Red Sea E-170 lower sump

[Oregonic]

Was at CB's the other day and pulled the trigger on ordering the Red Sea lower sump for my E-170. Also purchased an eflux dc return pump. Sump should arrive middle to end of next week and i will install next weekend. I will post pics of the install when it arrives. I am planing on using the included ATO tank as a waterfall style algae turff scrubber, anyone have any suggestions as to what lights to use for this?  

[xmas_one]

I don't know about a turf scrubber, but I grew chaeto like crazy with just a 23w CFL in a clamp on socket/reflector from HD or Lowes.

[Oregonic]

It arrived  i will take some additional photos as it is installed and update the thread.  The cat is super interested lol. 

[albertareef]

Congrats - have fun setting it up.

PS - the cat just wants the box... it is the way of the cat ? 

[Oregonic]

I booted the cat from his new glass box and put it under the tank tonight.  Had to untangle a huge birds nest of wires/ato and dosing hoses. Going to re route all the wiring tomorrow after a Home Depot trip for supplies. Got salt mixing in the sump and a small heater that will take a while to get water up to temperature. This all would have been much easier if i would have just have purchased a sump when I purchased the tank. Im a little nervous to tie them together, 13 gallons is a lot to add to the previous 35ish gallon system.  I guess i will have to just test parameters of both carefully.  Will update again tomorrow. 

[albertareef]

Looks good in there!  Now you will have to get the cat another box ?

[Oregonic]

Alright its done....  That was a pain in the a$$ took about 4 hours.  Had to drain about 1/3 of the water out to get the back aio sump chamber empty.  Wish i would have purchased the sump from the start would have been much eaiser to do. Everything seem happay and i only had an alk swing of .2  Next step i will be turning the small ATO that comes with it into an algae turf scrubber. 

[Oregonic]

Got the algae turff scrubber mocked up this weekend. Using the auto top of res that came with the lower sump. Drill bit to drill the hole for the drain bulkhead showed up today, should attempt to drill one night this week. Any suggestions for the light?  Leaning towards stopping by a hydroponic stroe and picking up some sort of led grow bulb that will be usable in a standard light. Figure if it can grow the green flowers it should be able to grow some algae.  Also should i t it off my return pump or run it on its own pump?

[Oregonic]

Finally made some time to plumb the algae scrubber this afternoon ?  Ended up going with a clip on lamp for now with a led 5k flood light. Any suggestions on light cycles?  Starting with on at 9pm and off at 11am, that is opposite of my display lights. 

[albertareef]

Looking good. Have been thinking about experimenting with one myself. Let us know how it does with the light.  I have always run my refugium off cycle to my main lights as well. 

[Sharklover]

I'm following your build. Really interested in how the algae scrubber is turning out. Updates?


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[Oregonic]

Just brown slimy algae so far. I think i drove my phosphate a little to low, .01 or less, in comparison to my nitrates, 10-15ppm, using gfo. I have done 2, 5 gallon water changes over the last 3 days and stopped using gfo. I have done a bunch of reading about scrubbers and it seems this brown algae is a common issue when starting a scrubber but will go away eventually.  I think the lamp i have would be sufficient but I may try switching the lighting to a light geared more towards indoor growing.  Ill keep this post updated as it progresses.  Maybe someone on here with scrubber experience can throw some ideas out there? 

[Sharklover]

Thanks for the update. Part of my following, never used one.


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[Oregonic]

I was up in the air on if i should do a refugium or a scrubber for a while. After much reading and coming across this video i was sold on the scrubber. 

 

[Exodus]

I have never seen one of these in Action 1st hand, just curious if this could be plumbed directly in from the intake before moving to the filter sock/ skimmer stage. It seems the water is trickling and I would think the flow wouldn't necessarily be fast enough to keep up with the return pump/skimmer etc. but then again I could just be perceiving the water coming down at a slower rate than it actually is.

[Sharklover]

Wow. Now I want one...


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[Oregonic]

Finally after a few minor adjustments and changes there is green hair algae beginning to grow.  I ordered led strip lighting designed for indoor growing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KLUTB3A/ref=asc_df_B01KLUTB3A5067718/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=395033&creativeASIN=B01KLUTB3A&linkCode=df0&hvadid=196292539648&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6297144291065250690&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9061081&hvtargid=pla-314531755349 , wrapped the housing, and covered all in black duct tape so no light would leach out into the sump.  At this point it was still just growing brown slime algae. I was about to give up at this point but i did a little more research and found this article https://www.algaescrubbing.com/threads/algae-scrubber-basics.264/. I pulled my screen out and roughed it up more then it was, still not as rough as the one shown in the article but I ised 40 grit sand paper and a diamond hole saw and it is rough to the touch. I also started pulling it out weekly and running under sink while lightly wiping the brown slime off with fingers. Thursday when wiping i noticed several areas that were turning green. Looked at it today and there is green starting to grow everywhere, very fast change ?  I will upload a few additional photos this Thursday when i pull it out to clean the screen under normal light. 

[Oregonic]

First harvest of some real algae.  A little more then half is a dark green, a few small patches of brighter green algae starting to appear and still a little brown slime as well. Glad it is finally starting to really grow some good algae. 

[Oregonic]

Its been a while since i have updated the progress of my ATS so here it is. Think I finally have it set the way i want it. I had issues with the led strip lights, they started flickering after about a month of being installed. I ordered a second set of them and those did the same thing after about 2 weeks.  Figured it was time to try something other then strip lights, so I ordered one of these guys https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LX1EO3W/ref=asc_df_B01LX1EO3W5165357/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=395033&creativeASIN=B01LX1EO3W&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198107334619&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5089082488529891100&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9061081&hvtargid=pla-319250133802 and wow this thing is bright. It was so bright that i thought it may burn the algae, but i was wrong. This light grow algae like crazy. My nitrates are down around 2 ppm and i am feeding quite a bit more then i used to and my tank is looking great.

4 days growth on flood light side

4 days growth on led side nearly 2 times as much algae

4 days worth of growth 

Happy tank!