Mega Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover - DIY!

[Mavrick813]

This is the same prinipcal as a K1 Moving Bed Media Filter. Only thing with the K1 is that the movement of the Media causes the older algae to fall off and be consumed by the younger algae. I plan to incorporate a Moving bed into my 55G Super Sump. Just contemplating if I should put the K1 before or after my Srubbies. In the pic below it's after my Scrubbies. But I was thinking about it last night and thought that if I put it before the Scrubbies the Scrubbies would catch anything that fell off the Moving bed.

 

[SantaMonica]

I don't see anything there that relates to algae scrubbers, but if it does what you need then that's good.

 

[Mavrick813]

I don't see anything there that relates to algae scrubbers, but if it does what you need then that's good.

Sorry my picture doesn't show what a K1 Media Filter is. Let me link one.

K1 in Action
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2eJSeH-5_s

Basically it's a type of Media that is subjected to Light and Agitation. The Agitation is caused by a disturbance in the water normally an Aerator. The Media is designed to house young algae in the inner workings of the media and as it grows and knocks against itself the older algae fall off the media. Similar to Cleaning your scrubber. In addition the K1 media is partially + Bouyant which allows it to flow in the air bubbles better.

Media
http://www.allcareponds.com.au/DesktopModules/SysDataNetStore/StorePictures/0/K3_K1_media.jpg

 

[gomlin]

Seems to me that when the "old algae" falls off it then comes out the holes in the top and back into the tank? That means that the nitrates that the algae has used up would be returned to the system when it breaks down. This defeats the whole purpose of cleaning the screens which is to remove those nitrates that are trapped in the algae from the system. I'm sure Santa Monica will shed light on this....

Jim

 

[Arkangel77]

I have seen that K1 stuff in other threads. I have seen it in a few pond build threads. I never looked into it but I di not know you needed to shine light on ot for it to do its thing. Interesting

 

[SantaMonica]

It's basically a wet/dry filter, mostly wet, so it would remove ammonia. But as mentioned above, when the film of algae lets go, all the nutrients go back into the water.

 

[garvin123g]

You can contact him on the MASA site.

Thanks for that, I will look it up.




The light energy drops too low after 3 months. You can't see it, but it does. the 24 watts T5HO bulbs are only $3 in the U.S., and probably cheap in your area too.

Thanks. Interesting that the energy drops..
i will be starting mine in te net day or so.. recovering today from an 18hr drive back from the mountains.. Geez Trafic was murder! Friday going took 6 hrs, yesterday was a full 18 hr drive mostly at crawling speed! And we cam back a day early to "miss the trafic" petty the people who came back today!

I will snap lots of photos.
Thanks again
gb

 

[dlp40]

Hello everyone,

I made an A.S. for my 75 gallon Softy reef/fowler tank last week. The A.S. consists of 2 divider sheets cut to 8.5x 11.5" and is feed by my over flow. It gets roughly 300gph of flow. I have a 10gal. sump just for the A.S. I have one 26watt cfl 6500k bulb and one 23watt 2400-300k bulb as the lights. they are 3-4" away from the screen.

I have a question though. I've had it going through the 24hr light cycle up until yesterday. Yeasterday i cleaned one side(not much green but a lot of brown). then i switched off the lights for the 6 hrs. then i turned them back on for the past 18 hrs, when i went to turn the lights off, I noticed half of the screen was free of algae. Is this normal for it to receed so quick. I didn't clean it with anything but my fingers and i only did one side. what could be the issue?

thanks in advance,
David

 

[SantaMonica]

It should never recede. Never do 24 hours.

Sounds like a snail found it. If it does it again, post pics.

Did you really rough up the screen?

 

[dlp40]

Yes i did rough up the screen. Also it is actually two screens, and i only have one snail in my tank and he doesn't eat algae. As for the 24 hr part, i just set it up 8 days ago, I thought from reading previous posts that i was suppose to do 24hrs for 7 days, then 18 on 6 off. Maybe i'm wrong.

as for pics I have one of earlier in the week, i've since changed to flex pipe and a new pvc piece for the screen, maybe this has something to do with the recession of the algae.