Biocube w/ Algae Scrubber

[vikinglord13]

Hello all,

I'm currently battling GHA in my tank and I'm frankly fed up with it so I want to put an algae scrubber in chamber 2 of my 29G biocube.

My fish are fed less than they used to be so I think this could be the beginning stages of OTS since my tank is approximately 1.5 years old.

Anyways, I was thinking of using a rain gutter and capping the ends so the water has to go through the slit and onto the screen. My question is, has anybody ever made an ATS with a rain gutter and been successful with it? I'm sure if I make the slit for the screen to go in large enough I won't have a problem with it clogging, though, I'm not sure how I'll actually make the slit. I thought of drilling holes in a line then cutting between them, but, that's won't necessarily end up straight.

Do you guys have any ideas?

Thanks!

[jrvelie]

Following this one. I like the idea and would like to try it in mine.

[vikinglord13]

Thanks! I'm glad to see someone else is interested in the idea.

Here's a rough design. If I calculated it correctly 42" sq. in. is enough for lighting from one side - at least for my tank since I have about 20 gallons of water in mine, I'd have less with the ATS installed, unless it's fully submerged. I think the main problem is there isn't a support on the glass side - only on the plastic dividers on the three sides, so I'm not sure how supporting the gutter would work.

[saf1]

You said bio-cube? Did you do any other mods to it?

You could try and made a tray that sits on top of the second chamber, let water flow over it and fall down into the 2nd chamber, then let the 3rd return it. 2nd chamber is dark already and you could place a grow LED light attached to the back of the tank there. Usually, at least on mine, it had a glass pane just for this. Or, you could add a LED light, red or whatever and shine down from the hood. Or even get the submergible lights and shove it in the 2nd - I've seen people grow cheeto in there like that.

It would be more like an algae trough.

[vikinglord13]

0 mods.

The newer biocubes have the black film taken off already (at least mine did) so all I had to do was attach an LED strip to the wall behind it. I have a ball of chaeto growing back there currently.

By trough do you mean have it lay flat or bend it/glue two pieces together so that it forms a V? Or, possibly have it at an angle with the light-near side higher than the light-far side so that it all gets light? I see how that could work. Though, I'd prefer using a rain gutter if I could.

[Mark9]

Why not just toss in some turbo snails to eat the algae?
3 would probably have it clean in a couple weeks.

[vikinglord13]

I already have snails. 2 Chestnut turbo, about 5 nerite, and a couple astrea turbo. They're not eating it, and I think it's because it's already established (getting that from some articles/threads I've read).

Anyways, I bought an emerald crab yesterday for a solution to the symptom, we'll see how well it works. I've already seen it eating some.

[FullBoreReefer]

Gfo would be cheap on a biocube. Maybe less hassle that building something. Also massive water changes wouldn't cost much either.

I think with such a small tank other means would be easier.

...although I do run a scrubber myself haha

[seefil]

There are many simple PVC ATS designs. Mine took an hour with about $20 of supplies. Split off the return pump to feed it. The lights might break you for $12 on amazon..

Lights

[ReefWreak]

I set up an ATS when I started my tank, an ATS in the simplest (and still very effective) format. Go on ebay, buy a 6500K LED floodlamp for $12, dangle it behind the tank, pressed up against and shining in through that glass strip in the back. Have it run on a reverse light cycle.

Sure, you could do fancy stuff, but doing the method I mentioned above, my second chamber grew GHA by the handful when I first set up my tank. When I wanted to remove the algae and start it up again, I'd take a plastic card (insurance card in this case), turn the pump off, scrape the walls of the second chamber to dislodge all of the algae, then you just do a water change, siphoning straight from that second chamber. It would easily remove all of that scraped off algae, you'd be doing your water change, not bothering anything in the front of the tank, and an algae free display.

I feed lightly and moved over to heavy skimming and vodka dosing on my SPS biocube, but I still attribute my exploration into 2nd chamber refugiums to my early success with avoiding any algae battle upfront.

Good luck, feel free to PM me, post in my thread, or post in the nano forum with questions and I'll probably see it and respond.

[eder10986]

Originally Posted by seefil

There are many simple PVC ATS designs. Mine took an hour with about $20 of supplies. Split off the return pump to feed it. The lights might break you for $12 on amazon..

Lights

I like this idea and might give it a shot. How did you return water to sump/display from your scrubber?


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[ramasule]

Nice ideas in here.

[felixfish]

Can you show more pics of this ATS? Looks great!