CodKing Posted July 24, 2010 Report Share Posted July 24, 2010 I've just been reading this article: http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/saltwat ... r-diy.html Any thoughts or opinions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted July 24, 2010 Report Share Posted July 24, 2010 yeah. very very effective and quite ingenious too. however if you have nitrates, just add plants to the tank and plant it up - kinda hard in a native tank i guess where the fish don't do high light... or do water changes too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted July 24, 2010 Report Share Posted July 24, 2010 there are a few reefers running algae scrubbers around and also Deep sand beds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodKing Posted July 24, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 24, 2010 Yeah sand was the other option. I've got a nice design for a fluid sand filter. Putting a false wall in the back on the aquarium so the backdrop is a narrow chamber swirling sand. For the algae beds I was thinking maybe an LED setup. I've got an old computer powersupply which I've turned into a benchtop 12V power supply which would run awhole bunch I was thinking if done properlly it could be quite small and tidy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spoon Posted July 24, 2010 Report Share Posted July 24, 2010 the bigger the algae scrubber the more efficent it is at nutrient export so its worthwhile making it a decent size some of the reefers use par 38 energy saving bulbs they are 23w and have a built in reflector Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodKing Posted July 24, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 24, 2010 any idea of the light range one might need to grow these little critters? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodKing Posted July 24, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 24, 2010 Describes the spectrum. I might have to give this a go. Anyone recomend a powerhead? Never used one so don't know what to look for. Tank is 65L (ish) http://www.oilgae.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=1267 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted July 24, 2010 Report Share Posted July 24, 2010 6500K LEDs can be a bit dear. but any thing from about 6000K - 12000K would be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted July 25, 2010 Report Share Posted July 25, 2010 Take Stantamonica's word with a bit of caution, he posts on a lot of forums, only about scrubbers. To put it politely he is very enthusiastic over the positives and dismissive of the negatives. From his posts on the NZ marine forums I believe he also sells scrubbers. Although after saying that, I have been wondering when freshwater fish keepers are going to cotton on to things like algae scrubbers and deep sand bed's. A lot of us are doing it already, a tank with a deep layer of substrate that has been running for a while is effectively running a deep sand bed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted July 25, 2010 Report Share Posted July 25, 2010 Although after saying that, I have been wondering when freshwater fish keepers are going to cotton on to things like algae scrubbers and deep sand bed's. Probably about when siphoning out the door then refilling from a hose becomes as expensive as a couple kg of salt and 200L of RO water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted July 25, 2010 Report Share Posted July 25, 2010 Probably about when siphoning out the door then refilling from a hose becomes as expensive as a couple kg of salt and 200L of RO water. Or when they find out you don't need to clean your glass if you don't have nitrates. It's been 4-5 months since I last did mine. Or realize the main reason for water changes is removing nitrate, if you have no nitrate........ I should really keep quiet, it could ruin a lot of peoples hobbies if they no longer have reason to spend their weekends doing maintenance :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted July 25, 2010 Report Share Posted July 25, 2010 Or when they find out you don't need to clean your glass if you don't have nitrates. It's been 4-5 months since I last did mine. Or realize the main reason for water changes is removing nitrate, if you have no nitrate........ I should really keep quiet, it could ruin a lot of peoples hobbies if they no longer have reason to spend their weekends doing maintenance :lol: I haven't cleaned my glass in 4-5 years. It doesn't take an entire weekend to throw one end of a hose in a tank, suck on the end then wander off for half an hour. Certainly beats the crap I went through with my marine tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodKing Posted July 26, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2010 Take Stantamonica's word with a bit of caution, he posts on a lot of forums, only about scrubbers. To put it politely he is very enthusiastic over the positives and dismissive of the negatives. From his posts on the NZ marine forums I believe he also sells scrubbers. Negatives? The only negatives I can really see are stripping the water completely of things my plants can use and probably how ugly the end result will be Thanks for the tip! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted July 27, 2010 Report Share Posted July 27, 2010 A bit of research will soon start to show the negatives, most forums he posts in become annoyed at how he is "selling" his idea's and start to pull them apart. Some of the common points are coloring of the water, difficulty of maintenance, overstatement of how well they work, risk of the algae crashing, safety with some of the designs, power usage, etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Rimbauer Posted July 27, 2010 Report Share Posted July 27, 2010 A bit of research will soon start to show the negatives, ... When I read it I thought it seemed like useful tool presuming of course that the pods etc he describes do eventuate. After some thought I decided that it probably wouldn't be trustworthy on it's own, and that it would be better to run a tank with both skimming and an algae scrubber. Of course, I haven't set up a reef tank yet, I'm still armchair reefkeeping. In your experience, are many people in NZ using them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodKing Posted July 28, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 28, 2010 Right-o! Nice, thanks for that. A bit more reading and I can see what you're saying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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