Mega Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover - DIY!

Weylin

Blue Tier VIP
MFK Member
Sep 15, 2007
3,132
1
313
34
Inside a Bottle
Screen Size: 6x5
Tank Volume: About 8 Gallons
Bulb Type: Osram and now Phillips : 15 watts and 23 watts.. 6500k and about 7 months old.

Lit only on one side and 450lts per hour flowing.

Lights are on from 8:00 am to 11:00pm
 

SantaMonica

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Oct 9, 2008
680
53
61
Santa Monica, CA, USA
Successes of the Day:

Johnt on the UR site: "I feed heavy and don't do water changes, so there's quite a bio load to balance; since adding the scrubber I've stopped using phosphate remover, and levels remain low and the water appears clearer, but I think the biggest difference has been how clean the tank looks despite being set up close to five years."

tarraza on the algae scrubber site: "the only thing that i can tell you guys is that this is my 5 months that I have NOT change any water in my 30 gal salt watwer tank full of hard corals, soft corals etc. For more than 8 YEARS i spend a LOT of money on additives to eliminate nitrates above 30ppm, phophate way over 20 not to mention water change every other week just to get partial results. Now I do not even test for nitrates, phopate, I only test one in a blue moon for calcium, ph, and alk. My filtration for this tank is a ACUACLEAR 110 FILTER ON THE BACK OF MY TANK WHITH MY VERSION OF ALGEA SCRUBBLE (of course whith ALL the ADVICES FROM ST. MONICA in). People KEEP IT SIMPLE. THIS SYSTEM REALY WORK.

cyberseer on the algae scrubber site: "YEAH!! Tested this morning coz i was bored, got a 0 NO3 reading, had to double and triple the test, to confirm that I wasn't dreaming/sleep walking/imagining things. Like that presentation says, this has got to be one of the happiest days of my life in this hobby/dark hole. Also, I can answer my question per title of this thread now. It took 50 days to see effect (could be sooner, but I didn't test for like a week and half before yesterday) and 51 days to result. :) What a beautiful day it is, no rain, and no NO3. No skimmer for almost 4 weeks. No water change for 2 weeks. Feed 2x a day for the fish, 1 cube a day for the fish and softies. BTW, changed a bigger CFL on 2/16/09, it's now a 65W with output of 300w. Big difference in growth."
 

CHAMPLINE

Candiru
MFK Member
Jul 30, 2008
108
1
48
BKK Thailand
i got a fresh water 100g thinking of building one of these do to high nitrate let me know how big of screen and how much flow i should use please thanks
 

SantaMonica

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Oct 9, 2008
680
53
61
Santa Monica, CA, USA
Update: Electrical Safety

Be sure to seal your bulbs and connections with aquarium-safe silicone or sealant, especially if the bulb is down inside the sump. You can't see it, but there will be tiny amounts of salt spray that will build up where you screw the bulb in, and also where you made electrical connections. When the buildup gets thick enough, it will short out and blow a fuse. So each time you replace a bulb, re-seal it. You should be able to pour water over it without it causing a problem.
 
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