Reefin Aint Easy
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Here is my attempt at a DIY algae scrubber. Overall not to bad. Definitely learned some things while working with the acrylic. Waiting for material to arrive tomorrow to black out the clear acrylic around the light.
DIY Algae Scrubber
- Thread starter Reefin Aint Easy
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Looks very clean well done. What size are the drains?
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Reefin Aint Easy
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Thank you! I went with 1" for both drains. Kinda overkill I know lol
No not at all that’s good because you want to have a wider drain then the return. I used a one inch with a ball valve to stop any gurgling and it worked perfectly.
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Reefin Aint Easy
Active Member
Ok good to know! I used to have a Clear Water Scrubber and that's what that one would do is gurgle if you had the flow to high. So I may have to put a valve on this one as well like you mentioned if I get the gurgling.
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Reefin Aint Easy
Active Member
Yeah put a ball valve on the drain.
Think of the ATS drain like your main siphon line. Need to tune the drain to match the flow, otherwise they make a ton of noise.
I made an ATS very similar to your, using very similar lights. I ended up painting the inside of the box white to reflect light. The "spot light" effect from those lights cause the algae to burn off in the middle. I also ended up putting a piece of black tape right across the front of the light where the LED puck was. This dispersed the light better.
Recommendations from @Turbo's Aquatics , and really made my ATS take off.
Think of the ATS drain like your main siphon line. Need to tune the drain to match the flow, otherwise they make a ton of noise.
I made an ATS very similar to your, using very similar lights. I ended up painting the inside of the box white to reflect light. The "spot light" effect from those lights cause the algae to burn off in the middle. I also ended up putting a piece of black tape right across the front of the light where the LED puck was. This dispersed the light better.
Recommendations from @Turbo's Aquatics , and really made my ATS take off.
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Reefin Aint Easy
Active Member
Good to know. I'll put a valve on the drain to eliminate the gurgle. Right now the 1" drain is able to take the whole thing and keep up and has not gurgled yet. I'm wondering if I need to up the flow more? I think I have to small of a pump feeding it. It will be installed on my manifold once I re-do my plumbing when my new sump arrives, but for now I have a sicce syncra silent 1.0 on it. I think its not enough..
The good thing about these lights is that they don't have a single puck in the middle, they have individual LED's spread across the light.
You want very low flow over the screen initially, so the algae can attach and not just get washed off. I used a larger pump, and just dialed back the flow through a ball valve. As the algae started to take hold, you obviously need to increase the flow over the screen. SO having a larger pump with a valve will help down the road.
@Turbo's Aquatics has a nice DIY website on flow rates and other ATS related stuff. It's worth the read.
@Turbo's Aquatics has a nice DIY website on flow rates and other ATS related stuff. It's worth the read.
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Reefin Aint Easy
Active Member
Awesome, thank you! I will check that out. In the meantime I'm gonna upgrade to a bigger pump and put a valve on it. When its finally hooked to my manifold, it will have a gate valve on it.
Try it out, but you may need to end up putting a gasket on the end of the slot pipe. As my growth started getting thicker, I found water spurting out where the pipe meets the acrylic.
Nice job BTW!
Will this be an "over the sump design", or standing on it's own?
Nice job BTW!
Will this be an "over the sump design", or standing on it's own?
Awesome DIY skills, wish mine were as good. lol
My gluing/welding acrylic skills leaves a little bit to be desired.
My gluing/welding acrylic skills leaves a little bit to be desired.
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Reefin Aint Easy
Active Member
Yeah I have gaskets ordered where the pipe will sit on to seal around where the pipe enters and exits the box for that just in case.
This will be sitting over my sump. I will never put one outside of my sump, read to many horror stories haha.
Looking back....
I see your draining out the side, not the bottom. Could be why your not having the gurgling issue.
I see your draining out the side, not the bottom. Could be why your not having the gurgling issue.
After seeing yours, I may have to remake mine. It's pretty ugly. lol
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Reefin Aint Easy
Active Member
Yeah that could be. The water isn't ever filling up the bulkhead faster than its draining so that's a plus. I oversized these bulkheads so maybe that's why too haha. I see most with 1/2" to 3/4" bulkheads but I went with 1" for both.
Yeah I feed mine with 1/2", and drain to 3/4".
But I drain out the bottom, and find it gurgles if I don't "tune" the drain like you would for a herbie overflow. I keep just enough drain open so that there is like a 1/2" of water in the bottom.
But I drain out the bottom, and find it gurgles if I don't "tune" the drain like you would for a herbie overflow. I keep just enough drain open so that there is like a 1/2" of water in the bottom.
OP
OP
Reefin Aint Easy
Active Member
Yeah that makes sense. This is fed with 3/4" plumbing, but has a 1/2" barb fitting on the input so it can be fed with 1/2". I did 3/4" because that's what I had here and didn't want to have to purchase all the stuff to make it 1/2" haha.
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