RUNAS

Just at the Mount.

Did a wee bit of rock hopping this morning with my son and found this new addition to my NZ coldie tank Luckily it didnt have a firm grasp on rock, most of it was on sand so it really just pop off pretty easy,it has already settled into is new rock sweet as ! I would love some more of these,I think theyre very attractive. RUNAS

I recently got one from purewaterclub.com based in the US run by Chinese peolpe I think. It seemed sorta dodgy at first but the service turned out to be awsome, ,it was here in under 10 days. The only hold up was I was double checking the payment, seemed a bit off at the time but it was 100% legit. I would suggest getting the 50% off replacement filter deal when you purchase a unit, it will save you freight in the future. RUNAS

OMG really,my mate sells the stuff :tears: Probably could have brought a tonne !! once again, live and learn. RUNAS

Thanks Ira, Math not my strong point :slfg: You should change your name to IRD, thats how they work, you work your tax and they tell you it more !!! :facepalm: :sml1: Im kidding. I will get some Epsom salts on Sunday, it has to be cheaper than $57 for 1.2kg. Using Epsom Salts are the mixing quantities the same/similar to Seachem? Thanks again. RUNAS

Hello peoples, Hey Ive been adding Seachem Magnesium to my tank to increase it and almost 2kg later its hardly moved :dunno: Its only 300 lt and started around 700ppm and currently sitting on 1000ppm, to increase it to 1400 according to the formula on the bottle I need to add another 1.25 kgs !!! IS this right ? I cant belive it, its costing me a fortune cause this stuff aint cheap. Any advise ? OH yeah I have increased my calcium too which is sitting around 400. I increased it alternating them calcium then 48 hrs later magnesium,calcium shot up easy peezy,magnesium not somuch RUNAS

Yep. 16 .hr per day 10 in off peak. Makes little difference to my monthly bill

Pump rated @ 12.4 W LEDs 10w , so yeah cents. RUNAS

HI,not much to show this week , certainly knocked the a%#*^ out of the black/blue bacteria problem I had :thup: What is on the screen is reminants of that Laters RUNAS

:thup: loving it :thup: I just used a piece of paper and a rule, I know...... so last century right :facepalm: There is no hard and fast rule for the construction of these,so if its going to work for you go for it,however personally I would think about sealing the lights from the channel,you will get evaporation which may cause problems to light fittings. Simple enough to make sliding doors at back to access tubes. If you do that you just may want to make the channel wider, easier to clean thats all and if you install a bulk head fitting in the bottom at some stage you will need a minimum of 60mm for 25mm fitting. future proofing. You may want to use a "gland fitting" for you cables to go through instead of the 10mm gaps, it will just make it a bit more light tight. Ira is right,no need for silicon if you get the glue right they are water tight. Other wise looking good, but are you sure the screen size is right 50mm x 15mm ? thinking 500 x 150 may work better RUNAS

Hi Phantom, I did really copy the L2 ,just modified it to suit what I had. I suggest watching the last episodes of LA fish guy on youtube, he trials the santa monica scrubber for over a year, which is almost exactly what you want to build, its pretty flash as you would expect, slidey bits n all. BUT it has no emergency over flow which I strongly suggest incorporating in the design if possible Im a little perplexed about no sump however I have a cunning plan which may work The first place I started was the lights, just work out the over all lenght including fittings, being t5s I couldnt imagine it being too wide, but bear in mind the HOs do generate heat which can cause the acrylic to warp so you may need think about small fans being installed at one end. Honestly once you get your head around that side of it the rest is fairly straight forward. its just a rectangle box,clear acrylic to form the channel with a hole in the bottom,however its this simple when its over a sump, you dont. I would guess your total width would be 160mm wide,40mm for each section for the lights either side and 80mm for the water channel down the middle. Over all lenght will be at a guess close to 700mm, and you will be looking at around 210-230mm in height, this will give you enough room for your spray bar and a good size screen actually two about the same size as my one each. Because you have no sump,the cunning plan will be pump water from tank through scrubber,make another box under it to catch the water and house another return pump to send the water back up to tank,Im aware this could turn into a siphon in the case of a powercut which may need another thought or two to over come this but nothings impossible. Basically a mini sump! all done in cool black acrylic. :thup: This is just an idea. The acryilc is 4.5 mm thick,handy to know when trying to workout cuts, the guys at PSP cut my pieces to 0.125mm tolerance very cool,so my 291mm pieces were EXACTLY that, because they had to fit inside my box and be glued to be water tight! The holes in the sides were made with a 25mm hole saw which is perfect fit for the 15mm PVC fittings to snug fit into. I made the slit in the 15mm PVC for the spray bar with Angle grinder with a 1mm thick wheel, very easy but it took me a few goes to get it straight. On my design the elbows are 20mm Hanson and has a fitting to step it down to fit the 15mm PVC,with a "mac union" fitting,if you want I can post those parts. It also has a 25mm male bulkhead fitting in the bottom for the drain,I hope the emergency overflow is self expalinatory I hope this helps, feel free to PM me for any more questions or bounce round ideas, however watch LAFG very carefully when he is setting up and cleaning scrubber changing tubes etc its a very good design and very light tight! RUNAS

If it aint broke dude! hopefully you know the rest. I too have some red algae, its little tufts of it, not a slime at all, just spotted around the place, size of a pin head. Not Coraline,wrong colour, I think its quite attractive, but Ive learnt becareful what you wish for in this game. RUNAS

Have a look here http://algaescrubber.net/forums/showthr ... e-Scrubber You may see some similarities with mine :roll: , I was going to copy it excactly but for a trial etc the heat sinks, power packs bla bla made it price prohibitive,and a little messy in the wiring department for a trial, The LEDs I purcahse were $50, a 2m pre pluged flex for $5, screw wires into terminals on back of LEDs,set timer, plug in, job done! No worries about "correct lighting" either being specific colours for growing plants it cant be too far wrong. I got it from here http://ledstuff.co.nz/, really nice people,it was a demo product but they told me they can get more if required, hench why I posted the pic of the label for reference. What you have described GrahameC is another way I was thinking, It sure would good for not having another pump in the sump, I didnt quite follow through on a tidy design for it, but it would still have used the box system on top of sump style with emergency over flows etc similar to mine, just waaay bigger holes to deal with water flow. You maybe a lucky one too GrahameC with no algae RUNAS

Sooo in essence it is a refugium :slfg: sounds cool, mines a NZ coldie, I had shrimp and snails,hermit crabs oh and some speckeld triple fins but sadly they became lunch for a rather agressive little fella I have, the blennys on the other hand are literally stauch and dont give fish X an inch, hence why they have survived. RUNAS

Yes agreed, if you need some alage let me know aye! :lol: I suppose what I mean is even in small amounts it will still happen, visible or not its still present all I want it growing in one place. I mean this sencerly, well done on not have an alage problem Interested to know if either of you are running refugiums ? This is my first marine tank, and even now 6 or so months down the track I wish I knew then what I do now,like the huge importance of using RO-DI water. Im 100% sure things would have turned out different if I had been using RO-DI water from the get go. Belive it or not Im enjoying having problems and learning to slove them and hopfully one day passing on knowledge to people of what NOT to do. If people are interested I dont mind posting a weekly photo of screen to see how it changes over time. Thanks for feed back IRA and fishguy :thup: RUNAS

There are many ways of doing these, and its not certainly not "new" idea. Ive seen the way you have described GrahamC, its still being done,however with the inclusionof the "mesh" over the glass for ease of cleaning and for the alage to get a good hold, but it seems to hold on to glass just fine in my tanks :slfg: . For me,I like and understand the theory behind these, alage is a nessesary evil in a fish tank, so let it grow in a controled enviroment and let it work for the well being of the system by removing phosphates, nitrates etc, just as as refugium does but alittle more aggressively so to speak. . Im convinced one I get a good mat of healthy green algae on the screen I will see a significant change, it wont happen over night but I sure it will. RUNAS

Yes you are correct Graham, the brown is not good, an indication of high nutrients, green is forming on the right hand side of the screen slowly, I should add that my skimmer has once again produced nothing, when it normally has done consistantly since I set up the tank. :dunno: As I understand it the lights run should opposite to your display tank,eg at night,sooo sunlight maybe a problem. I used the LEDs simply for running cost savings,no heat produced and the correct light for growing plants/aglae over incandesent lights. This is an experiment/trial,if I was to rebuild it I would increase size of screen and light from both sides,but I had to work around the space I have where my sump is located. As for scraping both sides, I will try only doing one side next time see what happens. RUNAS

Ooooh a question :slfg: For months Nitrates have been up around 80 ppm,three weeks ago I removed 50% of sand from tank and the coral rubble in sump which had to contributing to Nitrates, they halved over night. :thup: but still too high. I then built and installed scrubber and Nitrates have been slowly been going down about 10 ppm per week so far, I dont think its 100% scrubber but time will tell. So far Im pleased with scrubber from a "no problem" point of view, I dont expect it to be a alage silver bullet, but over time I hope it proves itsself, but also a interesting project as well. Thanks for interest. :happy2: RUNAS

Scrubber still scrubbing ! As you can see, a significant amount of black/brown algae with shades of green in there too,which I have scraped off this week. Unfortunatly this seems to be more of a bacteria than a algae close to red slime :facepalm: SO I have had to use a additive to control this,as much as I have not wanted too I had it under good advise that there really no other option. &c:ry RO-DI unit is currently en-route, so should hav that in a few days. Water parameters are stable with the Nitrates between 5-10 ppm all others zero,the only thing I havent tested for is Silicate which I believe is the source of the issues,it can be the only other thing. Oh well, keep on keeping on !! Before cleaning After cleaning, ready for another week. RUNAS

Hi, well week one done no leaks or dramas with unit, I have increased its light hours to 16 now, see what that does. This is first weeks alage, typically what Im getting sick of in tank, Brown/Black Alage! I have not scraped off any at this stage, I will leave as is and see what week two brings, also got a RO-DI unit coming,which should make a difference. Doing more research on these it seems protein skimmers are being removed if a scrubber is being installed, this is the first week my skimmer has hardly produced anything,so there maybe some merit in it not being there, it would certainly make my sump tidier. Regards RUNAS

Thanks Fishguy, im pleased the way it came out. I got the Acrylic cut by PSP in Hamiton which made waaay easier,I rang them with a cutting list and it was done in around two hours ON A FRIDAY! great service. The special glue cost more than the acrylic :roll: but it didnt leak! cost of glue and plastic was $35. I will take a photo a week of the screen and post it so people can see the results...I Hope :dunno: RUNAS

Hi there guys and gals I thought I would throw up a post regarding my Turf Algae Scrubber I made over the weekend. I did copy some ideas from the “santa monica” brand that is becoming more popular in the US. Total cost will be around $200 including the little Aqua One 1300 pump driving it the ,LEDs were $50 The unit has only been running since about 4 pm today with the LEDS starting a 6pm and will turn off at 7am tomorrow morning. Here’s some pics to get idea what ive done. Surface roughed up for the algae to get a better seed Hopefully I should see some growth on the screen within a week,and start to increase from there, which in turn given time,reduce my Nitrates etc. RUNAS

Id like to know too :spop:

Yes like IRA posted spraybar across plastic mesh with lights. I have most of the bits together, getting the acrylic cut tomorrow, probably assemble tomorrow night. I think the lighting should be pretty cool, scored a sample LED hydroponics grow box for $50, all the right light for algae I hope. If people are interested I don't mind putting up a post of parts used,assembling etc ? Sorry yeah it's for marine too but effective in fresh water too I spose. RUNAS

Hello people, looking at making a alge scrubber, something to do really and see if what I can get off of it. Looking at copying a commercial screen type one, making it from black acrylic with clear lens inside with some little T4 fixtures I have already. Only thing I havent starting looking for is the plastic mesh screen, may be hard to find/? or not.(FOUND ! SPOTLIGHT perforated embroidery canvas $4.95) Any advise from anyone been there done that ? RUNAS