Mega Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover - DIY!

[Billy_m24]

my algee scrubber is working I finally have purple on my rocks! I have 175 reef tank with 2 400w MH light and 2 blue vho, my nitrate was always very high in the red zone and no after 2 month I'm running about 10 on the nitrates and I have purple and my ph stays at 8.2

 

[earthstudent]

They work so well. I honestly don't understand why more people don't use them. I guess it is because they are basically just a DIY thing since you can't really go out and buy one. At least I have never seen one at a LFS.

 

[SantaMonica]

That part is correct. The other part is that the folks who manufacture all the other filtering devices hire people to post on the forums and say that scrubbers don't work. Manufacturers have a large marketing/promotion budget for this. Algae has no budget.

 

[Tien]

So I have been running a scrubber on a test tank with goldfish. At one point nitrates were near 80 ppm (I know this is WAY high, but I did this intentionally with the goldfish). I have done no water changes and my nitrites are zero and my nitrates are about 7 ppm! I do not have the best set up with lighting yet and the scrubber set up only cost me $25, but it works with fresh water! I am going to continue to add goldfish and overstock the tank to see how the scrubber handles it. Looks like I will be building a large scrubber system for the 500 gallon!

 

[SantaMonica]

Cool!

 

[SantaMonica]

Although almost no aquarist knows this (athough every marine biologist does), algae produces all the vitamins and amino acids in the ocean that corals need to grow. Yes these are the same vitamins and amino acids that reefers buy and dose to their tanks. How do you think the vitamins and amino acids got in the ocean in the first place? Algae also produces a carbon source to feed the nitrate-and-phosphate-reducing bacteria (in addition to the algae consuming nitrate and phosphate itself). Yes this is the same carbon that many aquarists buy and add to their tanks. In particular, algae produce:

Vitamins:

Vitamin A
Vitamin E
Vitamin B6
Beta Carotene
Riboflavin
Thiamine
Biotin
Ascorbate (breaks chloramines into chlorine+ammonia)
N5-Methyltetrahydrofolate
Other tetrahydrofolate polyglutamates
Oxidized folate monoglutamates
Nicotinate
Pantothenate


Amino Acids:

Alanine
Aspartic acid
Leucine
Valine
Tyrosine
Phenylalanine
Methionine
Aspartate
Glutamate
Serine
Proline


Carbohydrates (sugars):

Galactose
Glucose
Maltose
Xylose



Misc:

Glycolic Acid
Citric Acid (breaks chloramines into chlorine+ammonia)
Nucleic Acid derivatives
Polypeptides
Proteins
Enzymes
Lipids


Studies:

Production of Vitamin B-12, Thiamin, and Biotin by Phytoplankton. Journal of Phycology, Dec 1970:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1529-8817.1970.tb02406.x/abstract

Secretion Of Vitamins and Amino Acids Into The Environment By Ochromanas Danica. Journal of Phycology, Sept 1971 (Phycology is the study of algae):
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1529-8817.1971.tb01505.x/abstract

Qualitative Assay of Dissolved Amino Acids and Sugars Excreted by Chlamydomanas Reinhardtii (chlorophyceae) and Euglena Gracilis (Euglenophyceae), Jounrnal of Phycology, Dec 1978:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1529-8817.1978.tb02459.x/abstract

 

[Arkangel77]

So I have been running a scrubber on a test tank with goldfish. At one point nitrates were near 80 ppm (I know this is WAY high, but I did this intentionally with the goldfish). I have done no water changes and my nitrites are zero and my nitrates are about 7 ppm! I do not have the best set up with lighting yet and the scrubber set up only cost me $25, but it works with fresh water! I am going to continue to add goldfish and overstock the tank to see how the scrubber handles it. Looks like I will be building a large scrubber system for the 500 gallon!

Post some pics of your scrubber now that its working plz

 

[earthstudent]

I have tried to talk several friends into running a scrubber and all replies are, they don't know enough about them and don't want to make one. I even helped (basically built it for him) a guy build one (several months ago) and he still has not put it on his tank.

I guess it is an "in the know" kind of thing. They have now become part of all my systems.

Tien: Doing a setup that pushes the scrubber to the max is a great idea. Can you post details and pics about this setup please.

 

[SantaMonica]

I guess it is an "in the know" kind of thing.

No, it's a promotion thing. Algae has no money for promotion.

 

[Clay]

Tien: Doing a setup that pushes the scrubber to the max is a great idea. Can you post details and pics about this setup please.

I think the only max you would have is the eventual surface area limitation to grow algae. I too wonder what that limit is. Seems like with regular scrapings, you could push this quite far...