Not getting great results with purigen reactor and the water lettuce. Im think the resctor does not have enough flow. Too much amd the beads clump up. May get a submersible filter and fill it with purigen
DIY Algae scrubber
- Thread starter jaws7777
- Start date
Had watch joey bio-pellets video and a few others utube on the topic seems all are for SW uses of it , the issue seems to be in FW we cannot effectively use a protein skimmer to remove whatever "sludge" from the system, for us will be manually remove through mechanical means i suppose.
Any idea what is actually the sludge or residue? Are those are the excess nutrients like phosphate or nitrate or just dead bacteria?
Will it be a good idea to use the output line from the bio-pellets reactor to feed a algae scrubber?
just another whacky idea i have
Any idea what is actually the sludge or residue? Are those are the excess nutrients like phosphate or nitrate or just dead bacteria?
Will it be a good idea to use the output line from the bio-pellets reactor to feed a algae scrubber?
just another whacky idea i have
Nothing wacky about it. Biopellets are incredibly efficient at removing nitrate.
The output is bacteria and carbon from the biopellet reactor. The biopellets are a carbon source which fuel the growth of bacteria. Excess carbon in the water column will cause bacterial blooms so the output must be filtered.
Biopellet reactors remove both nitrate and phosphate which algae needs. At the output, the excess carbon might turn the algae scrubber into a cyanobacteria colony.
My test have been poor, so far other than the 300 watt, none of the red Chinese grow lights with 630nn leds, have worked.
The 30 gallon basement tank is around 10ppm with the same water from a week ago.
My 660nm red led arrived today, so I am eager to see how they do.
My canister denitrator, with 5 gallons of water, was at 20ppm at 5am. I added 3cc of sugar, and expect it to be at 0ppm by 5pm tonight, it's 60F so it's got a handicap.
Last water change I let the water sit for 3 days to go stagnant. I have an idea that I want to test.
The 30 gallon basement tank is around 10ppm with the same water from a week ago.
My 660nm red led arrived today, so I am eager to see how they do.
My canister denitrator, with 5 gallons of water, was at 20ppm at 5am. I added 3cc of sugar, and expect it to be at 0ppm by 5pm tonight, it's 60F so it's got a handicap.
Last water change I let the water sit for 3 days to go stagnant. I have an idea that I want to test.
Were you able to get any growth with the cheapo lights ?
Was thinking id i spray paint the purigen reactor black and throw in the screen and a sumbersible light maybe its worth a try. Dont want all the algae growing all over the sump.
Anu suggestions on a cheapish sumbersible light that will fit in a 1 gallon jug ?
Purigen has actually become quite a debated media especially when used in a planted aquarium. As it is how purigen works is never greatly described by Seachem which makes one wonder why. It's simply described as being able to absorb organic waste such as [(NH2)2CO], uric acid [C5H4N4O3], and creatinine [C4H7N3O] before it's able to be turned into waste such as ammonia (NH3), which is then converted to nitrite (NO2) and then subsequently to nitrate (NO3).
It's also stated Purigen should not be used in a tank before a tank is cycled. This is because by absorbing organic waste Purigen removes what's needed to establish a good beneficial bacteria colony. When you consider that, one might wonder then what happens when a beneficial bacteria colony is established and Purigen is added. If Purigen is added won't it remove the very organic waste that's maintaining the established colony? And if it does then won't the bacteria die since what has been sustaining it is being removed?
Then add plants into the equation which are also in need of these organic wastes to do their job. Without these organic wastes wouldn't the cycle be broken for the plants as well?
So now that your system is free of organic wastes isn't that desirable? Since if Purigen is doing it's job so well it's starving the BB? Well maybe for awhile but then you have to consider since Purigen doesn't involve a natural cycle as it becomes exhausted won't it's efficiency go down? And as it goes down will the BB have enough time to recover before total exhaustion of the Purigen causes a Spike?
That's what more or less is what's being debated from what I've seen with about 50% for Purigen and 50% against.
To me I'd rather go with as natural a cycle as I can for one reason. Nature/life adapts. As your bioload grows say from adding fish, fish growth, over feeding or some other event a natural cycle will grow to compensate, it will grow and shrink as needed. Alage in a Scrubber will grow faster as will BB production in response to the changes. Albeit not fast enough if you do things badly but you can easily plan around it. While Purigen can't. It's starts off at one efficiency and that efficiency continues to degrade as it gets exhausted which I imagine would be accelerated by increased bioload.
Great points kolt. Was wondering about a potential ammonia spike while recharging the purigen. Since i took i out yesterday now would be a good time to test. May not be accurate though as i did alarge wc today.
Ahhh the scrubber i have but the algae seems like a unicorn for me....just couldnt get any to grow. Im going to keep experimenting with different applications
