywhere. Another thing that needs redoing. The scrubber gets cleaned at least every 2 weeks, but I really try to clean it every Sunday morning. I get a coffee cup full of algae every time as long as I am feeding regularly. Right now though, the limiting factor on my scrubber is flow. I only have about 3/4 of the flow that my screen size demands according to the guidelines (35gph per inch of screen). Once I replace that with a 350+ GPH pump my algae should green up. I havent checked N&P since it went to 0's or undetectable. Took a sample to the store and they verified my results with their test. So I assume its still there as I dont have any indication it has changed. I have not checked Cal/Alk/PH lately either. The clams are putting on new white growth, the grape and red monti caps are getting big. Acros dont grow as fast as the guys with cal reactors I spose, but they do pretty well."

[CFOh]

Below ATS write up from Reef tools and some of Santamonica works on May 12th, 2011.

Taking it Old School, Scrubber Style

What do you think when you hear “Algae Scrubber”? If you would have asked me a about 6 months ago I would have said some antiquated way people used to filter their tanks that turned their tanks piss yellow. One day after I was reading around I stumbled across Algaescrubber.net, I started reading and reading, and thought hey this is a viable way to filter a tank as well as help remove unwanted nuisance algaes.

Before I get into the new way of scrubbing, let’s take a look at how they used to do it in the past. Before, these screens of roughed up plastic, were set over a large flat area, which has water run over it, filling up and eventually emptying out, all while being bombarded with light. For all who are a little unsure of the process, below is a video about how they work (although a bit old). If you want to be lazy and not watch the entire video, fast forward to 4:25 and watch a bit.

Ok so now you must be asking yourself, how can I do something like this on my tank? I don’t want some huge system dumping water in my tank all the time. Other systems include hanging a huge screen above your tank where it drains eventually into your tank (causing a gazillion bubbles to go into the tank, not gonna work for my tank any way).

Most of us in the reefing world have sumps, and here is where I implemented my scrubber. A simple pump on the bottom, pumping water up and through PVC pipe, which eventually drains out of a slotted piece of PVC, and down the screen which is lighted on both sides, into the sump. This is just one of many ways to get a scrubber attached to your system.

My first scrubber:

Another scrubber style which is taking popularity lately is the scrubber box. This is a small acrylic box which has lighting on both sides, similar to the screen in the photo above, but contained to keep it cleaner and more efficient. It also promotes 3D growth in the sense that water accumulates just enough to get hair algae growing on the screen and provide great nutrient export as well as oxygenate the water (just as a side note, algae growing on the screen won’t make its way to your display tank).

Here is what a matured scrubber box looks like:

If you are thinking of setting on up, it isn’t as simple as grabbing a plastic screen and putting a light over it with some water. There are many factors. The size of screen one needs, would obviously depend on the size of tank. Ultimately a wider screen, is more efficient than a tall screen 1 square inch of screen per gallon of your DT. Lighting needs to be adequate enough to out compete the algaes in your DT (if you have any). Doesn’t need to be stronger, just the right spectrum aka 3000k ish bulbs. Finally the right amount of flow, 35gph per each inch of screen. If the numbers seem random, it is the formula that works best.