DIY Algae scrubber

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
J jaws7777 - I know how much of a pain opening those towers up is. You could just wait and carefully measure the flowrate from the denitrator. If gph drops from where it is now then the towers are clogging somewhere .. maybe at the foam. I'm thinking check the flowrate in 2-3 days and then after a week.
 
tarheel96 said:
J jaws7777 - I know how much of a pain opening those towers up is. You could just wait and carefully measure the flowrate from the denitrator. If gph drops from where it is now then the towers are clogging somewhere .. maybe at the foam. I'm thinking check the flowrate in 2-3 days and then after a week.
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You know me too well bud lol. Just checked and its still at 40 gph. Will get around to opening them up though.

Wo der why this thing never kicked off though. This has by far been one of the most frustrating projects ive undertaken
 
jaws7777 said:
So in your opinion could be a waste unless i continue dosing ?
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No. I'm pretty sure biopellet reactors are different from denitrators in the sense that they need to be supplemented with denitrifying bacteria occasionally. I'm not exactly sure why this is but it could be because the bacteria can quickly die if either phosphate or nitrate runs out or runs low. I believe bacteria supplements will help jump start our denitrators.

I wouldn't be surprised if Seachem Stability didn't contain denitrifying bacteria. I'm not 100% about that but it's available in stores and I don't think it's expensive. It might say on the website.
 
jaws7777 said:
Wo der why this thing never kicked off though. This has by far been one of the most frustrating projects ive undertaken
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It might be working now. It would be hard to tell with your tanksize + sump. Let's assume it has the same efficiency of an Aquaripure large denitrator at the moment. An Aquaripure only has a 0.5 gph flowrate but the output has 0 nitrates. These 30-40 gph denitrators might have 60-80 times the flowrate but the output is virtually the same as the input. The actual denitrification flowrate is a driprate. The advantage over Aquaripure is the larger size of your denitrator.

-If we figure your denitrator has the same efficiency as a large Aquaripure Denitrator (12 galperDay) then it would remove 20.56% of the nitrate in 365 gallons in a week.
-at 2x the efficiency (24 galperDay) it would remove 36.89% of the nitrate in 365 gallons in a week.
-at 3x the efficiency (36 galperDay) it would remove 49.86% of the nitrate in 365 gallons in a week.
-at 4x the efficiency (48 galperDay) it would remove 60.17% of the nitrate in 365 gallons in a week.

Since your denitrator is much bigger than an Aquaripure Large, I believe 3x to 4x is reasonable.

It would be difficult to notice a 12 galperDay or 20% weekly reduction for your tank/sump, so maybe it's already working and it'll start to pickup.
 
tarheel96 said:
It might be working now. It would be hard to tell with your tanksize + sump. Let's assume it has the same efficiency of an Aquaripure large denitrator at the moment. An Aquaripure only has a 0.5 gph flowrate but the output has 0 nitrates. These 30-40 gph denitrators might have 60-80 times the flowrate but the output is virtually the same as the input. The actual denitrification flowrate is a driprate. The advantage over Aquaripure is the larger size of your denitrator.

-If we figure your denitrator has the same efficiency as a large Aquaripure Denitrator (12 galperDay) then it would remove 20.56% of the nitrate in 365 gallons in a week.
-at 2x the efficiency (24 galperDay) it would remove 36.89% of the nitrate in 365 gallons in a week.
-at 3x the efficiency (36 galperDay) it would remove 49.86% of the nitrate in 365 gallons in a week.
-at 4x the efficiency (48 galperDay) it would remove 60.17% of the nitrate in 365 gallons in a week.

Since your denitrator is much bigger than an Aquaripure Large, I believe 3x to 4x is reasonable.

It would be difficult to notice a 12 galperDay or 20% weekly reduction for your tank/sump, so maybe it's already working and it'll start to pickup.
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Great explanation man thx. Im wondering about what we discussed regsrding the phosphate. Might be a good idea for me to pick up a test kit and get a baseline reading in the event the filter does start working
 
I think it's a good test kit to have. Probably a good idea.

This one on eBay comes from a trustworthy seller with a good shipping time and decent relative price: $12.77 free shipping
API Phosphate test kit
eBay item number: 152437983650

Amazon may be cheaper if you use it but I prefer eBay.
 
So far my nitrates hit about 40ppm again. This is with the pump flow reduced even further, < 40gph. Still gonna wait it out. Will do a wc due to some sensitive fish. I am convinced it works as I'm doing about 2 wc's per month and that's down from 8 wc's per month. There is some benefit.

Will keep it running for now.

In the meantime I will be looking at doing another little diy job...maybe sulfur/crushed coral reactor.
 
kno4te said:
So far my nitrates hit about 40ppm again. This is with the pump flow reduced even further, < 40gph. Still gonna wait it out. Will do a wc due to some sensitive fish. I am convinced it works as I'm doing about 2 wc's per month and that's down from 8 wc's per month. There is some benefit.

Will keep it running for now.

In the meantime I will be looking at doing another little diy job...maybe sulfur/crushed coral reactor.
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I dont think 0 nitrates long term is possible unless keeping small comm fish. Plus have to figure in the size of the bb colony.


So basically it takes ypu 2 weeks to hit 40 ppm nitrates ? If so i call that a success
 
I had some spare time and took apart the towers. One of the connections was completely clogged with media and floss (forgot i had spome in there) cleaned it out and seperate the connections with some foam pads cut to fit so the media rests on the foam and doest go near any of the opening between each tower.

Getting around 45 gph on setting one. 85 seconds to fill a 1 gal jug.


Added bonus the flow coming out of the other side of the tee acts like a power head and should keep the right side of my sump clean. Also ordered some stability to seed the media
 
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