Lowest cost and easiest way to eliminate green hair, bubble, turf and slime algae

[BigAl07]

I peeked at my UAS today and WOW! Beyond time to "Harvest"... I need to make a point to do it more often.....


2nd UAS Cleaning (4 weeks growth)

Right out of the tank (Smells GOOD lol)


Getting ready to be cleaned


Screen laying down to show growth on BOTH sides

[SantaMonica]

Yea baby

[nanoreefing4fun]

Wow Allen - very cool !

[BigAl07]

I'm thrilled to see just how MUCH "Green" this thing is growing. I'm going to try to keep a closer eye on it weekly because I'm sure it would be more productive if cleaned off sooner rather than letting it get stuffed like that.

[SantaMonica]

As long as the output hole does not get clogged, it should be ok. The narrow 1" design was selected exactly because the growth can never get too thick to block light. 2 cm is the actual max thickness, but 1" was the narrowest I could find.

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Some success stories of people who built upflow algae scrubbers...

ReeferMat on the MASC site: "So I decided to build one of these [UAS scrubbers] today. It's huge because all I had was a 12 inch airstone, but I'm hoping that won't matter too much. It cost me less than $20 to build, so if it works that is the best bang for the buck I have ever seen in the war on algae! It has been up and running for 3 months now and I have to say my tank looks a lot better. Every time I clean it it grows a new type of algae, slime, turf, etc... and it grows fast. I would say I have seen a decline in nuisance algae in my tank, but to be honest that would be an understatement.... It has all but eradicated it. Every time I look at the scrubber I can't help but think that all that junk would be growing in my DT"

Owenreefin on the PNWMAS site: "The first two months of running this UAS scrubber thing I was convinced I was going to rip it out for the algae growth was dismal, and I figured that my system just couldn't make it work. (I also have algae in my fuge) WELL I WAS WRONG. The thing started to really kick in. So much so that I just conducted my only water change in 2 months and I hardly think it was even necessary. I usually do a change of 30% every 2 weeks. My sand bed has cleared up big time too. With the water change I pulled out a good baseball sized amount of algae off the scrubber, couldn't be happier! I will always be running one of these. I will post pics of its growth next time I change water. Many months from now. "

Bobba on the scrubber site: "Well, it's been almost 3 weeks with the HOG.5, and 2 with my lone Turbo snail. I am happy to report that I have no Hair Algae left in the tank. No signs of any regrowth of what the snail has eaten either."

Clavius on the scrubber site:

"I've been running a 500 liter tank now for 5 years. It is very well stocked with SPS, LPS, softies, filter feeders and a modest amount of fish. The nutrients were being kept very low by a combination of a giant skimmer and the ZEOvit method. Off course, this results in very lightly coloured corals, which was my goal. Generally I'm very pleased with the colouring and growth of my corals, and please with my tank in general. But one battle I've always lost: brown algae covering my sandbed. I could not, for the life of me, find what was causing those algae. Not to mention solve it. I've tried many many things to solve it, but up untill recently, without luck.

Almost three weeks ago though, I installed a HOG.5 unit. It was a little experiment that I wanted to do ever since I learned about algae scrubbers. I was never creative enough to build one myself, as the space in my 100 ltr sump is very limited. The HOG.5 was affordable and tiny enough to enable my experiment. I could even fit 6 of those units in there with ease. Off course, with the ZEO-method, my nutrients already were really very low. I couldn't measure any NO3 or PO4 with my Salifert test kits. And I never bothered with more expensive kits; unmeasurable should be good enough. I wanted to see if the vitamins and amino acids that the algae scrubber produces would add anything to my reef. And, more importantly, if the algae would consume "something" that the brown algae on my sandbed require.

The result in my sandbed is staggering. After only 3 weeks, not a trace of the pesky brown algae is left! An extra benefit, that I didn't expect, is that my lightly coloured corals now all have noticably much more colour. Without getting darker. They seem to glow! I don't know if it is from the vitamins that are released in the water [from the algae scrubber]. Or maybe the ugly brown algae [on the sand] were also covering my corals and that I now finally seeing my uncovered corals! Strangely enough, the algae in my HOG.5 aren't light green, as you would expect with nutrient-poor tanks. But they're a mix of dark brown with red tints here and there. So, I have no idea why that is or how that works. But at this stage I'm just so happy that I really don't care."

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Some more UAS upflow algae scrubber (tm) examples...

"Joey2525" on the CMF site...











"Alexleblanc" on the scrubber site...











"Disney" on the PH841 site...






"Cdm2012" on the scrubber site...









"Bicyclebill" on the PNWMAS site

[SantaMonicaHelp]

"Mbonus" on the scrubber site...





"UasIslakkie" on the UR site...







"Alman" on the AH site...





"JosephAcquario" on another site...







"Ericsson" on the scrubber site...








"FotisGt" on the AZ site...

[SantaMonicaHelp]

"Colin" on the PNWMAS site...





"Accrod" on the PH841 site...





"Atari" on the MC site...





"Kaykay" on the SG site...





"Jameshopper" on the UR site...

[degibson84]

I believe so.
No, I was cleaning weekly.
Sorry, just re-read my sizing... it was 3 a day for a single sided screen. screen is 10.5 x 7 (should be 6.7 I believe) with the required light.

My post from my thread: (part 3 of a series on the install)

is this design a good one to use? I'm looking for something simple and i think i can handle doing this design if it worked good

[SantaMonica]

Air Pump Recommendations for UAS® upflow algae scrubbers®. Having bought and tried all of these, here are the best ones:

Flow (highest to lowest):

Coralife Super Luft... TONS of flow for multiple outlets or multiple scrubbers
Tetra Whisper 300... High flow if both outlets are combined into one
JW Aquatic Fusion 700... High flow if both outlets are combined into one
Tetra Whisper 150... Good flow for one outlet
Coralife Luft (regular)... Good flow for one outlet


Noise (most to least):

Coralife Super Luft... (Loud; vibrates)
Coralife Luft (regular)... (Vibrates)
JW Aquatic Fusion 700... Slight vibration
Tetra Whisper 300... Silent
Tetra Whisper 150... Silent


Size: (big to small):

Tetra Whisper 300... Large
JW Aquatic Fusion 700... Medium
Coralife Super Luft... Medium
Tetra Whisper 150... Medium
Coralife Luft (regular)... Small


Cost (most to least):

Coralife Super Luft
Coralife Luft (regular)
Tetra Whisper 300
Tetra Whisper 150
JW Aquatic Fusion 700


Overall winner for a single UAS scrubber used at home: JW Aquatic Fusion 700 (also is the only one with adjustable flow)
Overall winner for multiple UAS scrubbers if noise if ok: Coralife Super Luft

[kmdrysdale]

My first read on algae scrubbers and it has really peaked my interest!!

[SantaMonicaHelp]

1982: The original dump-bucket style algae scrubber (works, but very hard to build, install, operate, and harvest)

2008: Waterfall style algae scrubber (works good but hard to build and install; must be removed to harvest)

2011: Upflow style scrubber (work goods, easier to build and install on the glass; must be removed to harvest)

2013: ??? (work great, all 3D growth, easy to build, and instant in-place harvesting without needing to remove anything or turn anything off).

[intricateart]

Nudibranch? I saw one on liveaquaria that said it ate hair algae.

[SantaMonica]

The Lettuce nudi will.