Floating Upflow Algae Scrubber®

"It Floats Like A Boat" (TM)

Videos:

First five cleanings in saltwater:

Next eight cleanings in saltwater:

Unboxing and Installation:

Overview: part 1:

Overview: part 2:

New LED frame and black epoxy seal:

SURF2 dimensions: 6" wide by 8" long by 3" thick (15 cm wide, 20 cm long, 7.5 cm thick).

Welcome to algae scrubbers. We are the only source for patented upflow scrubbers: U.S. Patent 9,115,008 and 9,708,207. All the oceans, reefs, lakes and rivers are naturally filtered only by algae, and all the organic particles remain in the water to feed the creatures. Reduce your glass cleaning and water changes, and create an environment for living micro-animals to grow inside the scrubber. No more dosing or possible overdosing. No more refilling. No more pale corals from low nutrients, and no more sick animals from high nutrients. Far more powerful than chaeto or refugiums, and does not remove the food particles. And you can use the algae as food!

Get the no-overflow advantage of an upflow scrubber: since it is ALL underwater, it can't overflow onto your floor. And now the LED lid is coated with an extremely tough black epoxy to maximize protection from water, salt, and physical damage.

Finally an aquarium filter that offers drop-in installation, reduction or elimination of water changes and nuisance algae, along with almost no-light and almost no-sound, and possibly most important, one-handed cleaning with no disassembly required. It operates the way the oceans and lakes do, using algae to do all the filtering, and truly can replace all other filters in your aquarium if sized and operated correctly.

The SURF2 is the world's first floating surface Upflow Algae Scrubber® (also called a UAS®). It is also the first Ribbon Scrubber, which is what allows the algae to be removed from the scrubber with one hand without needing to disassemble anything or take anything to the sink: If green hair algae is growing, simply lift up the lid and pull the algae out. And you can feed some of the algae to your fish and snails if you want to; fresh is best!

Note that if you have rocks which are soaked with phosphate from having been in a problem aquarium, each 50 pounds (110 kg) of problem rock will add 1 cube a day to your feeding amounts; so be sure to account for this when choosing a scrubber size. For example if you feed 1 cube a day, but have 100 pounds of rock that came from a tank with nuisance algae problems, this rock will add 2 cubes a day to your feeding, meaning that you would need a scrubber for 3 cubes a day. This applies even if the rock was dried out and bleached, because this does not remove any nutrients from the rock.

The SURF2 starts with two air bubble openings at the bottom, where upflowing air bubbles (from a strong air pump that you provide) flow up into the growth compartment and bring aquarium water with it. As the bubbles and water enter the growth compartment they rub the algae-attachment ribbons and get blasted by the super-red 660nm LED light. The bubbles then circle around and around inside the growth compartment, rubbing against the ribbons and the Green-Grabber® super-rough rock-hard attachment textures as the bubbles rise up to the water surface. This repeated rubbing of bubbles causes algae to start growing on the ribbons and textures; saltwater grows thicker, denser algae. The air then goes out of the top of the unit, quietly and with very little salt spray, and the water goes down and out two holes in the bottom, without hardly any bubbles remaining.

A few features of the SURF2 provide real usefulness and are available on no other algae scrubber (except the SURF4). First, the enclosed growth compartment increases the dwell time of the water and bubbles inside the unit so that they rub the algae many times before leaving the compartment. This actually reduces nutrients (nitrate, phosphate) to a level lower than the outside water, which allows greener growth to occur sooner (lower nutrients grows greener algae) inside the unit, especially in high-nutrient aquarium water. In other words, the SURF2 creates a lower-nutrient ecosystem inside itself which is different from the rest of the water in your aquarium. Also, the position of the air bubble inlets (below the growth) causes the bubbles to flow through the growth no matter how thick the growth gets. This is in contrast to waterfall scrubbers, which mostly flow water on the outside of the growth, leaving the inner layers of growth without flow or light.

Another feature which was highly requested was quiet operation. Since the SURF2 does not touch the aquarium glass or sump glass, and since it's made of heavy material surrounded by foam, it is by far the quietest category of algae scrubber. As a matter of fact it's almost silent (the air pump is usually louder). The thick and heavy gauge plastic growth container is coated internally by even thicker and heaver Green-Grabber textures, and is surrounded on the outside by 1" (2.5 cm) of closed cell polyethylene foam. This stops virtually all sound from going sideways. And the 1/2" (12 mm) thick LED lid is filled with super dense but flexible polyurethane, which absorbs more sound than a rigid structure would, and much more than a non-sealed structure would. Lastly the path that air has to take to get out of the top requires the air to first go sideways towards the foam, and then upwards along the foam; this allows the foam to absorb any remaining sound exactly the way foam absorbs sound in a studio. So while you may hear very muffled bubbling if the filter were next to your bed at night, you will hear nothing if there is any other activity occurring in your house.

Another great feature is the elimination of almost all salt spray (for saltwater). Since the air must come up through the narrow space between the LED lid and the foam, all the salt spray remains in the growth compartment where it is washed away by the water. There sometimes is the occasional bubble that comes out the top, but it's practically nothing compared to the splashing of waterfall scrubbers. And if the unit does ever need to be "washed", you just push the it under the water surface for a few seconds and let water flow over the top; no need to take it to the sink. And the sound gets even less as growth fills the box.

Bubble removal is probably the most-requested feature. Any and all algae scrubbers, whether they are upflow, waterfall or horizontal rivers, all have bubbles which must be removed. The internal growth compartment of the SURF2 keeps bubbles inside the almost 2" deep internal water level, only letting water out of the two small holes at the bottom after the air has escaped out of the top. Thus, almost no bubbles at all get into the aquarium or sump water; only a little red light, which gets less as growth gets thicker. And of course the quicker you can grow green algae inside the unit, the quicker you will remove nutrients and nuisance algae from your aquarium, and/or the quicker you can supply fresh green seaweed to your livestock.

The Green-Grabber algal growth attachment surface is so rough and prickly that is might be the roughest thing you've ever felt. A cactus might be sharper, but that's about it. Rough surfaces are critical for allowing algae to attach and grow and thus provide strong absorption of nutrients. The rock-hard protrusions stick straight out 1 to 3 mm. Previous algae scrubber screens were made from "slippery" plastic canvas that is used for sewing and knitting; algae take a long time to attach to it. Green-Grabber growth surfaces are not plastic at all; instead they are rock hard and have jagged rough edges and points (don't let children play with them). Green-Grabber surfaces are so good at grabbing algae and letting it grow that you may start seeing tiny growth spots within hours, instead of days. And the white color of the Green-Grabber surface reflects as much light as possible, allowing lots of light to reflect back to the algae.