Mega Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover - DIY!

[Ali1]

Question(s) for Xperts:

1. If i have a ball valve on the return line restricting some flow, how would I know how much my pump is actually pumping to make my screen?

2. I have two options : I can use a tee on the return line with a valve at the tee putting the remaining water into the sump. Should I attach the screen at the Tee from the return line OR should I just attach the screen from the overflow box? If i do it at the tee, the question then comes up "how do i know how much is flowing throgh the tee"? Any performance loss/gain between the two choices?

 

[Jgray152]

1. If i have a ball valve on the return line restricting some flow, how would I know how much my pump is actually pumping to make my screen?

Have the pump fill up a 5 gallon bucket at the same height as where you screen will be and time it, or get a flow meter.

 

[SantaMonica]

Any layout that give the most flow, and is the easiest to build and clean, and takes the least space, will work.

 

[Griller]

Merry Xmas MFKers and SantaMonica,

The "solar scrubber" is progressing steadily. There is a slight reduction of algae in the pond. My wife is pleased with the progress of her Xmas present.

Growth at day 3 (20/12/2009)

I've had to pick agae out of the waterfall pipe slots. The pump is picking it up from the pond. I'm hoping that this problem will go away as the algae in the pond vanishes. The flow seems to have become even all by itself.

Growth at day 8 (25/12/2009)

I had a power failure for a day and the scrubber was dry in the sun for 6 hours before I put it in the pond. I think some died but the screen is still alive. It was much greener than this before the failure.

Yes it's amazing how much faster a rough screen works.

Your flow, however, does look like it could be tripled.

The flow has evened out over the screen on both sides almost perfectly. Exactly 1 fibre on each side does not have water pouring over it.

How long until I do my first clean do you think?

I have written up a page with more detail and pics on the build on my web page: Solar algae turf scrubber for pond I'll update this page in parallel with this thread.
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[SantaMonica]

Looks like about another week before a cleaning. You'll be able to tell how much flow you've got by how thick the algae gets. Nice write up.

 

[SantaMonica]

Update: Cleaning algae off of the rocks.

If you are running a scrubber to help remove algae from the display, try first running the scrubber without manually removing algae off of the rocks. This is because when you scrub algae off of the rocks (or if you put a lawnmower or similar in) while the rocks are still in the tank, the algae will float around and die, causing a nutrient spike. It's better to let the scrubber slowly remove the algae for you. This will prevent spikes, and is less work too.

However, if there are LOTS of algae in the display (so much so that the phosphate and nitrate tests are zero), then your scrubber may not easily compete, even after many weeks. So if after four weeks you don't notice a reduction in algae in the display, then slowly start removing algae manually from the display (or, add a small algae eater). Don't remove TOO much algae at once (or don't get TOO big of an algae eater) because that will generate a spike too. Once the algae in the display has been reduced some, your scrubber should be able to take over from there, and all the rest of the nuisance algae should slowly go away.

Note: This does not apply if you remove the rocks from the system before cleaning. Removing rocks can be done at any time, but is much more work.

 

[Err]

Here is my build, it has only been running for 2 days now so I'm still waiting to see how everything pans out. Here is a link to a full thread on the back history of this project.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=294300

Here is some pic's of it 5 min ago.

1)The top and side view design
2) this is the 2x 6700k T5's that are being used to grow
3) the 1x 6700k and 1x color max (pink) T5's on the tank
4)a view down the water trough
5) bits of algae that seem to be takeing up residence.

 

[SantaMonica]

Nice acrylic box. Nice flow and wattage. Here's what to do...

The acrylic screen won't work. Lay a ROUGH piece of plastic canvas over it.

Use a grow-light for your scrubber too. You can even try two. Make sure they are on a timer.

Once fixed, this will be a very strong scrubber for that tank.

 

[Err]

Nice acrylic box. Nice flow and wattage. Here's what to do...

The acrylic screen won't work. Lay a ROUGH piece of plastic canvas over it.

Use a grow-light for your scrubber too. You can even try two. Make sure they are on a timer.

Once fixed, this will be a very strong scrubber for that tank.

Thanks for the comments man, I didnt have canvas available when I did this but the rough insert is quite rough. I took a 1/8" sheet of acrylic and ground it up with 50grit on a power sander, and then ran the cutting bit of a dremel tool over it for about 30 min and then finished it up with a saw toothed drill bit. It is very rough. As far as the light I may switch bulbs if there is a diffrent type of T5 bulb that will grow better than a standard 6700k and "colormax" pink bulb. But I just cant buy a new fixture, so the 48" T5 will have to do. Any chance you could suggest a good "grow bulb" that will fit in a standard T5 lamp?

 

[SantaMonica]

Your bulb is fine for now.