Will my DIY idea work?

Hello all. This is my first post here and I am hoping you good folks could help me with my DIY waterfall scrubber idea. I have had an aquarium of some sort in my house since high school, but I have only ever run a sump once so my plumbing ability is not that great.

My tank is a 95 gallon running sumpless and skimmerless for about 15 months. I made the mistake of buying my live rock from someone that was taking their tank down. I should have known better. It sprouted tons of macro algae, bubble algae, and what I think is turf. Aside from the algae growth I have been very happy with the growth and health of the corals. I have 8 fish and I feed about the equivalent of 2-3 cubes a day if you factor in feeding my corals. This is a recent photo of my tank:



If you look in the left side of my tank you can see the HOG scrubber that I added in the hope of out competing the macro growing in my tank. I think cost wise I would have been better off building my own water fall scrubber or buying the turbo! Here are some photos of the harvest I got from the HOG. This is 7 days growth:







It took me about 3 months to get to the point where I am harvesting this amount of algae growth. I posted over on the other forum and SM recommended I purchase another HOG or one of the others that he has for sale. That led me to do some more research and I found this forum. I thought my harvest was good until I saw some of the photos of the harvests from waterfall scrubbers. I have a cabinet beside my tank that I could use to plumb a scrubber. My idea is to use my ehiem 1250 externally from the cabinet with the input plumbed about 2" below the tank surface and then run a side drain from the scrubber through the cabinet back to the tank.



Will this work? The drain would have about a 2 foot horizontal run before dropping into the tank. I appreciate and ideas and advice you all could share with me.

 

Thank you for your reply Turbo. My idea is to use a plastic trash can to hold the slot pipe and screen. I would like to run my pump externally from inside the cabinet. This would keep the unsightly pump out of the tank. I would drill a hole through the side of the cabinet and run the input with a sponge prefilter from the tank to the pump. I would place the intake high up in the tank with a siphon brake hole drilled just under the water in case the drain ever clogged. I would also plumb an emergency drain just in case. I am thinking that I would cut out a viewing panel on each side of the trash can so the led lights could be placed straight on instead of clipped at the top angled down. Would I need a clear panel glued in to protect the lights from moisture, or would draping the screen with Saran wrap be enough?

If I sent you my measurements would you be able to make my slot pipe and screen? If so what would you charge? I am thinking of doing a 5" wide by 8" or 9" long screen. I would use 3/4" for the slot pipe and 1" drains. The output from the 1250 is 1/2", but I would adapt it up to 3/4" and install unions so I could easily remove the pump for cleaning. Would I need a gate valve on the drain? I know I need at least a ball valve to control the flow to the screen.
Thanks again for your help.

 

Do you think this light will work well:

• Spectrum: Red - 630nm, 660nm & Blue - 460nm
• Diameter: 4.5 Inches
• Power Draw: 14.8W / 120-240V / 60Hz / .12 Amps
• Standard Household Socket - E26
• Package Includes: 1 - Apollo Horticulture 24 Watt LED Light Bulb

Product Details

• Manufacturer: AmazonUs/PSYMG
• Manufacturer reference: AH LED-PAR38-24W
• Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 5.7 x 5.5 inches; 14.4 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• ASIN: B00PBCG8X0

 

Ok, I see what you are saying about the pump. I did not realize that it would not self start. So I guess the pump needs to be in the tank. Maybe I could fashion a shelf with magnets to hide it behind my rock work and elevate it off the sand bed. I will figure out some way to make it look less noticeable from the front.

I will keep looking at lights. I know the 660 reds are the ones to get, but I am having trouble finding a fixture with just them. I figure I could reuse the lights from my HOG in one side.

Thanks so much for all of your help.

 

Well I did some more searching and I found this bulb: http://ecreef.com/en/algae-filtration/105-9w-algae-grow-light-bulb

I think two of these per side should work well. They are only 1w leds, but they are the correct color. I will update once I have the scrubber built. I appreciate your help and advice. This will be my first major DIY plumbing project. Wish me luck...lol

 

ok so I decided to get on the wait list for a turbo L2. I am super excited and I think this is a great decision. In the mean time I want to try and get the most out of my HOG. I have the largest version which I think is a 3. My first post in this thread shows 7 days of growth. This morning I noticed that it wasn't bubbling very much so I decided to clean it out. Tonight is only 3 days of growth. I made a video for before and after cleaning to show just how much flow is lost after only 3 days. I think the algae grows from the bottom and clogs the holes in the airline in the process. I took some photos of the harvest which also includes growth on the glass (I guess you would call this 3D growth).

Before



After




Algae:

 

My air pump is pretty dang big. Ill have to check the LPH. The funny thing is the growth doesn't stop, but I am sure with better flow even more would grow although the space within the HOG is somewhat limited. At 7 days it does not seem like there would be room for much more to grow. Ill just keep plugging along for now and keep an eye on the flow.

Once I set up the L2 would you recommend seeding the screen with the algae I have growing in the HOG?

 

I swapped out the air pump and so far so good. I am hoping the flow will still be good at 7 days growth. I had a large Rena 600 in my stash of supplies up in the attic. I was amazed at all the stuff that I have saved over the years. The Rena is much quieter than the pump I was using so that is a bonus.