I am very interested in this product. I have a few questions though, can this be run from the overflow drain? Or should it be hooked up to a pump directly? I was going to run a carbon pellet reactor, but I would imagine with this product, I would not need to do the pellet reactor? I have not seen much conversation on using these two products together. Also, I am sure you it is somewhere on this site, but how do you minimize the needed addition of Kalc into your tank due to the algae scrubber?
You can run a scrubber from a drain, just put two valves on it so you can regulate the flow, one to the scrubber and the other to the sump area. Just be sure you have 35GPH per inch of screen width you have. I dont run anything except a scrubber, no socks, no media, and not another filter what so ever--not even a skimmer.
Greetings Aqualoco In response to the addition of KH, as this does not happen if the relationship of fish is right,,, if not, if you'll have to add baking soda to compensate regards
I usually recommend pump fed. If overflow fed, you need to ensure a secondary full clear overflow path so that if anything goes down the pipe and snags on the screen, you don't overflow the tank. Biopellets can be run in conjunction with a scrubber. Other carbon dosing methodologies like Vodka or Vinegar do not seem to work quite as well. BP are a constant feed and you can adjust that also, which I think makes the difference. If you're going to do BP, I would recommend a recirculating reactor so you can control the effluent/influent. As far as alkalinity goes, this seems to vary from tank to tank, but a fast-growing scrubber (large volume / mass of algae) will tend to pull alk down as CO2 is reduced out of the water column. If you have a skimmer, one solution is to put the output of the skimmer near the input to the scrubber, that water will be rich in air (CO2, O2, whatever is in your room air) and this can reduce the alk uptake. Using an open-air setup, or blowing air into the top of a closed-box unit (like an L2, L4, etc, without the lid on) can also reduce alk uptake
Thank you everyone for all of your responses. Seems like I will be putting an order for an L4 scrubber soon.
