The kind that pulls the rock out of your tank and takes a scrub brush to them.

Here are a few pics of a pile of scrubbed rocks next to some yet-to-be scrubbed.

Left is scrubbed. Right is covered in algae.

The process of scrubbing half a tank of rocks took about an hour. I only scrubbed bare rocks (no corals on them) or easy to manage rocks that only had a few corals on them. No corals were harmed in the making of this picture.

I siphoned out 15 gallons of water from the tank to use in the cleaning process. In one container I had 5 gallons of scrubbing water and in another container I had the receiving water. where the rocks sat until I was ready to put them back in the tank.

I will wait till next weekend before I tackle the other side. For some reason working with this algae gives me a terrible allergic reaction and I now feel like I am full swing in the middle of a nasty cold.

Lets hope this cleansing lasts.
As you can see, i need to do the walls too. Sigh.

Related posts:

1. More on algae removal
2. Algae Scrubbers, a natural way to filter
3. Hair and Sludge algae removal.

In the sea, if you wander down to the shoreline, you will see 1 of our most used tools at work. On some shorelines, you will see a buildup of froth when the waves come crashing in. what does it remind you of? Right! Your skimmer. the froth is the skimmate of the sea and it builds up and is filtered out in the sand and on the rocks.

Another tool you will see at work is an algae scrubber. Have a look at the rough rocks with algae growing on them. Usually if it is there it will be in abundance. This is where the ocean has a concentration of nitrates/phosphates and what-have-you that encourages the algae to collect and thrive on the rocks. An algae scrubber offers the same thing, but on a much smaller scale. The purpose is to make the algae want to grow somewhere else instead of inside your fish tank.

Scrubber Image courtesy of Algaescrubber.net. Algae on rocks from Sandiegofun.net

The basic design principal is to take tank water and run it over a textured surface. The algae particles in the water column will adhere to the surface and the algae will grow, given enough light. Once the algae grows, it will continue to do so. The algae growing on this surface will be more inviting than growing in your aquarium. Why? It will be brighter, nutrients will be more concentrated and the flow of the water will be more vigorous.

The most important feature of the scrubber is the lighting. the brighter the better, and to make it more efficient, have the algae grow on both sides of the surface. Use 2 lights!

The components usually consist of a pump, some PVC tubing and a screen. the screen is suspended from a length of PVC with holes drilled or cut into it. The water is pumped through the PVC tube and allowed to flow down over the screen. More complex designs can be done to improve effectiveness, like having multiple screens and lights, enclosing the whole thing into its own box or tank, making it almost horizontal instead of the usual vertical, and the list goes on. See this link for a huge list of design ideas.

Cost of a scrubber is very cheap. you can probably assemble all the supplies for under $30, including lights. Many simply use a standard socket with a curly compact fluorescent bulb backed by some makeshift reflector to direct as much light to the surface of the scrubber as possible.

Besides lighting, the next most important thing with an algae scrubber is keeping it clear of excess algae. You don’t want to completely clean it. You want it to grow a nice base, or as is commonly called, the “turf” that stays attached to the screen. This gives algae the reason to grow there. Once a week the scrubber needs to be cleared of the excess. This is done because as the algae grows, it gets thicker and blocks out any light to the algae that is growing deeper on the surface causing it to die inside. Death of algae can lead to leaching out of the stuff you are trying to filter out. Nitrate and phosphate levels will rise, water will begin to discolor and that smell, you know the one, will start to emanate from the scrubber. The cleaning is the demanding part of the scrubber but this can be done in 5 minutes so it is not a time-sink like a water change.

So there you have it. A properly and effectively run algae scrubber can take over the job of a skimmer. Many people run both, but in many cases the skimmer has been removed as the scrubber filters out most of that bad stuff and more effectively.

Sadly there are no manufacturers of algae scrubbers, so we are left to our own DIY projects. I will be building one soon to battle my algae problem and will post about it here. If you have a scrubber running, please let us know how you like it, we’d love to get pics too!

Related posts:

1. Algae Scrubber. That’s me.
2. More on algae removal
3. Hair and Sludge algae removal.

With the push to save the reef many salt water aquarists have turned to supplement thier tank with DIY live rock.

Aside from it being a heck of a lot cheaper than actual live rock (some report to pay as little as .07 – .09 cents/pound!) it is reef friendly when done properly. What I mean by done properly is that if the instructions are not followed correctly you will find yourself with a dead tank. Fish, corals, rock and sand will all be useless due to the PH spiking sell above 9 and the leached chemicals from the improperly cured and cooked cement permeated into everything.

Don’t let it scare you, properly following the instructions can save you hundreds of dollars and you can mix it with existing live rock. It purples up just like the real thing and you can customize its shape to perfectly fit your tank. Want a peice of your back wall to have little natural looking shelves for corals? Make it! What about a cool tunnel for your gobies? You can do it!

I’ll link you to some recipes I have found on the web, but the basic process is:

1. Mix cement with some other porous substance (many people like to use crushed oyster shell)
2. Add water to a consistancy of thick oatmeal. This allows you to shape it but not runny enough to lose its shape.
3. Shape it in a bed of sand, salt, or aragonite in a water tight container.
4. Allow it to cure for a prescribed time. The time depends on the method, porousness and ingredients used.
5. Once cured (hardened) it needs to be cooked. ***!!!*** This is not a process to skip or to do too quickly. If not done properly and then the rock is placed in your tank it will be doomed.
6. Enjoy your rock in your tank. If you are using all live rock, you will want to seed it with a piece of rock or some small piles of substrate that is already seeded. A filter sock would work as well.

Post assembled about DIY Live Rock

From Reef Central, a recipe and tips by Insane Reefer (08-14-2008)

Dave’s Reef offers his tips and recipe plus includes his test results during the process.

Speckled Trout on Reef Central shows what can be made with DIY rock. (Scroll down)

Want to see what you can do with a little creativity?

If you manage to get to doing any DIY Live Rock, feel free to report back or show us on our Facebook page what you have done!

Related posts:

1. Algae Scrubber. That’s me.
2. Hair & Sludge Removal System from Ultralife
3. Red Sea: Aiptasia-X