Algae turf scrubbers

ok so i have been reading up on an ATS and im trying to figure out how i can try and make one...easily, details just confuse me lol...after looking into them a bit i was wondering if it is possible to somehow replace a baffle in my sump with that plastic mesh stuff and rig a light up close instead of building a whole other container just for this because i really dont have the room in my stand lol, or will this not work because the algae needs water running from above it instead of around and over it? Im not to clear on all the details on this lol.....Thanks everyone!

 

Hit the search there are quite a few threads on ATS & several that have pictures of the ones people made. I made one & I think stretching is it cost maybe $20 to make. You'll find opinions vary, but I have never had a problem with water quality, I do run a skimmer with it, but the skimmer came long several months after the ATS.

 

i did look at some thread of ones people have made...but i just couldnt make sense of the pics haha! I do have a skimmer, always have, right now i have an excaliber until my euroreef is fixed...i cant figure out the model number to order a new pump lol, the impeller swelled (past tense swoll?? lol) and i wrecked it trying to get it out, but anyway yea...me=blonde so threads with unlabled pics=confusion for Milan hahaha! (Yea my real name is Milan...its not really Reef Queen...i lied and i am sorry);D

 

you could put a ATS in your sump depending on how much room you have in your sump. they don't take up a lot of room unless you have a big honking tank, Truthfuly you could build a little support to hold up the PVC tube that will flow water over the screen and just sit it over the top of your sump. so like it would pump the water up to the tube over the screen then just off the screen back in to the sump simple right? Basically the principal is you need a screen that if you are going to light it from both sides needs to be 1 square inch per gallon of water. Simple right? if you have a 100 gallon tank you need a screen that's 10 inches wide by say 11 tall just so you can fit some of the screen in to the pvc pipe. Have a pump that pushes about 35GPH times the with of the screen. So 35X10~350GPH. you can get the pvc at any home repair store the screens you can buy a hard plastic screen from most fabric stores even walmart carries them. Make sure you rough up the screen before you attach it. A rough screen makes plenty of attach points for algae.

So pump pushes water up the pvc to the top cross member, which goes through the hole you cut, down over the screen, which receives light, then the water falls harmlessly back in to the water below in your sump. You can submerge a small portion of the screen in to the sump water below so you don't get the loud splashy noise(Err well AS loud splashy noise.) Pictures of your sump would make it easier to determine if you've got the space to do it. I wouldn't recommend trying to replace a baffle with it as you wont get the same results. Plus you have to remove and scrape the screen every so often.