Santa Monica100 Algae scrubber!!

These are awesome, but you can do a DIY version so much cheaper. They are pretty easy to construct and use if you have the space in your sump.
Algae scrubber - YouTube

 

Oh yeah, You can even get the exact plans for this unit. I am not a diyer though. All my diy projects end up shelfed, lol.

 

I guess I should update.. The unit is working GREAT now. Tons of hair. Green and growing!! NO3 is untraceable and Po4 is down to .04ppm. I haven't actually done a water change in over 2 months because I have been lazy and my BRS 50ml pump that was pumping water out failed on me... and I haven't really needed to. Tank looks great, corals look great. I'm super sold on this unit!!! It's been amazing! I'm feeding 4 cubes, some pellets, some oyster feast and a sheet of nori every day!!

I'll post pics of my next harvest and some new tank shots soon. The only algae is on the sand bed. I can't seem to get it right. I realized my clean up crew was nearly non existent though. I had taken my crew from the 30 gallon and never added to it! So I added about 30 snails and 30 small hermits. I plan to add about 60 nassarius snails soon. I'm hoping this will take care of the remaining sand bed algae issue. (not too bad, but not as clean as I would like)

 

So would it be fair to say that it took about 2 months to get the nice green turf everyone wants?

 

Yeah, I'm getting tuffs of turf algae and huge amounts of the fast growing green hair algae. I did let the screen go for nearly 3 weeks at one point to help the screen "mature". This was a suggestion from SantaMonica. Since then, growth has been outstanding every week.

My tank started low nutrients anyway and it really took about 2-3 months for the screen to get decent growth. I'm cleaning it every 10 days now with no problems and I pulled a pound or more out last week! Takes about 15 minutes to clean properly and I can do a quick clean in about 5 minutes really. Mine is really easy to access so maintenance is easy.

 

Last weeks growth!!


Tank is doing well, I have been feeding 4-6 cubes a day of h20 brand (spirulina, 50/50, mysis) and occasionally broadcast feeding oyster feast.. My P is reading .05 and N around 3-4... I haven't done any water changes in a couple of months at least. I'm going to do a 30g today though. Still loving the unit! So much less hastle than the skimmer. I'm still running my skimmer, though it went wacky on me a couple weeks ago (a snail got in the intake I later found). It was offline for 2 weeks with no noticeable depreciation of the tanks inhabitants. I think it explains why my growth this week was less than last cleaning. The skimmer is back working.

 

Ok, so it's been 4 months since I plumbed the unit.

My Phosphate is reading 0.0 on my Hanna Phosphate ppm checker
My Nitrate is damn near clear on my red sea low end test kit.
I haven't been very good about changing my water at all... The daily water change lasted through 1 30 gallon container before I pulled it because it wasn't working right. I have changed about 25 gallons each month. (randomly really.. but that's about average)

I just replaced my bulbs for the first time and now that the screen is fully mature... I'm expecting the unit to really start rocking now!! I should have replaced them a month ago.

 

6 months since my last update and 10 months since it was plumbed in... I'm still absolutely in LOVE with this unit. Keeps my water parameters perfect with nothing more than 20minutes of work every other week. I will never run a reef tank without one!

 

!!!!

 

I have to agree, I have been running 2 x Santa Monica 100's for about a year, I clean them both every two weeks, they work very well, interestingly I accidentally left the lights on without a dark period and noticed significantly more growth so I've been running them this way, also tried alternating the cleaning one each week while each ran for a two week period but there was no difference from cleaning them both every two weeks, however less work every two weeks

The units are very well made. Would be nice to find an LED substitute for the florescent tubes.

I wonder if these would work? The cool type are 6000 K

http://store.earthled.com/products/directled-2-ft-led-t5-fluorescent-replacement-tube