I'm running a new scrubber on a reef tank with softies, LPS & tangs. NO3 is 0.25ppm & PO4 < 0.03 The scrubber has two screens, both with a surface area equal to the cube equivalent of food I feed the tank daily. I have no other filtration, other than live rock. After reading this thread Algae and Reefs I would like to ask, what other filtration should I be using & why? Thanks for any feedback
With softies and LPS you probably don't have much to worry about, but if you get into SPS then what I generally recommend is pairing a scrubber with an undersized skimmer (smaller than what "they" recommend for your size tank) and/or carbon (smaller amount, changed more frequently. My preferred alternative to carbon is Purigen and I got a few Avast Spyglass reactors to try it out, I love Purigen but it's a pain to make it effective. The spyglass reactors fix that. Can you post exact specs and maybe a pic?
Thanks for the reply Turbo. I've changed how I filtered the tank, gradually over a few weeks, to the double screen scrubber method with no other filtration except live rock. My tank has been running for 4 years & I have had real issues with NO3 & PO4. The tank is only a 180 litre, no sand bed Previous set up - plenty of live rock, Marine Pure block 8 x 4, skimmer, carbon, poly filter, mechanical filtration pads. I've built a few scrubbers of various styles over the years & a year ago built a waterfall type & added it to the system with great results. I built a much improved second waterfall scrubber & installed it nine weeks ago. Once the screens were growing I removed the skimmer after three weeks, no carbon of poly filter after 4 weeks. NO3 had been steady at around 5ppm, then at eight weeks I removed the Marine Pure block from the sump. Four days later NO3 had fallen to 0.25ppm (RedSea test kit). As I intend to run a scrubber only system your thread Algae and Reefs caught my eye. I understand what skimmers & carbon achieve but even with sps why would they be necessary with efficienty scrubbing? And what "chemical warfare" does growing algae create? Feed tank about two cubes daily. Screens = 6 x 4 by two flow 1100 litres / hour over each screen 5 LEDs 660nm each side, total 14watts Growth on one screen after 7 weeks the hole in the centre dissappeared a few days after upping the flow
Man that screen looks like a square doughnut!! It's odd that you would get that with only 660s Nice tank!
