Clearwater 50 algae scrubber pump

Circa916 · Feb 23, 2018

I just purchased a Clear Water 50 algae scrubber for my RSR250, anyone by chance have one of these or that can recommend a silent pump for it? Clear water recommends 150gph. I was told the jebao 2000 dct would work perfectly for this application but at 520gph even with 8 settings and maybe a foot or two of head pressure I cant see it dropping that to 150. Id hate to purchase a pump that is too powerful. Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

NowGlazeIT · Feb 23, 2018

keep us posted!! I’ve been looking to buy one of those recently to replace my skimmer.
I’m going to update my manifold to accommodate it tho so no extra pump just a big enough return pump.
FWIW I’ve heard of people using rio pumps. Ime they are not very reliable but they carry a variety of small gph options

Circa916 · Feb 23, 2018

NowGlazeIT said:
keep us posted!! I’ve been looking to buy one of those recently to replace my skimmer.
I’m going to update my manifold to accommodate it tho so no extra pump just a big enough return pump.
FWIW I’ve heard of people using rio pumps. Ime they are not very reliable but they carry a variety of small gph options

I definitely will. talked to a few people that run them and said they are amazing. I could run it off of my return (varios6) but I still have the stock plumbing. Been planning on upgrading to hard plumbing with a manifold but I just happen to come up on an extra 250 today and couldn't not buy the scrubber with it! lol

NowGlazeIT · Feb 24, 2018

Circa916 said:
I definitely will. talked to a few people that run them and said they are amazing. I could run it off of my return (varios6) but I still have the stock plumbing. Been planning on upgrading to hard plumbing with a manifold but I just happen to come up on an extra 250 today and couldn't not buy the scrubber with it! lol

Haha yes I see. Well I’d take a deeper look into the manifold and pvc plumbing. It’s not much, just a pain in the beginning. Think about it like this. The money that you’ll spend on a pump could go towards hard plumbing. Now in beginning it’s all new but you’ll be glad you did it and you can always improve on it later. Just a small obstacle that seems bigger until you actually start

PmCarbrey · Feb 24, 2018

Hey there, the recommendation from Josh to put a dc-2000 on it probably came from the fact that the "test model" of the 50 that I have runs off of it. at 10% you are getting significantly more than 150gph, but once you start getting thick growth it's perfect. If you already have one, I'd use it, let it grow out and see how it looks then.

As it sits right now i have my dct2000 at 20% running my cw50 with zero issues.

Any small pump will work though. I would recommend getting a DC pump though, depending on your cleaning schedule and nutrient levels, what appears to be adequate flow on a clean screen can turn out to be far too little! The adjustability will save you some headaches until you know exactly what you need

NowGlazeIT · Feb 25, 2018

PmCarbrey said:
Hey there, the recommendation from Josh to put a dc-2000 on it probably came from the fact that the "test model" of the 50 that I have runs off of it. at 10% you are getting significantly more than 150gph, but once you start getting thick growth it's perfect. If you already have one, I'd use it, let it grow out and see how it looks then.

As it sits right now i have my dct2000 at 20% running my cw50 with zero issues.

Any small pump will work though. I would recommend getting a DC pump though, depending on your cleaning schedule and nutrient levels, what appears to be adequate flow on a clean screen can turn out to be far too little! The adjustability will save you some headaches until you know exactly what you need

Having run the scrubber for some time, if you had to choose between your skimmer or the scrubber which would you choose

PmCarbrey · Feb 25, 2018

NowGlazeIT said:
Having run the scrubber for some time, if you had to choose between your skimmer or the scrubber which would you choose

The scrubber already replaced my skimmer. With my skimmer my nitrates average around 5, currently I'm having to feed extremely heavy just to keep my nitrates above 0.

NowGlazeIT · Feb 25, 2018

PmCarbrey said:
The scrubber already replaced my skimmer. With my skimmer my nitrates average around 5, currently I'm having to feed extremely heavy just to keep my nitrates above 0.

Sold! what’s your total water volume