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Hi I am new to this board, it is great to finally read a positive thread about algal turf scrubbers.
I built one 8 years ago using the basic description and photos in Dynamic Aquaria vol 1 and it has been in service since. I basically let it seed itself from the tank ()nobody in Sydney Australia to buy seeded mats from) which took about 4 weeks. Dr. Adey covers the issue of surging versus no surging over the algal mat, and basically says that he had tried both and found creating a surge over the mat promoted faster algal growth.
Hopefully now people may take interest in non-traumatic pumps as well. Plankton friendly arguements aside, non-traumatic pumps have other benefits as well. Most non-traumatic pump designs are based on positive displacement pumps ( eg. piston, diaphragm or screw pumps), all which can maintain flow rates as head increases.
I built myself a version of Dr Adey's motorised bilge pump (Dr. Adey was quite helpful) and was able to mount the pump above my light hood and get it to suck the water from my sump (a distance of about 2m ) and pump it into the tank and still maintain a flow rate equal to the Quiet One pump in replaced. The other big benefit was water was pumped into the tank in wave like surges.
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