DROP.2(TM)
Drop-In Scrubber(TM)
with Green Grabber® surfaces



Eliminate water changes. Remove nuisance algae, nitrate and phosphate. Cultivate seaweed for feeding.





DROP.2 dimensions: 4" tall by 2.5" wide by 1" thick (10 cm tall, 6.25 cm wide, 2.5 cm thick). It requires at least 3" (7.5 cm) of water to operate in.

Operates on both 120 and 240V. Can be shipped to any country.

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.

Finally an aquarium filter that offers drop-in installation, along with reduction or elimination of water changes and nuisance algae. And it's so small it can fit in your pocket! It operates the way the oceans and lakes do, using algae to do all the filtering, and it truly can replace all other filters in your aquarium if you don't feed very much.

This DROP.2 drop-in scrubber has 6 square inches (37 square cm) of extremely rough Green Grabber (TM) algal growth surface which can grow up to 1/2" (1 cm) thick green hair algae. This is designed to absorb the nutrients from this much feeding per day: 

0.2 Frozen cubes, or
2 Pinches of flake, or
2 Square inches (12 square cm) of nori, or
0.5 grams of pellets

The physical size or number of gallons or liters of water in your tank or sump does not matter. If you feed more than the above amounts, you can get multiple DROP.2 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 DROP.2 units are also good for backup.

The DROP.2 will fit into any size aquarium. Nano and pico tanks, with sumps on the back side, normally have compartments at least 3" (15 cm) wide; and the DROP.2 fits nicely there. And of course it can fit into the display (the main part of the tank), and it can even be dropped into a fish bowl!

The DROP.2 has a water inlet at the bottom, where internal upflowing air bubbles inside the unit (from an air pump which you provide) flow up into the growth compartment and bring aquarium water inside it. As the water enters the growth compartment, it mixes with the air bubbles, and rubs the algae-attachment Green Grabber textures, and gets blasted by the super-red 660nm LED light. This rubbing of bubbles causes algae to start growing on the rock hard (and heavy) Green Grabber textures; freshwater grows thin stringy algae, and saltwater grows thicker, denser algae. The air then goes out of the top of the unit, and the water goes down and out a second hole in the bottom, without any bubbles remaining. 

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 if you have high nitrate and phosphate in your water 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.

The main advantage of the DROP.2 or any algae scrubber is that if you size and operate it properly (based on how much you feed), 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 DROP.2 is also dry-out proof, since it's always under water.

The DROP.2 will run on both 120V and 240V, and comes with a 10 ft (300 cm) UL and CE approved power adapter cord with a U.S. plug. If you require a different plug you can get an adapter at any local hardware or travel store, or online, or you can cut off the U.S. plug and install your own plug from a hardware store. It is a simple 2-wire plug.

Comes with 3 ft (90 cm) of vinyl airline, but requires a small air pump that can pump at least 1.0 liters per minute (.03 cfm). You can have as much air as you like, however; 5 lpm pumps are no problem (although it will be louder). One nice pump is the Whisper AP 150 from Tetra, although you may prefer a pump with a control knob to reduce air flow. Make sure to put the air pump above the aquarium so that it will not drain any water if it shuts off, or use a one-way valve on the airline if the pump is lower.

The LED is a single red (660 nm) 3-watt LED, which is sealed in polyurethane, and then sealed again in epoxy. Some red light does come out of the bottom holes, and they make little red dots on the bottom of the aquarium or sump. You may need to get a timer so you can run the LEDs for up to 22 hours per day instead of 24; this often improves growth. The LED never needs replacing.

The DROP.2 will need to be cleaned ("harvested") every 7 to 21 days or when thick with growth. Just lift up the DROP.2 out of the water, pop the lid off, and pull the algae out. You can even feed some of the algae to your fish, and there will probably some some pods inside that you can feed too.

The DROP.2 comes 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.Note that shipping outside of the USA might require you to also pay an import charge when it arrives, although the DROP.2 is low cost enough that many customs offices will not charge for it. We cannot mark it as "gift", however. The lowest cost overseas shipping is generally USPS First Class Mail International, however this option does not offer tracking outside the U.S. The size of the shipping envelope is 12 x 9 inches, (27 x 20 cm).

DROP.2 size: 4" tall by 2.5" wide by 1" thick (10 cm tall, 6.25 cm wide, 2.5 cm thick). It requires at least 3" (7.5 cm) of water to operate in.

Comments:

"I have a couple DROP.2 from Santa Monica, and they work good!" -- D Maul on the R2R site.

"My DROP.2 works great, and was thinking about getting another one. I installed my second Drop 2 purchased in the recent group buy. The first scrubber was installed [about 3 months ago] and is doing a great job. The biggest difference I seen was my phosphate level went from 0.11 to 0.03-0.06 range " -- venom on the CR site.

"great product [DROP.2] and service" --  katzolicious on ebay


"I was thinking about getting another DROP.2; I like how it fits in the sump on the JBJ 28" -- Dan Budz.

"The algae still seems to be quite dark on the green grabber material but has grown a fluffy algae on the inside of the lid..." -- Centralscot on the scrubber site.

"Works perfect! 10 mosquito fish and 2 marble crayfish in my 5.5 gallon breeder tank. Thank you for a great product my tank parameters are excellent for a growing thriving tank. Here is a pic..." - Keith K.

"It's doing great" -- Mike Patterson

"Everything is working great. I like that the scrubber algae can be used as fodder for crayfish. Ive been harvesting the algae and pressing and drying it into pellet form. It sinks like a rock. Also getting double usage out of the fishes main food; is cost effective instead of just pouring your nutrient filled tank water down the drain. Also with a check valve on the air pump the scrubber works perfectly when your on vacation in Florida for 10 days; no pumps nothing to get hurt or sucked up or overflow while still maintaining water quality." -- Keith Knurick