The main advantage of the SURF2 and SURF2x 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 SURF2 cannot
even dry out, since it's always under water.
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 is the
Tetra Whisper AP. The Whisper AP 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 SURF2 lid contains 4 red (660 nm) 3-watt LEDs, and the SURF2x contains
6 of these LEDs, which are attached to an aluminum heat sink which is
painted black to reduce heat; 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 SURF2 or SURF2x fills with growth.
You will need to get a timer so you can run the LEDs for up to 22 hours per day (not 24). The
LEDs never needs replacing.
The SURF2 and SURF2x will need to be cleaned ("harvested") every 7 to 21
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.
The SURF2 and SURF2x come with a
1 year warranty: Warranty is for
replacement or repair only; not a refund. Costs for shipping back to us
are not covered; 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.
Can be shipped to any country; you
can find shipping costs by using the shopping cart; be sure to click
"display rates". If you don't have a zip code, enter "zip code"
instead. Note that shipping outside of the USA will probably require
you to also pay an import charge when it arrives. We cannot mark it as
"gift". The lowest cost (but slowest) foreign shipping is generally
USPS First Class Package International, but USPS Priority Mail
International is better because it is faster and has insurance. The
size of the shipping box is 11 x 7.5 x 5 inches, (28 x 19 x 10 cm).
SURF2 and SURF2x size: 6" wide by 8" long by 3" thick (15 cm wide, 20 cm
long, 7.5 cm thick). It requires at least 3" (7.5 cm) of water to operate
in.
No returns; please make sure this is the model you need.
Comments:
"Here is pictures of my Only SPS system in KUWAIT, My system is running
without any refugiums, chaeto reactors, Biopellets or any NO3 reduction
dosing.. but running only with Surf2 algae scrubber, and reactor for GFO
(Rowa) and another for Carbon. Usually I leave Surf until it is full and
starts to die and become yellow, then I take it out to the garden and wash
it with fresh water with slightly high pressure so all dead algae falls
out easily and the green one stays inside then I return it to the sump
with 10% water change ... usually this happens every 2 to 3 weeks cuz my
system is ULNS" -- Mohammad Abdullah in Kuwait...
"Bought the SURF2x, absolutely love it! Would never run a system without
a SantaMonica scrubber again!" -- Tannum_Paul on the MASA site.
Odilon Zerecero SURF2x from Mexico:
"Working perfectly!! [SURF2x] -- Cristiano Amaral in Brazil
"I have a SURF2 the same manufacturer and it is impeccable, it keeps me
PO4 zero distributing 3-4 cubes of food per day" -- Eric75003 on
the RF site
"Its a great product!!! [SURF2] I run mine in conjunction w/ a skimmer
and cannot run both 24/7 because I cant feed enough to keep at least a
little Nitrate in the system for the Acro's" -- TDTA1181 on the R2R
site.
"I run one of these and quite like it. Getting similar results to a
typical refugium I used to have that was about 6 times the size. I went to
this product basically to buy myself some sump space back and couldn't be
happier" -- Sam Parker's Tank Of The Month on MASA:
"I recent removed bio-pellets, GFO, and trimmed off a lot of macro algae.
Oh yeah, overfeeding now to try and bring up my phosphates. Since removing
a bunch of nutrient exporting systems like bio-pellets, GFO, and a second
algae scrubber, my Surf2 has been growing nuts. It's been less then 7 days
and I have to remove more. People are surprised when I open up the Surf2
and show them what I pull out with one hand" -- ReeferEric on the R2R
site. pic:
"I see algae scrubbers as the single most significant nutrient exporter
you can have" -- Stephen Babcock, The Corner Reef, Columbia, Illinois
"The [SURF2] is really useful and highly necessary for my tank. So I
really can't be without it for too long" -- Jason Pappin
"[SURF2x is] growing very well. Love the in sump design. Will probably
get another down the road as I increase my bioload." -- Erik Sulman
"The scrubber is working great! getting a lot of nice growth in the
SURF2" -- Mike Buechs
"This [SURF2x] is the second scrubber I've bought. Love this product!"
-- biggins28 on ebay
"Many thanks for the safe arrival of the SURF2, Thanks again" --
bungy991 on ebay
"Happy with [SURF2], would get another bigger version maybe at some
stage" -- juggernoght87 on ebay
"Very reasonable offer [SURF2]" -- edwin65 on ebay
"I stumbled upon [a SURF2] and took a chance ordering one. They are a
really great algae scrubber" -- Reeffirstaid on the R2R site.
"I pull a handful out every week [SURF2]" -- Choff on the R2R site.
Matthew Coulthard SURF2:
"The [SURF2] has really taken off" -- Reefindownunder on the scrubber
site:
"Currently I have two algae scrubbers that I purchased from Santa
Monica. SURF2 and SURF4. SURF2 is powered by Fusion 700 and SURF4 is
powered by Coralife Super Luft SL-38. I can grow significant amount of
algae in both" -- Tomasz Cop pic of SURF2:
"The [SURF2] at my office is doing great. I would like to order another
one for my home tank". -- Thomas Perry
"This is one weeks growth, I'm pulling out a lot more turf now it's
certainly got a hold on the ribbons and the textured walls of the box. I
tested phosphates a couple of days ago on the Hanna checker and it was
reading 0. I did the test again because I've never had a 0 reading on this
tank." -- Blinkyfish on the UR site:
"I am currently using the SURF2 on my zoa garden. It is way oversized for
my system but works well. Just takes a little longer to grow" -- Landon on
the NTRF site.
"My SURF2 is doing very very well [...]. i feed 1 cube a day which is
enough for the tank, harvest every 14-21 days ish. i saved a lot of money
for not spending any money on rowaphos. no algae in display tank. zero
phosphate and nitrate" -- Wesley on the UR site:
"The [SURF2] is great, works perfectly keeps nutrients low. I still have a
bit of bubble algae but it's slowly dissapearing. Works well and
takes less space than the [waterfall] scrubbers" -- Millar on the UR site.
"Very happy with the SURF2 so far" -- Juls on the UR site.
"I used to have so much cheato, I would sell it on RC. Since adding the
SURF2, the cheato is just vanishing as the SURF2 grows more and more. The
entire middle section of the sump used to be cheato, and as you can see,
there is not much left at all. Nobody else makes a all in one, low
maintenance, scrubber like this. There's no drilling or plumbing
modifications required, its nearly silent, and takes up no space in my
cabinet which all were huge selling points for me. A great product;
here's a pic of my growth" -- Dexters Reef...
Dlstn on the UR site:
"Works great!" -- Marcelo Silva, Brazil
"Working great" -- Steven Cantor
Pic from Damien Kwok:
"I'm very pleased with the quality of the SURF2 - it's superior!" --
Sergey Frolovichev
"Using it now in my 60 gal freshwater tank where it works well keeping
nitrates below 20" -- Andreas Schaefer
Translated by Google: "After seven months, I test two of the [SURF2
units], I find that in the device it crawling with copepods that eat
algae, now I swarming zooplankton and in addition I take a lot of
seaweed every week in my devices (APPROXIMATELY 80 gr) and PO4
photometers to a decrease of 0.02 to 0.01 photometers. more I give an
amount of algae my surgeons". Original French: "pour faire suivre
cette enquête au bout de 7 moisj'ai tester deux algae scruber de la
societe santa monica (SURF2 floating surface) j'en avais pris
deuxrésultat au début assez long à venirensuite baisse
très moyen des phosphates j'ai décider de mettre en marche
l’écumeur sur 12 heures au lieux de 24 heuresdeux mois après
très peut d'algues dans les deux appareilsanta monica m’envoie un mail
en précisant de bien rincer les appareil a l'eau du robinet je
l'ai fait car j'ai constater que dans les appareil il grouiller de
copépodes qui me manger les algues depuis je rince une fois par
mois les appareils maintenant je grouille de zooplancton dans le
refuge et en plus j’enlève beaucoup d'algues toutes les semaines dans
mes appareils (ENVIRON 80 gr d'algues essorer) et PO4 au photomètres a
baisser de 1 à 0.02 au photometresde plus je donne une quantité
d'algues a mes chirurgiens ET JE DONNE 4 CUBES CONGELER PAR JOURS" -
Jegou Alain on the Recifal-France site.
Translated from Portuguese by Google: "Earlier this year the glass of
my [DIY] algae scrubber (Model Basso) broke. Due to lack of time and
manual skills, not tinkered with skimmer and was only for a few
months. decided to spend a little and bought SURF2 of Santa Monica,
which measures 20cm x 15cm by 15cm x 10cm outside and inside (area for
growth of algae). model is interesting because it is small and is
floating in the sump. With that much space gained by removing the
previous ATS. SURF2 installed but a few days after my skimmer pump has
gone bad. In two weeks the ATS already started forming algae and I
played without skimmer for almost one month, only with ATS. Even then
parameters were normal. These are photos from yesterday, two months
after installation. Already cleaned the box twice and am already
almost needs to take algae again. algae that formed in my display
during the relax (without ats and skimmer) have gone missing. With the
lid closed does not make any noise. You hear only if they get too
close" -- Luis Iarossi on the IPAQ site. Original text:
"No início do ano a placa de vidro do meu algae scrubber (Modelo
Basso) quebrou. Por falta de tempo e habilidades manuais, não
consertei e fiquei só com skimmer por alguns meses. Resolvi gastar um
pouco e comprei o Surf2 da Santa Monica, que mede 20cm x 15cm por fora
e 15cm x 10cm por dentro (área para crescimento de algas). O modelo
é interessante pois é pequeno e fica flutuando no sump.
Com isso ganhei muito espaço ao retirar o ATS anterior. Em 01/05/2014
instalei o surf2 mas poucos dias depois meu skimmer deu problema na
bomba. Em 2 semanas o ATS já começou a formar algas e eu toquei sem
skimmer por quase 1 mês, apenas com o ATS. Até então os
parâmetros estavam normais. Essas são fotos de ontem, 2 meses depois
de instalado. Já limpei a caixa duas vezes e já estou quase precisando
tirar algas novamente. As algas que se formaram no meu display durante
o período de relaxo (sem ats e skimmer) já sumiram. Com a tampa
fechada não faz barulho algum. Você ouve apenas se chegar muito
perto."