Mega Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover - DIY!

[MyFishEatYourFish]

Good to hear! But do post your ideas/plans/pics as you go along, as others can help spot a problem that's already been solved, before you get too far into it.

good point, thanks. but i don't think i will have anything too drastic this time around. just a better light gaurd, waterproof lighting and possibly an overflow pump combination to drive the whole thing.
but i do have a question, will my return pump chop up and kill all my plankton that comes off of the scrubbers? it seems like it shouldn't kill all but are there any percentage estimates that do make it out alive? i know all the big stuff will get liquifyed, but thats not a big deal, its just that i would love to see my corals benefit from the added nutrition in the water.

 

[Billy the kid]

What a great post ..This is a help to all

 

[fredmanby]

I agree. This is an amazing thread. I was thinking of making a coil denitrator, but this seems a much more straightforward and practical way to go.

 

[necrocanis]

Do you think that it would work if you were to sand the inside of a 5 gal bucket and place a strong light in the center? Make a rig that pours water evenly over all sides of the bucket. Then you'd just have to wipe out the bucket once per week. Thinking of doing something like that for my 350 gal pond, but don't like the look of having a sheet of something hanging over it, or making a tank just for it. So why not rough up a bucket inside and throw a light in it? Just put the bucket over your sump with a bottom drain. There would be plenty enough surface area on the iside of a bucket to probably do a tank up to 300ish gals. I might have to test this out!

 

[Weylin]

Might work if the flow is good and you attach a screen on the sides of the bucket or make the the surface really really rough..

 

[MyFishEatYourFish]

i was thinking of the same thing! my solution was to fit a piece of rubber hosing into a ring connected by a tee that sat just inside the rim of the bucket with something to hold it in place like zip ties. then melt or cut some holes in the hose that pointed outward to the side of the bucket every half inch or so. i would be doing this but theres not enough room between the top of my sump and the stand so now i'm just doing the normal gen1 style.

 

[necrocanis]

I think I'll test the bucket on the 300 or 350 gal pond and see what I come up with for results! I know there's definitely always plenty of nitrates! I've got tons of buckets so I'm gonna sand one down this weekend. I'll take pics. I have some extra lights I could use also. Only thing I have to do is figure out how I'm gonn rig it to the setup! If this works I'll be doing a 55 gal drum version for the 4000 gal. Been tossing around tons of ideas, and this one made sense. If like others that have done fw setups, I get green or cloudy water I'll run it through a filter sock. I've got some 60 grit sandpaper. That should do the trick. I might have to get a different pump though. Only ones I have sitting around right now are the 5000 gph ones for the 4000 gal tank, and a crap 1500 gph that I use for water changes. That one can leak oil so I don't use it often. Gets really hot also. I'll have to figure out how many gph, and get the appropriate sized pump for it.

 

[Weylin]

There's a chart somewhere thats shows how much of gallons - the size of the screen..

 

[necrocanis]

I'm going without a screen to see how well that works. Basically I'm trying to simplify it for my needs. I think a single high output bulb through the lid of a 5 gal bucket with water cascading down the sides of the bucket and out a drain on the bottom would work wonders. Just gotta remember to scrape the hell outa the sides lol. A single 5 gal bucket would work for a 300, but you'd need 2 55 gal barrels for the 4000. Not sure weather it would be more of a pain to clean something like that then it would be to just do some massive water changes! I have some ideas for bypassing having to take the barrels off to do the cleaning. Maybe use an algae scrubber brush and have a two way valve on the barrels. That way when you are cleaning them in place the algae will get rinsed out of the bucket or not at all, but you can collect it without fear of it going into your tank, and use tank water to rinse it a lil. Still need to do small water changes and you can use that to clean this! Seems like it might work.

 

[necrocanis]

will need half the water flow as it will only have one side. the inside of the bucket!