Introducing the new Turbo Algae Scrubber! (Rev 4)

They are not submersible but they have end caps and a clear acrylic shield, and the way they are installed they are very well protected. Not that I would intentionally do it, but if one spilled water on top of the scrubber and it dripped or poured down over the fixtures themselves, it would not easily get near any of the internal components.

If the scrubber is mounted such that a power outage would submerge the scrubber to the point where the LED boards get wet while they are energized, they're likely going to get ruined.

The waiting list is not based on the size of unit you want, it's based on when you were placed on the waiting list (essentially when you first reached out and showed interest). What I have been doing lately is asking you to assign yourself a "priority" level, and then I try to get to those first. But at the moment, I'm so far behind due to life intervening that everyone is pretty much in one of two levels, "right now" or "whenever you can get to me"

If you are not on the list right now I'm calling the wait time 2 months, minimum. Life has definitely thrown me curve balls this year, more than I could have imagined.

 

Welcome to the site!

My units are sized primarily according to feeding: L2 = 2 cubes/day, L4 = 4, etc. Then there are secondary factors, which are a little more subjective, and very much dependent on your specific system / setup. Here's a blurb on sizing that I really need to throw up on my website:

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Based on experience and feedback, here are some rough "dividing lines"

L2: good for tanks up to 120 to 150 gallons that are fed ~2 cubes/day, possibly a bit more feeding.

L4: good for tanks up to 250-300 gallons fed ~4 cubes/day

L8: tanks up to about 500g fed ~8 cubes/day

L16: up to 1000g systems fed ~16 cubes/day

Now given that, there are some adjustment factors that you can take into account.

The first is other filtration. If you have other "primary" filtration components, these are obviously going to take up some of the filtration load. These can be live rock, skimmer, biopellets or other carbon dosing, filter socks, auto-water-change systems, denitrators, phosphate reactors/GFO, carbon, macro refugiums, you name it.

So for example, if you have a 200g tank with a big skimmer (200-250g rated) and a biopellet reactor and you feed 4 cubes/day, you might be able to use an L2 because that skimmer and reactor are going to take up a good chunk of the load. But, you could also get an L4 and then the scrubber might take on a more complementary or possibly primary role, or give you room to grow, or serve as a fail-safe system.

Now let's say you have a moderate sized skimmer (100-150g rated) and no BP reactor, now you likely to need the L4 as the scrubber is going to act more like primary filtration with the skimmer being complementary to the scrubber (but there are some really good 150g rated skimmers also...)

Another factor is tank turnover rate - this is probably only an issue when you are in the range of 100-300g. If you look at the total flow across the screen in GPH and then divide that by the system volume, you get a tank turnover rate (it's not full-pass turnover, but anyways...). IMO you want this number to be > 1.0. So if an L2 need ~200 GPH and your tank is 200g, that's a TTR=1 which is a bit low, but its' OK. If you are at 250g, then it's TTR=200/250=0.8, while an L4 at 400+ GPH would be TTR=400/250=1.6, much better. Once you get to the 300-400g range, that's when the L4 TTR starts to close on 1.0, but when you jump to the L8 that doesn't change because the unit length is the same, but the screen is 2x as tall so you get a longer contact time per pass.

Next you have other factors like persistent nutrient problems, a very neglected tank, or major algae problems. These tend to either bump you up a unit in size, but that is a temporary thing so I try to steer people who are in those situations to choose a unit that suits their "ideal" situation rather than view the scrubber as a "problem fixer". A scrubber can be that, in the long term, but in the short term sometimes you just have to do what needs to be done to get on the path to that ideal situation then set yourself up for long term success.

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The LED consumption is of course based on what dimmer setting you are using, as the actual consumed power will vary with dimming. I'm pretty sure I measured the actual draw with an ammeter/voltmeter at some point and I took a video but I can't find it. What I can tell you is that the L2 uses a single Meanwell LPV-60-15 power supply to power up 2 LED boards, so that is a maximum possible draw of 60 watts (if memory serves me correctly, it's actually more like 40W at max power draw.

So the L4 would be exactly 2x that, or 80W (uses 4 LED boards and 2x 60W power supplies). L8 160W (8 LED boards and 2x 100W power supplies), L16 320W (16 LED boards, and 4x 100W power supplies).

Let me know if this information does not answer your questions, or if it raises additional ones!

 

I'm not sure what you're referring to with the "s" models?

If you want to be added to the waiting list, open a support ticket by following the directions here: Turbo's Aquatics - Ordering

 

If you're referring to the part where I mention making several L4s and L8s, that is plural, not a model number. One L4, two L4s, one L8, four L8s

 

done, I replied to your email as well

Please go here and follow the directions to open up a support ticket, we'll take it from there!
Turbo's Aquatics - Ordering

 

All units are roughly a 2 month lead time - I fill orders based on contact date & priority

 

Hey everyone, I just started an official show-off thread on Reef2Reef for everyone who runs one of my scrubbers!

Post up pics of your system and your scrubber here:

Show off your Turbo's Aquatics Algae Scrubber!

 

You are on my waiting list, but I am very far behind any planned production schedule. Work ramped up to the point where I haven't even set foot in my garage to work on a scrubber in over 2 weeks. I have been so busy that I actually didn't have time to check any non-work related email for nearly a week. Not kidding. Sorry to everyone waiting, you will be taken care of, but right now I am in a pretty serious holding pattern until my work demands taper off a bit. I have been working 16+ hour days for more than 2 weeks straight, the only break I got was this weekend and I did nearly zero of anything.