Mega Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover - DIY!

[SantaMonica]

Murfman on the SCMAS site:

150

[SantaMonica]

NM983 on the algae scrubber site:

OceanParks on the MFT site:

160

[SantaMonica]

Oil_Fan on the FL site:

Reefski on the MD site:

RentalDeceptionist on the UR site:

Riaanp on the MASA site:

170

[SantaMonica]

SaltCritters on the TR site:

Scruffels on the MASA site:

Sean48183 on the SWF site:

Sims on the SARK site:

Skunkbudfour20 on the RC site:

180

[SantaMonica]

SoCalJim on the MD site:

Spanko on the SWF site:

Stevenkoh08 on the SRC site:

Weylin on the MFK site:

190

[SantaMonica]

Wolfpak on the RP site:

End pics

[sherman]

Great thread.Like to join the crowd to try building an algae scrubber

I have a 4ft by 2 ft by 2 ft main tank with a 15 inch by 30 inch by 16 inch sump

Total capacity = 149 US Gal

Recomendation for the algae scrubber screen is 1 square inch per gal of tank water

Hence we require 149 square inch of screen for the algae scrubber to work efficiently

The sump is 14 inch. We can have a 12 inch wide screen and length of 12 inch

or we can had a 5 inch wide screen with 30 inch length

Santa am I right in the screen size?

[SantaMonica]

Yes as long as it's lit on both sides.

[SantaMonica]

Part 5 of 7:

"The Food of Reefs, Part 5: Bacteria" by Eric Borneman

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-01/eb/index.php

"Given the enormous bacterial biomass in all ecosystems, it should be of little surprise that [bacteria] are food for something, if not many things. Bacteria, being composed of living material, contain a relatively large amount of nitrogen, an element in very short supply in coral reef waters.

"The biomass and productivity of bacteria on [natural] coral reefs are as great as those in nutrient-enriched (or eutrophic) lakes, and up to a hundred times greater than in the open ocean. Planktonic bacteria in coral reefs [..] have filamentous processes to allow them to absorb and consume dissolved organic molecules [DOC].

"In virtually all studied marine environments, bacteria are water purifiers, decomposers of organic material, and a primary source of protein for both those animals that directly graze on them and those that acquire them indirectly through secondary consumption.

"Given the importance of bacteria as a food source in marine ecosystems, it might not be surprising to learn that they are also a primary food source for corals. It has been found that bacteria alone can supply up to 100% of both the daily carbon and nitrogen requirements of corals. All corals studied consume dissolved organic material [DOC], bacteria, and detrital material [waste].

"Bacteria not only provide carbon and nitrogen for the [coral] polyp, but also provide an important source of phosphorous for the zooxanthellae, in addition to other elements such as vitamins and iron.

"Bacteria exist in very high diversity and biomass in the marine environment, and especially on coral reefs and on coral surfaces. They play critical roles in virtually all ecological processes that control reefs, and are a major component of food webs. Corals feed on bacteria at levels and efficiencies that rival all other bacterial consumers.

[raynaz]

Hi SM,

I am wondering is there a reason why most people is choosing the scrubber to be of the lighter shade and white seems to be the popular type. I am planning to use black color (as that's what I can find around my area) and other than harder to spot the growth of algae...is there any another other disadvantage?

TIA

Rais

[Creetin]

Hi SM,

I am wondering is there a reason why most people is choosing the scrubber to be of the lighter shade and white seems to be the popular type. I am planning to use black color (as that's what I can find around my area) and other than harder to spot the growth of algae...is there any another other disadvantage?

TIA

Rais

Hi bro i think if u see the thread u notice that the algae color tells u alot of things. for eg. too much black stuff and u know u need to quickly clean off the scrubber. green and u are ok... red and thats pretty good as well.

i feel its essential to know whats the color of the algae else u dont know if its working or not

[johntanjm]

second creetin. don't think black will affect growth but if its white, its more convenient to monitor i guess.

[SantaMonica]

Ray is asking about the color of the screen material. Does not matter as far as growth goes. But white is easier to see early growth, and bald spots.

[raynaz]

Ray is asking about the color of the screen material. Does not matter as far as growth goes. But white is easier to see early growth, and bald spots.

Thanks for all the replies.

Since I wanna make full use of what I have purchased, I'm thinking of spraying it with the bottle of white paint (commercial type and lead free as claimed) found in my store but not too sure if it's safe and advisable. Do let me know if you have some experience on spraying. Maybe I should leave it as black on second thought ....

TIA

[SantaMonica]

No painting. Use the screen as is.

[Creetin]

Thanks for all the replies.

Since I wanna make full use of what I have purchased, I'm thinking of spraying it with the bottle of white paint (commercial type and lead free as claimed) found in my store but not too sure if it's safe and advisable. Do let me know if you have some experience on spraying. Maybe I should leave it as black on second thought ....

TIA

hmmm i wouldnt have anything spray painted in my tank! too risky.... advise you to just get a white fixture... i got mine at Daiso, only $2

[Thexder]

Was wondering how to incorporate the vertical scrubber design into my sump as I don't have much space so kept delaying this project. But after seeing johntanjm's simple solution with the scrubber lying on its side, I've decided to copy the same idea and save myself a lot of headache Thanks John for the simple idea

I bought this plastic chopping board. By itself the surface is manufactured rough, so I don't need to sandpaper it. I'm too lazy to seed it with algae so its starting from scratch. I would like to see how long the algae starts to get a hold on it. The only disadvantage is that I'm not able to use both sides of the board to maximise algae growth.

I removed my filter box and replaced my wool filters with the mesh sock. The water from the overflow falls through the filter sock and directly onto the chopping board. Of course the water coverage isn't great, but lets see how it goes. I'm getting around 3/4 of the board covered by flowing water. The board rests on one of the glass dividers (higher end) and the other side rests on some LR

[Thexder]

Here is a full sump shot. As you can see, not much space for anything. My FR and skimmer are all in-sump due to leaking accidents previously. I may probably change the light to a higher wattage bulb. I'm currently running a 7W energy saving bulb on a reverse 12hr photo period. My cheato is growing but slowly.

[Thexder]

A clean slate... Day 0

Currently my PO4 is around 0.05ppm and NO3 is 20ppm. I think my NO3 reading is wrong as I switched to Red Sea test kit recently. I used to get <0.01ppm on Tropic Marin test kit

[SantaMonica]

It's good that you are giving it a try

However you will need to make some changes in order for it to work. By the way, you have plenty of room for a correctly-sized vertical scrubber, fed by the overflow, to be placed in there. I've seen them placed in much smaller areas.

Anyways...

1. From your youtube video it looks like you have about a 55g tank. If so, you need about 110 square inches (one sided) of screen, which it looks like you have. But the water needs to be flowing fast and heavy across all parts of the screen, or else those parts don't count. So try to add up how much area of the screen has strong flow and see if it is two times the gallons of your tank. Try to spread the flow out so it covers the whole area, using some kind of deflector attached to the end of the pipe.

2. Cutting board is not a good material, because it is designed to be slippery (so food will not stick). Solve this by laying a sheet of plastic canvas on top of it.

3. Remove the sock. It is going to cause algae to grow on the sock, and will then stop the flow. Besides, you don't want any socks/foam/floss in your system, because they stop food from getting to your fish/corals.

4. Your light will not work. Needs to be much stronger, much more near the screen, pointed to the middle of the screen, and not blocked by the overflow pipe. If you are going to have the pipe down low like it is now, you will probably need a light on both sides, so there are no dark areas.

So just a few changes and you are good to go....

[Thexder]

Hi SM,

1. I'm running a 90 gallon tank. Its 3x2x2' size.

2. Noted on the material. I guess if its teflon then getting algae to stick could be a problem. I'm going to moniter it for a week and will change it to another material if algae doesn't take hold.

3. The sock does help in preventing excessive splashing. I do agree that algae growth on the sock could be a big problem later on.

4. Looking for a brighter light

[SantaMonica]

Ok the minimum screen size then should be 180 square inches, maybe something like 12 X 16. But all would need to be covered in flow. You'll need at least two of these:

http://www.buylighting.com/23-Watt-R40-Com...p/tcp1r4023.htm

But because of the small screen size, and lack of flow, I'd compensate by getting two of these:

http://www.stealthhydroponics.com/product....d=58&xSec=3

If you keep the small screen, it will need to be cleaned every 2 or 3 days because it will fill up so fast.

[SantaMonica]

Successes of the Day:

Johnt on the UR site: "I feed heavy and don't do water changes, so there's quite a bio load to balance; since adding the scrubber I've stopped using phosphate remover, and levels remain low and the water appears clearer, but I think the biggest difference has been how clean the tank looks despite being set up close to five years."

tarraza on the algae scrubber site: "the only thing that i can tell you guys is that this is my 5 months that I have NOT change any water in my 30 gal salt watwer tank full of hard corals, soft corals etc. For more than 8 YEARS i spend a LOT of money on additives to eliminate nitrates above 30ppm, phophate way over 20 not to mention water change every other week just to get partial results. Now I do not even test for nitrates, phopate, I only test one in a blue moon for calcium, ph, and alk. My filtration for this tank is a ACUACLEAR 110 FILTER ON THE BACK OF MY TANK WHITH MY VERSION OF ALGEA SCRUBBLE (of course whith ALL the ADVICES FROM ST. MONICA in). People KEEP IT SIMPLE. THIS SYSTEM REALY WORK.

cyberseer on the algae scrubber site: "YEAH!! Tested this morning coz i was bored, got a 0 NO3 reading, had to double and triple the test, to confirm that I wasn't dreaming/sleep walking/imagining things. Like that presentation says, this has got to be one of the happiest days of my life in this hobby/dark hole. Also, I can answer my question per title of this thread now. It took 50 days to see effect (could be sooner, but I didn't test for like a week and half before yesterday) and 51 days to result. What a beautiful day it is, no rain, and no NO3. No skimmer for almost 4 weeks. No water change for 2 weeks. Feed 2x a day for the fish, 1 cube a day for the fish and softies. BTW, changed a bigger CFL on 2/16/09, it's now a 65W with output of 300w. Big difference in growth."

brianhellno on the MFK site: "I've had a scrubber set up on my Piranha tank for a few months now and Nitrate has been zero every time I've tested it. At first the scrubber grew huge amounts of this brown grease-like algae, and now it just has a slow steady growth of solid green. I clean it about once a week or whenever the green algae starts to look like its getting a little too dense. I wanted to test the ability of the scrubber to see how well it handles a worst case scenario. I didn't change out the water for a week (the longest ever) and I left in uneaten food that made its way to the bottom of the tank. At the end of the week 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and only 5 PPM Nitrate. Simply amazing. I'm not quite sure why I change the water out anymore."

[SantaMonica]

Update: Electrical Safety

Be sure to seal your bulbs and connections with aquarium-safe silicone or sealant, especially if the bulb is down inside the sump. You can't see it, but there will be tiny amounts of salt spray that will build up where you screw the bulb in, and also where you made electrical connections. When the buildup gets thick enough, it will short out and blow a fuse. So each time you replace a bulb, re-seal it. You should be able to pour water over it without it causing a problem.

[SantaMonica]

Update: Builders

Scrubber builders are needed, because many folks on different forums are wanting to try a scrubber, but they don't want to (or can't) build them. So if you are available to build a scrubber of any kind (sump, bucket, acrylic, LED, etc), pm me and I'll put you in the builder database.