SURF2xx dimensions: 6" wide by 8" long by 3" thick (15 cm wide, 20 cm long, 7.5 cm thick).
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 light 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.
The SURF2xx (TM) is the highest-powered version of the original SURF2, which was 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. 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!
This SURF2xx floating surface scrubber has over 24 square inches (150 square cm) of extremely rough Green-Grabber® algal growth surface which can grow up to a 2" (5 cm) thick block of green hair algae. This is about two small handfuls, and is designed to absorb the nutrients from this much feeding per day:
- 2 Frozen cube, or
- 20 Pinches of flake, or
- 20 Square inches (125 square cm) of nori, or
- 5.6 grams of pellets
The physical size or number of gallons or liters of water in your tank or sump does not matter, however the phosphate level does: This SURF2xx is great for saltwater with phosphate up to 0.5 ppm; if phosphate is higher than 0.5 ppm, then use it with other phosphate removers at the same time. And if you feed more than the above amounts, you can get multiple SURF2xx units (or combination SURF and HOG units); multiple units are preferred over one larger unit because you can clean one unit per week, and because you'll always have one unit filtering while the other one starts growing again after a cleaning. Multiple SURFxx units (or SURF and HOG) are also good for backup. Alternately, you could get the larger SURF4
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 SURF2xx starts with two air bubble openings at the bottom, where upflowing air bubbles (from a strong air pump, sold separately) 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 thick, dense 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 SURF2xx provide real usefulness and are available on no other algae scrubber (except the larger SURF units). 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 SURF2xx 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.
Another feature which was highly requested was quiet operation. Since the SURF2xx 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 algae scrubber ever made. 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.
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 SURF2xx 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 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 2 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). 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.
The main advantage of the SURF2xx or any algae scrubber is that if you size and operate it properly, it can be the only filter for your tank, even replacing waterchanges. It can, however, also be used with other filters. Some other filters such as carbon dosing (Zeo, pellets, etc) may slow down the scrubber, but nothing will really "hurt" the scrubber except possibly large amounts of algaecide or copper medications. The SURF2xx cannot even dry out, since it's always under water.
The SURF2xx will run on both 120V and 240V, and comes with a 10 ft (300 cm) power cord with U.S. plugs. If you require different plugs you can get an adapter at any local hardware or travel store, or online, or you can cut off the U.S. plugs and install your own plugs from a hardware store. They are simple 2-wire plugs, and there is one plug for each power supply (2 plugs total).
Comes with 3 ft (90 cm) of dual vinyl airline, but requires a 2-outlet air pump that can pump at least 5.0 total liters per minute (0.2 cfm), which small low-cost pumps cannot do. Pumps that say they can handle 10 or more airstones, or pumps with 2 tubing attachments instead of one, are best..You can have as much air as you like, however, 10 lpm pumps are no problem. One powerful pump which works exceptionally well for a low cost is the Fusion 700 from JW Pet, which is sold separately. It is quiet and has two outputs which are adjustable by turning the control knob; the two outputs perfectly match the two air inlets on the SURF2xx Another even more powerful and completely silent pump, although more expensive and without a control, is the Whisper 300 from Tetra. The Whisper 150 also works but you will need two of them. Make sure to put any pump above the aquarium so that it will not drain any water if it shuts off.
The SURF2xx lid contains 8 red (660 nm) 3-watt LEDs, which are attached to an aluminum heat sink which is coated with black epoxy; it does get warm. The LEDs will give the aquarium or sump a slight red color at night when the aquarium lights are off, but this will occur less as the SURF2xx fills with growth. You will probably need to get a timer so you can run the LEDs for up to 22 hours per day, although you can try 24 hours if you want to. The LEDs never needs replacing.
The SURF2xx will need to be cleaned ("harvested") every 7 to 14 days. Just lift up the LED lid, grab a handful of algae, and pull it out. You can even feed some of the algae to your fish. You do not need to take anything apart, or take anything to your sink, unless it is growing dark slime like it usually does when new.
Manufacturer Warranty Information
From Santa Monica Filtration:
The SURFxx come with a 6 month warranty: Warranty is for replacement or repair only; not a refund. Costs for shipping back to us are covered if you are in the U.S. Costs for shipping back to us are not covered if you are not in the U.S., however we will pay for shipping back to you. In either case, you will need to ship the entire unit back to us before we can ship a replacement. Warranty is limited to repair or replacement, and does not cover fish loss, personal injury, property loss, or direct, incidental or consequential damage arising from the use of it. The warranty and remedies set forth above are exclusive and in lieu of all others, whether oral or written, express or implied. We specifically disclaim any and all implied warranties, including but not limited to lost profits, downtime, goodwill, damage to or replacement of other equipment and property, and any costs of recovering animals, plants, tanks or other aquarium related items and/or equipment. We are not responsible for special, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from any breach of warranty, or replacement of equipment or property, or any costs of recovering or reproducing any equipment, animals or plants used or grown with this product.
