Mega Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover - DIY!
- Thread starter SantaMonica
- Start date
Update Of The Day:
"Christophe" on the MD site has an idea which could greatly improve a screen's performance after cleaning. As you know, after cleaning there is very little algae remaining to do any filtering. One way around this has been to clean half the screen each week, and another is to use two screens, cleaning only one screen per week. Yet another way is to pancake two screens together which makes extra deep holes for the algae to grab on to. (By the way, "rug canvas" holds on to algae much better than "plastic canvas", it's just more flimsy and hard to work with.)
Christophe's idea was to use Lego Base Plates (the ones you played with as a kid):
They are available all over the web, and at almost every toy store and discount store. The beauty of these plates is that no matter how hard you clean/scrape, algae will still remain in-between the pegs (except the first week or so, where it will all come off anyways). Of course, you'll still want to sand/scratch all the areas in-between the pegs, but overall this looks very promising, if someone else would like to try it.
One disadvantage is that the plates are not (at least that I could find) available in clear, so a light on one side does not benefit the other side like it does with a screen. But since these plates are only formed one-sided anyways, it might not be such a bad thing, and indeed would be perfect for a twin-screen one-bulb setup.
"Christophe" on the MD site has an idea which could greatly improve a screen's performance after cleaning. As you know, after cleaning there is very little algae remaining to do any filtering. One way around this has been to clean half the screen each week, and another is to use two screens, cleaning only one screen per week. Yet another way is to pancake two screens together which makes extra deep holes for the algae to grab on to. (By the way, "rug canvas" holds on to algae much better than "plastic canvas", it's just more flimsy and hard to work with.)
Christophe's idea was to use Lego Base Plates (the ones you played with as a kid):
They are available all over the web, and at almost every toy store and discount store. The beauty of these plates is that no matter how hard you clean/scrape, algae will still remain in-between the pegs (except the first week or so, where it will all come off anyways). Of course, you'll still want to sand/scratch all the areas in-between the pegs, but overall this looks very promising, if someone else would like to try it.
One disadvantage is that the plates are not (at least that I could find) available in clear, so a light on one side does not benefit the other side like it does with a screen. But since these plates are only formed one-sided anyways, it might not be such a bad thing, and indeed would be perfect for a twin-screen one-bulb setup.
Sure enough. There's a job for someone right there... connecting enough of those to make a useable screen size.
I was involved in developing a pond filter in Germany which uses a continuous roll of Polyethelyne fleece as a mechanical filter. See link
http://www.genesis.de/papier.html
This material could also be used as a substrate for an algal scrubber. My suggestion would be to keep trimming the bottom end off the fleece and pulling new unused fleece through from above. this way you could get around cleaning the scrubber.
If you trim off say 5-10cm of fleece per week you would have an algal growth gradient vertically down the fleece that would ensure a constant rate of nutrient removal. The exact amount of fleece that you would need to trim off each week would depend on the nutrient load of the tank and hence the algal growth rate.
The fleece rolls come in 100 and 200m lengths and starting price is around 20 euros per roll for a 30cm wide roll which is 100m long. This size roll has been customised for the genesis company. If you take a standard industry sized roll of 50cm width and 200m length it only costs about 35 euros! If you calculate an average of 10cm of paper trimmed off per week then a 200m roll should last you about 40 years!
This type of fleece is normally used in industry to filter drilling milk and lubricants/oils for reuse, so it should also be available in other countries. If worst comes to worst just get a roll sent over from the genesis company (no I don´t get a commission!). I can also assure anybody who is worried about safety issues that the fleece doesn´t release any toxins into the water. You can also buy fleece with a cellulose component but I wouldn´t recommend fleece with cellulose because cellulose fleeces often release phosphates into the water...
If the algal turf doesn´t want to grow ´up´ the fleece fast enough then you could feed the new fleece into the bottom of the scrubber trimming off the top 5-10cm instead.
Maybe not so interesting for a smallish tank but i´m not in love with the idea of regularly cleaning a scrubber for a 1000+ gal tank
So anyone willing to try out the idea?
j<><
http://www.genesis.de/papier.html
This material could also be used as a substrate for an algal scrubber. My suggestion would be to keep trimming the bottom end off the fleece and pulling new unused fleece through from above. this way you could get around cleaning the scrubber.
If you trim off say 5-10cm of fleece per week you would have an algal growth gradient vertically down the fleece that would ensure a constant rate of nutrient removal. The exact amount of fleece that you would need to trim off each week would depend on the nutrient load of the tank and hence the algal growth rate.
The fleece rolls come in 100 and 200m lengths and starting price is around 20 euros per roll for a 30cm wide roll which is 100m long. This size roll has been customised for the genesis company. If you take a standard industry sized roll of 50cm width and 200m length it only costs about 35 euros! If you calculate an average of 10cm of paper trimmed off per week then a 200m roll should last you about 40 years!
This type of fleece is normally used in industry to filter drilling milk and lubricants/oils for reuse, so it should also be available in other countries. If worst comes to worst just get a roll sent over from the genesis company (no I don´t get a commission!). I can also assure anybody who is worried about safety issues that the fleece doesn´t release any toxins into the water. You can also buy fleece with a cellulose component but I wouldn´t recommend fleece with cellulose because cellulose fleeces often release phosphates into the water...
If the algal turf doesn´t want to grow ´up´ the fleece fast enough then you could feed the new fleece into the bottom of the scrubber trimming off the top 5-10cm instead.
Maybe not so interesting for a smallish tank but i´m not in love with the idea of regularly cleaning a scrubber for a 1000+ gal tank
So anyone willing to try out the idea?
j<><
Very interesting idea/opportunity. Maybe a simpler non-motorized version, like a towell dispenser in public restrooms. Only thing is, most all screens that I've seen grow better after they have been cleaned a few times. So this fleece material would need to show that it grows at least decently the very first (and only) time. Maybe if you'd like to cut up a few pieces and send them to willing testers, we could find out.
hmt321;2312805; said:
this seems to be the most intriguing way to do this for space saving. I really like it
how's it looking now? i would recommend doing everything exactly the same way after scraping and seeing if the same spots are still under developed, THEN changing it. it could be under developed due to the starting out phase (which i doubt. i'm pretty certain is due to the high light not being perfect for FW systems, as we're finding out...but still good to check)zennzzo;2394224; said:
basslover34;2394301; said:
so many visuals there...all of them disturbing... 
So what's the status on FW setups? I see removing N & P for the most part?
algae is disappearing from koi ponds as well.
Any other results? it appears with freshwater that brighter lights are not really better? still holding true? Could this replace all other filtration for FW? other than pre-filters i mean? no more bio-media?
Bio media is just like with SW... to remove ammonia. Ammonia is the favorite food of algae, so it works out great. Plus, algae remove the N and P which cause the nuisance algae growth.
I'm not convinced of SW needing less light though. Think of all the outdoor ponds (and pools) with nuisance algae, and they are in full sun.
I'm not convinced of SW needing less light though. Think of all the outdoor ponds (and pools) with nuisance algae, and they are in full sun.
After the first scraping, the algae returned on the screen, in just 1 week...Nitrates are holding at 10....however the algae is also back in the pond, just not as thick...I'm going to let it grow on the screen until I see a rise in Nitrate, then I'll scrape...see if I can keep it from growing in the pond...
