Hi, everybody Joey here again and welcome back
so today
I'm going to show you guys how [to] build an algae Scrubber?
Now for those that are not aware of what an algae Scrubber is we're first going to talk about what it is and how it?
works
Now algae is actually typically viewed as a pest in the home aquarium however
It's probably one of the best things for your aquarium
Why because it uses up everything that you don't want in [your] aquarium like nitrates and phosphates the downside is for the most part
It's unsightly with an algae Scrubber. We're still going to grow algae however. We're going to grow it in a concentrated area
this is going to be good for a fresh or a saltwater aquarium because both have phosphates and nitrates, so the way a
Seulji Scrubber works is we're going to pump aquarium water
Around a concentrated patch of algae that algae is going to act like a sponge and absorb nitrates and phosphates from your water
Now for the most part algae Scrubbers have been for people with sumps for the longest time however in this video
I'm going to show you how to build an algae Scrubber that can go inside of your aquarium
[and]
That's very very easy to maintain and very cheap to build it can also go in your sump you're going to see in the video
Exactly what I mean, we're going to be able to build this entire algae Scrubber
Including the actual algae Scrubber itself the lighting as well as the pump for less than $25 probably closer to
[$20] so let's first get started with supplies
You're first going to need a basket of some sort
My suggestion is to buy a cheap basket like I did I got a couple of these for a dollar each
[so] [two] dollars for each of these baskets
Now these baskets are simply
plastic and a dark color
the reason why we want a dark color and if you can get black is because we're going to shine light [into] that basket and
It's going to escape into the whole quarian water as well and slightly light your aquarium
if it's not a dark plastic you're also going to need a
Basic Air stone now the size of that air stone should be the length of the inside
Width of your basket [you're] also going to need some zip ties, [we'll] also need some
Airline suction cups these are pretty common, and you can probably get them online or at [your] local fish store
[you're] also going to need a plastic knitting canvas these are commonly available
at a lot of fabric stores
You can get a sheet [that] is [two] feet by [one] feet for like about a dollar
You're also going to need a drill because we're going to need to drill holes in our basket
you're also going to need a light source to grow the algae my suggestion is [to] use led lighting or
CFL lighting just because
They're low wattage and we're going to need to have this on for upwards of 18 hours a day
So you're going to want to keep power consumption low?
So to get started you're first going to want to cut your basket in half almost
What I like to do is I cut the basket to the width of the air stone about
Twice [the] size of the Air stone itself, so you're left with a basket that's only a couple of inches thick
probably even one inch thick
Now in this example
It was only one and a half inch thick next you're going to want to drill the holes of where everything's going to go
Now I'm doing this at first because I know exactly how to put this together
And it's actually something that you might want to consider [doing]
last however the hole placement is very
Straightforward you're going to need holes in the sides as well as the tops [I'll] explain why the holes are there
Later on in the video the next step is preparing the knitting mesh
What you're going to want to do is cut that to the inner dimensions of your basket?
however, you don't want to do it to the full length of the basket you're going to want to leave at least a couple of
Inches of room to install the Air stone at the bottom and top of that knitting
Mesh you're going to want to cut out some notches the top notches are going to be so we can
Attach it to the top of [the] basket the bottom notches are to attach it to the air stone
Attaching the Air stone is next we're going to take a couple of zip ties and insert them into those notches that we prepared earlier
We're going to wrap the zip tie around that air stone
Center the knitting mesh on top of that air stone now
We can install the knitting mesh and Air stone into the basket itself
Using the top notches that we notched out earlier from [the] knitting. Mesh. We could take our zip ties and
Insert them into the holes that we drilled into the top of the basket
And they're just going to hold in there [snugly] not too tight you do want some wiggle room
So it can go back and forth
For when you need to clean it the air stone should hang about a quarter inch from the bottom of the basket
So this is why it's important to kind of size out that knitting mesh before we start cutting it however. It's cheap
So if you make mistakes that's fine now
We're going to use our suction cups and zip ties and attach those to the sides of the basket
This is what's going to hold the actual algae Scrubber in Place inside the aquarium
Finally you can attach some airline hose just some basic aquarium airline hose and attach that to your pump, okay?
[so] now [that] you see how everything goes together?
I wanted to show you that first before we rewind these steps
The very first thing you're going to want to do is once your mesh is cut out and ready and the basket is cut out
And ready you're going to want to sand those both down
You're going to want [to] stay on the entire
basket as well as the knitting mesh you want to rough them up as much as you can this is going to make the
surface easier to adhere to for the algae
So we're pretty much done at this point. We can now go ahead and install it into the aquarium now
You can place it on the back wall or side wall or wherever you want you can hide it with some aquarium plants
So you can't even see it within the aquarium on
The outside of the aquarium you need to light it
And that's where the lighting is going to come into play here, and now for me to keep costs very low
I just wanted a cheap desk lamp
It was seven dollars with the bulb included luckily for me the bulb was rated at a very low, Kelvin
Which is typically more ideal to grow algae with now. I just would clamp this to the side of my stand somehow or
Attach it somewhere along the side of the stand or even in the back of the stand in some way so that it points directly
inside [of] the box
Your best option is going to put that to be to put that light on a timer that meaning it will come on and go
Off every [day] on its own
That way you don't forget it. Now, ideally you're going want to have that light on for about 16 hours a day
I know that sounds like a long time
But we want the algae within this scrubber to out-compete the algae that [we'll] be trying to grow within the aquarium you might have to
Play with the lighting period To see what's going to be best for your aquarium though. So how does this work? [well] very simply?
Within this algae Scrubber the algae is typically we're going to want it to grow on top of this mesh
As water is pumped in through this air stone air is going to rise and cause water to flow over it
and ideally it'd be freshwater from the remaining of your aquarium the air bubbles will exit out the top and
Fresh water will enter through the bottom over time algae is going to start growing inside of this basket now
Ideally we would like all the algae to be on just the mesh
But it doesn't really matter it can grow everywhere within this basket
once the algae gets too thick and starts to break off what I suggest doing is removing it from your aquarium, and
simply scraping off the front and back with say a
Credit card or a driver's license some plastic card that will enable you to scrape off that old algae well
Letting a good amount remain that way you just have the youngest healthiest algae on on the scrubber itself getting the algae
Established on the actual algae Scrubber is not going to take that long typically it could take three to five days [to] start seeing algae
On it now that's going to be largely
Dependent on the food source for the algae within your aquarium like how much nitrates and phosphates you really have
Which brings up the subject?
What size of an algae Scrubber do I need for my aquarium well algae is going going to be improving?
Only going to be present in numbers that the food source allows it to be in just like the beneficial Bacteria within your filters
now what I'm finding with these algae Scrubbers is that a
Simple four by four square can easily handle up to a 50 gallon aquarium
That's well stocked however this one is 4 by 8 so, it'll probably handle up to a hundred gallon aquarium. No problem
So what's the point of an algae Scrubber well the benefits are obvious?
It's going to remove nitrates and phosphate from your water column in turn
It's going to eliminate Algae within the main aquarium the other benefit is actually going to be on
Nitrates again with no nitrates or very low nitrates in your aquarium
that eliminates the stress and growth inhibitors that it puts on your fish and
One of the reasons. I why we actually do our water changes. It will also help lower
The amount of water changes you would typically do so the benefits of an algae Scrubber are obviously there anyways guys
I hope you guys enjoyed this video and possibly got some ideas to apply to your own algae Scrubber
Now I definitely want to thank you guys for watching and we'll see us next time