Algae Scrubber Experiment

Hello all.

As many of you may know, I have not been diligent with my updates the last couple months. This is due to the fact that my tank has been completely over run by algae and it looks more like a kelp forest than the reef tank that I wanted when I started my tank in December 2008. There are many reasons why this algae could be growing in my tank, and I tried my best to narrow it down figure out the problem. But, unfortunately, I have had no luck. About a week ago, I was seriously considering breaking down the tank and getting rid of everything, but when I took to the forums to see how much my equipment may be worth, I stumbled across a great thread with a new type of filtration system….

The Algae Scrubber

This type of filtration has been known for a long time. It has come to my knowledge that online message boards hide and delete posts about algal scrubbers because this filtration method can eliminate the need for a refugium, protein skimmer, and all other expensive methods of removing bad chemicals from your system, which would severely hurt their advertising dollars.

How it works:

The principal is very simple: You have a screen; light is aimed at the screen, and tank water is streamed over the screen. What happens is that a type of algae called “turf” starts growing on the screen, and this turf eats ALMOST ALL the nitrate and phosphate in the water flowing over it. However, the turf does NOT eat the food/pods/plankton in the water, so this food will stay in the water for the corals to eat. This is the OPPOSITE of a skimmer, which takes out the food/pods/plankton (so corals starve), but leaves in the nitrate and phosphate that you have to then get out using other means (Such as water changes). What about fish waste that skimmers normally pull out? Well that’s food too, for somebody. Only after waste decomposes completely into nitrate and phosphate is it no longer “food”, and at that point the turf algae consumes it to grow! After all, what do you think the green algae on your rocks and glass are eating? Food? No. Nitrate and phosphate!

Once the scrubber has accumulated a good amount of algae, you simply remove it, and clean the algae off in your sink. Bye bye nitrates and phosphates. Then, you set the scrubber back up and start the process again. The algal scrubber eliminates the need for protein skimmer, refugium, carbon, phosban, polyfilter, etc and all of these products can cost hundereds of dollars, but a scrubber will cost you $50 to make + a small pump. Once I proove that it actually works with my Scrubber Chronicle, I will start to make basic ones to sell. stay tuned!

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