Mega Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover - DIY!

[angel fish]

Hi SM,

May i know if algae scrubber works for my "Copper Safe" medicated tank as well? I've got a 6' main tank & a 5' sump tank approx. 900 litres running with 2 units H&S type 150-F2001 protein skimmers including Dupla balls for wet & dry overflow filtration system.

My tank set up is running about 15 years which i kept mainly large angel fishes with about 100 kg of non-live rocks in my main tank.

I thinking of trying out with algae scrubber system to rid off the brown algae constantly blooming on my tank glasses due to excessive PO4 & NO3 build up over the years. Such a system if works on my copper medicated tank may also be good for keeping sensitive angels like both the Regal & Bandit with lesser PO4 & NO3.

Appreciate your kind advise.

[SantaMonica]

A scrubber will fix the po4 and no3, but as for the copper, it just depend on how much there is. If not too much, the scrubber will remove all of it. If too much, the scrubber will not grow.

Why are you running copper?

[angel fish]

I am using Copper Safe from Mardel Labs by dosing directly into my main tank when there is an outbreak of protozoan usually white spots & oodinium. As one treatment of this chelated copper sulphate is effective over a month so i been using Copper Safe regularly for prevention of protozoan which did help to cut down losses of my angel fishes.

Anyway it can be removed by Poly filters or by doing large water changes when copper is not needed but after which i did be amazed to find that tiny copepods will return back to flourish again on my tank glasses eating on the brown algae.

Thanks for your previous advice.

[SantaMonica]

Consider using an ultraviolet sterilizer to kill the ick. It does not require copper, and does not slow down a scrubber. And when the no3 and po4 are removed, your angels should hopefully be able to keep the ick away themselves.

[angel fish]

Very true that when all water parameters are correct then the fishes will have resistance to fight off any infection including feeding them with a proper varying diet.

For my 900 litres (237 USGal) tank capacity then the size of plastic canvas should be 15" x 15" with a 50 watt CFL shining on each side. Pump flow capacity to use will be approx. 1,995L/hr based on 133L/hr multiply by 15" wide screen as per your recommendations. Please advise if my tabulation is correct. Many thanks for your help.

[stevenkoh08]

Hi SM

here are the update of my algea scrubber being build as per ur drawing

the pic are the growth at 14days cause of the tank is in the cyclying process so it took 14 days to see brown algea to grow

i've done the first cleaning so now have to wait for another week to see the result

as for info i'm using two unit and both water flow are link together with a pump and gravity feed at one end each

[Eniram]

SM

Is are the pictures of my algae growth after an upgarde from a 800l/hr flow to a 1200l/hr flow. Also the light intensity has increased from 32W to a 48W.

Pls advice.

[SantaMonica]

For my 900 litres (237 USGal) tank capacity then the size of plastic canvas should be 15" x 15" with a 50 watt CFL shining on each side.

Needs more light. At least 0.5 watts per gal for average filtering, 1.0 watts per gal for high filtering. I'd go for 200 watts. Also, no part of the screen can be more than 4 inches (25cm) from any bulb. So a single CFL in the middle of a 15 inch screen will not work. You need 4 bulbs on each side of the screen to do it properly. So that's 8 total bulbs = 200 watts, so each bulb is 25 watts. It might be easier to build a wide scrubber that uses long T5 or T8's.

Steven you need more flow in the middle, so widen the slots there. And start cleaning every 7 days. More pics would be nice, from different angles.

Eniram yes that is very good growth. Clean every 3 days until you start seeing some green, then do every 5 days. When it is almost all green, do every 7 days.

[Eniram]

Eniram yes that is very good growth. Clean every 3 days until you start seeing some green, then do every 5 days. When it is almost all green, do every 7 days.

Ah now i get it, was wondering after cleaning it every 7 days when will the green ones start growing. What i'm getting are dark dirty green ones. Okie thanks for the tip SM

[angel fish]

Needs more light. At least 0.5 watts per gal for average filtering, 1.0 watts per gal for high filtering. I'd go for 200 watts. Also, no part of the screen can be more than 4 inches (25cm) from any bulb. So a single CFL in the middle of a 15 inch screen will not work. You need 4 bulbs on each side of the screen to do it properly. So that's 8 total bulbs = 200 watts, so each bulb is 25 watts. It might be easier to build a wide scrubber that uses long T5 or T8's.

If using plastic screen of 24" wide x 10" height = 240 USGal with 2 off 2 feet T5HO each 50 watts on each side giving total 200 watts then how much should the pump flow rate be?

Is it 24" wide screen multiply by 133L/hr giving 3,192L/hr pump capacity to be used? Thank you.

[SantaMonica]

Yes, 24 X 35 = 840 gph = 3192 lph. But for redundancy, it's best to divide this into two smaller screens, so that you have two separate scrubbers. That way you can clean or turn off one, and still have the other one working full power. 10" tall is really too much screen for 2 bulbs to cover. If you can do two screens, each 24 X 5, and each screen with 3192 lph and 2 bulbs per side (total of 8 bulbs = 200w), that would be best. This way, if you lose a pump, or a ballast, or a screen, the other scrubber is still fully functional. Redundancy gets more important as your tank gets bigger, because you have more livestock to protect. With only one scrubber, if you forget to turn the pump on after cleaning, you then lose it's filtering until several days after you fix it.

[angel fish]

Thanks for your suggestion but i may not able to run on 2 sets scrubbers due to space constraint in my 5' sump tank inside my cabinet. Furthermore, by adding 2 more big pumps will boost up my existing tank water temperature of 29 degees C which is maintained by fan blow cooling. I can do with 1 set scrubber to try out first then think how to configure later by adding the other set maybe above the main display tank.

[SantaMonica]

Scrubber Video:

[Eniram]

Updates on my scrubber as of today!

NO3 is at 20 aiming to reduce it to 0!

PO4 is at 0.5 aiming to reduce it to 0!

Scrubber taken on the 24/4/10 after upgrading to a 1200 l/hr flow and a total 48W lights! Cleaning regime was every 3 days as i was getting those dark green/maroon looking algae growth!

Scrubber taken 9/5/10 and notice green hair algae growing on the center of the screen. Cleaning regime is now every 7 days.

SM any feedback to further improve the results?

[SantaMonica]

As you can see, the most (and green) growth is nearest the light. That is how important strong light it. Now if you just had that strong light all over the screen

Clean the dark areas, but leave the green longer, maybe 10 days.

[bobiegoh]

Hi Jeremy, healthy growth. I changed my light bulbs every Seven months. GB.

[Eniram]

thanks bobie, serious every 7 mths! wow that means i would need to bulk order more lamps

[Eniram]

2nd week results of my ATS, more and thicker green hair algae growth plus slight growth of red hair algae. Could be cyano? Pls correct me if i'm. wrong. Coverage wise its has spread out more compared to the my earlier post.

NO3 yet to be tested but will test and post results soon.

[SantaMonica]

Scrubbers and Cycling

Although it was not an original benefit, enough people have now cycled there tanks using only a scrubber that it is now the recommended way. This means no skimmer, and no waterchanges. What generally happens is that you don't get a "cycle" at all, and you can add livestock in just a few days, after double and triple checking to make sure there is zero ammonia and nitrite.

Cycling your tank has the purpose of letting the dead stuff "get out" of the rock. This stuff died because the rock was out of the water for too long during shipping, and is now forming ammonia. Well, the favorite food of algae is ammonia, and next comes nitrite, and then nitrate. So since the ammonia will be kept low during cycling, more of the natural inhabitants in the rock will survive because they are not being poisoned. Also, this extra time that the scrubber gets to develop during the cycling will allow the screen to be more ready for when you start stocking. You can then start feeding your tank heavier, sooner, since the algae will already be available to absorb a lot of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and phosphate. Growth on the screen, however, will be limited until you start feeding, because there is just not that much to filter during cycling, since a lot of the ammonia etc that develops during cycling is actually from animals that die during the cycling itself (because of high ammonia) and not from the shipping. So after you stock and start feeding, the screen will have much more growth. Usually takes just a few days to get all zero readings.

And you don't need to add anything to get a cycle going, either. Matter of fact, you don't want a cycle at all. A real "cycle" (meaning high ammonia readings) kills the things that were living in the "live" rock. The best situation would be to get a rock from the ocean and put it in your tank in 5 minutes. Everything would still be alive, and there would be no cycle at all. But the shipping process kills a lot, and when the dead stuff gets in your water, you get your cycle. So you certainly don't want to make more ammonia by adding anything to make it worse. Just let the scrubber eat the resulting ammonia, so that the water does not get any worse. A skimmer, amazingly, actually does more harm than good, because not only does it not remove any ammonia (which is what is killing the few things still living), it removes the living critters as they get out of the rock and start swimming around, before they can get back into the rock to hide.

[bobiegoh]

thanks bobie, serious every 7 mths! wow that means i would need to bulk order more lamps

Well bro, initially, I tried to prolong the life-span over 9 months but results not there. Hairy knocking on the door though the light-bulbs still in good conditions. GB.

[SantaMonica]

Here is a super easy DIY nano tank that can easily be made at an acrylic or glass shop. You would want at least a 13 watt bulb no matter how small the nano:

[Eniram]

SM do you think ATS will remove green bubble algae? Have any reefers feedbacked on removing this nuisance algae, my tank has an outbreak of it.

[SantaMonica]

Yes, it just takes a strong scrubber... 1.0 watts per gallon.

[Eniram]

Hey guys 4th week of updates on my scrubber growth.

Added an extra T5 light on the other side, growth not as rapid and thick as the other side (nearer to skimmer)

Did a clean today (5 days cleaning cycle) and this is the algae i got from both sides. NO3 at 20 P04 at 0.5 So far didn't see any pods but hopefully they will bloom.

Hair algae growth slowed a lot and also added an emerald crab to speed up the process.

[stevenkoh08]

i've my system running for quite awhile now...

So far i nvr test no3, no2, po4 and amonia as i trust Algea scrubber alot

The aglea did bloom but most of it is brown w/ abit of green

What's best of all is that my sand bed is clean, glass panel clean and the rocks u can't see any hair algea nor red/brown.

I'm here to SM for sharing his ideas with us

But i would like to add is that skimmer don't really do alot of harm is just that it'll skim out in whatever it go though it, so in another way it bad (so call).

However this item (skimmer) helps alot of people (more to newbies), cause they tends to over feed the fish and also over stocking.

Which causes high pollution of water parameter, unless u running a very oversize scrubber for it in another way u need a skimmer to do the job as in assist before it go crazy...

This also come from my exp. as well doesn't know on others.

U're the man who lets us have an alternative way of setup

for the way i place my skimmer is only skimming bout only half of the water down flow from the main tank

with the other half pass though the scrubber