Mega Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover - DIY!

[fishing2008]

thank for sharing,this is a great thread.
I'v a question,can non-woven fabrics be used to diy algae scrubbers?thanks

 

[SantaMonica]

It does not matter if it's woven or not; it matters only how rough it it. Like a cactus is best.

 

[fishing2008]

It does not matter if it's woven or not; it matters only how rough it it. Like a cactus is best.

thanks,it seems that no-woven fabric is not rough enough.

 

[dawnmarie]

Hi, I'm really wanting to try this and I have a couple of questions.
I don't have a sump and want to install on the return water circuit.
I have a 240 Gal. FW/No live plants/Cichlid setup
I have attached a drawing of what will fit in my tank hood assembly.
I could have two panels 20" long x 3" high fed by the return water.
I can adjust flow over the panels by adjusting the amount bypassed .
Would my existing tank lights be sufficeint ?
Is the short height of the panel a detriment ?
How many hours a day would I need to run lights ?
If this is feasable, it would eliminate the need for additional lights or pumps.

 

[fishing2008]

35 U.S. gallons per hour (gph) (133 lph) for every inch (2.5cm) of width of the screen.

so you need 2 20*35gph= 1400GPH flow

 

[dawnmarie]

so you need 2 20*35gph= 1400GPH flow

Thanks, so if I change panels to 15" long x 4" high (15 x 4 x 2 x 2 = 240) and my pump produces a little over 1000 GPH (15 x 2 x 35 = 1050) that works out .
Any thoughts on the other questions ?
How bout it SantaMonica, do you think it will work effectively ?

 

[SantaMonica]

Unfortunately it will not do the filtering you want, because of the light. The lights for a 240 gal should be at least 120 watts of 2000 to 6500k, within 4" of the screen, and not above the pipe. So your actinic does nothing, and your 10k is still too blue, and is in the wrong place, and is way too weak. You'd get token growth to keep you curious, but no results in filtering. Plus I doubt you'd be able to leave the lights on for 18 hours. Your tubes/screen/flow looks good, however.

This really looks like a need for an external scrubber, above the display, that drains back to the display.

 

[SantaMonica]

New Year Update: Screen Roughness

It's becoming more and more clear how important a rough screen is. A year ago it was thought that lighting was most important, but only because you could see new growth easily from stronger light. The effects of a smooth screen are not nearly as obvious, because you start losing small pieces of algae off the screen bit-by-bit, but they are covered up by the other algae. So here is an example of how fast a brand-new screen can grow; it is just 4 days old, but it is two layers of cactus-rough plastic canvas:

Which gives us a new goal:

 

[dawnmarie]

Unfortunately it will not do the filtering you want, because of the light. The lights for a 240 gal should be at least 120 watts of 2000 to 6500k, within 4" of the screen, and not above the pipe. So your actinic does nothing, and your 10k is still too blue, and is in the wrong place, and is way too weak. You'd get token growth to keep you curious, but no results in filtering. Plus I doubt you'd be able to leave the lights on for 18 hours. Your tubes/screen/flow looks good, however.

This really looks like a need for an external scrubber, above the display, that drains back to the display.

Thanks for the reply,was looking for the easy button.
Oh well, back to the drawing board.

 

[SantaMonica]

Go through the examples and look for an idea...
http://www.algaescrubber.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=26