My Tank and L3 Algae Scrubber Journey

Figured I would go ahead and start my thread on my tank and my soon to be Algae Scrubber I ordered my L3 Scrubber, can't wait for it to come in. I will be spending my day off tomorrow rerouting my return line to the tank, needs to be moved a bit to accommodate the Scrubber. I will also be making a shelf pattern for the Scrubber to sit on. Figured I would make it out of a piece of plywood, when I have it just right I will remake it out of a piece of Acrylic. I will have to have some slots cut in the shelf to fit around the return line and my Manifold system. I will get my photographer (wife) to take some before and after photos for ya'll. The one thing I can't seem to find in the forum, that I think needs a post on: So the Algae Turff Scrubber is hooked up: Now What? I have gathered from what I have read, you don't run the Scrubber 24/7 how do I determine what my lighting cycle should be for a new Scrubber?

 

Well, I had two tank jobs to do today, one had to do with the Scrubber the other didn't, and as always, neither went as smooth as I wanted but ended alright, more or less. The first job, the one not Scrubber related: My over flow box has one return line coming back into the tank, I wanted to split the return pipe so that I could have a return line entering the tank on both side of the over flow box, create a bit more flow on the side of the tank without the return line. To do this I had to shorten the Durso style drain pipe, so that the new return line could come across the other side of the over flow box, over the top of the drain pipe. The down side to doing this, I knew I would most likely increase the noise from the over flow box as the water falling into the over flow had to drop a bit more to the new level in the over flow box. Got the job done and its making a bit to much noise for me, I cut the drain pipe about 3/4 of an inch to short. My remedy is to rebuild the Durso drain pipe, make it 3/4 of an inch longer than it is now, see what kind of noise I have then, if still to much, go back to the way it was. Now the Scrubber related job, I needed to reroute my return line in the sump to make room for the Scrubber, what an idiot I am I got the job done, believe it or not no extra parts and didn't have to go back to Lowes to pick any up I dry fitted everything together and then started gluing. Puter is next to the tank, turned around brought the Apex up and turned the return pump back on, turned back around looking for leaks, saw none and was all happy with a job well done. Then the part of the pipe that I hadn't glued came apart. Was trying to hold the part that wasn't glued over the sump while using the other hand to type on the key board to shut the return pump off. Finally figured out I couldn't do both at the same time LOL Its all good now though, mess is cleaned up and the pipes rerouted. Wanted to work on a top for that part of the sump that the Scrubber will sit on, figured I had pressed my luck enough for one day, I quit

 

I am going to start making the platform to support my Scrubber over my sump, wanted to see if I would be making it right and if I was forgetting anything. The L3 Scrubber is 12 inches long by 6 inches wide, if I make the supporting platform 12 inches long by 7 inches wide, I should be good to good. With the platform being 12 inches long, the two over flow drain lines on the Scrubber should be able to drop straight into the sump, I should also be able to connect the feed line from the pump to the Scrubber without any restrictions? I can make the platform any width I want, I just didn't want to make it any longer than I needed, want to make the platform where I wouldn't have to drill any holes to run the Drain lines thru and into the sump.

 

Not the best pic, but its all I have at the moment. In the pic the drain lines from the Scrubber will be on the left side, intake from the feed pump will come from the manifold system. The return pump to the tank is in the last section of the sump on the right, it and the return pump line have been moved right up against the right side sump panel and moved to the front of the sump tank. The return line has been moved, it doesn't cut across the sump as it does in this pic. It goes down the side of the tank to the back of the sump and then across the back of the sump and connects to the line going up to the display tank, the Manifold lines are towards the front of the sump. What this does is give me the area behind the Manifold lines to place the Scrubber platform. I have 22 inches in which to place the 12 inch long Scrubber, the width I have to place the 6 inch wide Scrubber is 12 inches. I want to place the scrubber so that the over flow lines from the Scrubber drain into the Skimmer section, the section on the far left of my sump. I could wait till I get the Scrubber in to do all of this, but think I have it all figured out. My part is easy, you have the hard part, making it lol. I hope the link from Photo Bucket works lol I don't use it much and it seems like every time I do, they have changed everything up.

 

15 inches, minus the thickness of the Scrubber platform. The stand is tall, 37 1/2 inches from the floor to the top the Display Tank sits on. Wanted to be able to look at the tank without hunching over like I did with the old 125g tank I had.

 

That's a 40 Breeder sump, so its a descent size sump, it 18 inches wide (front to back) The return pump you see on the right side of the sump and the next pump over, the Manifold pump have both been moved to almost right up against the front panel of the sump. I have 12 inches behind the lines you see coming off the Manifold system to the back panel of the sump tank, you could see it better with a side view of the sump tank. That's where the platform for the Scrubber will go, I will post a pic when I have it made.

 

I made a shelf pattern for the Scrubber yesterday out of a poster board sheet, then made the shelf out of plywood today and sealed it with some Kills paint from Lowe's. After I get the Scrubber in tomorrow and I see that the shelf will work the ways its made I will give the pattern to a friend that is pretty good with Acrylic to remake the shelf. My plywood shelf dosn't have a lip on it that fits over the sump tanks edge, it just sits on top of the sump tank. The Acrylic shelf will have a lip to keep the shelf from falling into the sump tank, not that it would, just piece of mind. Let me ask a question here, I have been reading this forum and the Algae Scrubber forum looking for this answer, without any luck I think the answer is yes, but thought I would ask: I shouldn't run my GFO reactor when I start up the Scrubber?

 

Guess what I got off the Fed Ex Truck today After reading about the quality of Buds Scrubbers, I was expecting a nice,quality made Scrubber. I was still surprised on how well made these scrubbers are. I have to cut out the hole for the bottom drain line (which will take me a day or two) But then we should be good to go. Thanks again for the quality made Scrubber Bud, I am impressed.

 

That's a temporary shelf, will be making a Acrylic shelf with a lip around it to keep it from sliding into the sump tank.

 

Well, its going to take me a bit longer than I planned to get the Scrubber up and running. I have decided to relocate the MP40s and Battery backups to a, I will call it a control panel. I have been wanting to do this for awhile and it would be a pain to do after I get the Scrubber online, so the time is now. I guess I am starting to learn to have patients

 

Well, we are up and running I will get some pics posted later, when I can get the wife to take them Everything went pretty smooth LOL I couldn't figure one part, then I did, what a dummy. I did figure out that I need a bigger feed pump for my manifold system though. I have just the GFO reactor and the Scrubber running right now, and not the Carbon reactor. If I put the Carbon reactor online, there wouldn't be enough water for the Scrubber.

 

The first two are of the Algae Scrubber and the last pic is of the MP40 equipment I also moved to a better location. I have a little kink in the feed hose to the Scrubber, will pick up a better hose from Lowes.

 

Scrubber was making a noise when the water would drain out of it. Water was building up in the Scrubber to about 1 inch up the Scrubber screen, then it would go down the drain, sort of like flushing a toilet. Everytime the water would go out the drain, it would make a noise. I could turn the valve all the way either direction and it would make no differance. Then I thought, I might be feeding the Scrubber to much water, dialed that down a bit, problem solved. Water is not backing up onto the screen and not making any noise, well hardly any so I think I have it dialed in. I ran the Scrubber 9 hours last night when the Display tank lights were off, sound about right?