I'm back, algae turf scrubber

Sorry I've been away for so long all. My tank was down for over a year. Gave away all my corals and dismantled everything. Maintenance became overwhelming.

Anyways I'm back this time I've focused on low maintenance. Water changes are controlled by ball valves and pumps. RO/DI top ups are controlled via some auto device. I'm replacing my POS CPR overflow that needs a pump and always soaks my living room with lifereef overflow boxes. I've put my sump outdoors along with all other equipment and I've designed a algae turf scrubber from a sterilite contianer and some PVC pipe. The ATS replaces the chiller with the evap that's coming off of that my temp has dropped 5degs. I'm not sure yet but I'm thinking of dropping in a thermostat and fan to help control temperature. Gonna drop in a calc reactor. Also plan to add one of those little airpumps that turn on in a power cut in the main display. Here's a video of the outdoor setup so far. Let me know what you think..... and I missed you guys!!!!! (Not talking to the humans.... only the corals)

WS

 

Here's the video. I hope it gets processed by youtube in time.

 

Video is not ready yet - but welcome back TinFury! 8) Cool to see an old member again.
I've always been interested in ATS filters - look forward to seeing yours!

matt

 

Sup Matt? I was just reading your thread on ATS. You still have your system up? You know there aren't' many things in this hobby that I've seen people have before and after pictures where they solve hair algae problems. Lots of complicated suggestions and very few results. A major contributor to me dismantling my tank in the first place was a outbreak of a very difficult strain of hair algae. I really hope this ATS thing works... As you can see I have it in the sun.

 

*BUMP* Nobody has any advice for me?

 

I think the guy gos by santamonica on most forums, but here is a link to some good info. Santamonica is the guy the got all of this together and you can find him on a few forums.
http://www.algaescrubber.net/forums/index.php
I made one, but need to move my tank out to the garage (too nosy for my room) before I use it. I will be adding a big fuge when I add the ats, so it's going to be a little hard to know just what the ats is doing and what the fuge is doing.

 

I have a friend who has a scrubber on her tank and i have to say it almost wants to make me convert over. I am still awaiting the results.

 

I dont know if it will be less maintenance I had to clean mine every few days and it cost more to run than my skimmer but mine might have been to small

 

Wow, I didn't know it was possible to put a sump outdoors. An interesting ATS set up, too.

 

I had an ATS going for a while on my FOWLR, and it worked pretty well. I switched to vodka dosing because I had to treat the tanks with Cupramine, and it killed all of the algae on the ATS.

It looks like you have a well thought out system, as long as there's enough light on the screens. The key is to make removing and cleaning the screens as easy as possible, and having it outside is a plus. I'd consider closing off any areas where outside critters could get into your water.

I just watched an interesting video yesterday about Inland Aquatics. They use dump bucket style ATS's as their main filtration. It's making me reconsider using this style ATS on my FOWLR tanks. The ATS is about halfway through the video.