Mega Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover - DIY!

[project5k]

hey wes, can you back away on the pictures just a tad so we can see more of the total setup? I'm about to take the leap with a new sump and i would really like to incorperate one of these scrubbers, and i'm looking at all kinds of diff pictures, trying to decide how to do mine...

 

[SantaMonica]

If you did not already see these:

Algae Scrubbers • View topic - Misc Scrubber Designs (newest designs are at the end)

 

[Wes888]

It's just a bucket. Water goes out to the sump using a siphon pipe. That's the pipe in the front left. If my local home depot has bulkhead for sale, I would have drill the bucket and drill the sump and connect them together. The siphon is slow since their water level is similar. I have to slow down the water to avoid overflow.

 

[SantaMonica]

In that case, put a bulkhead in, and put the bucket higher, and then increase the flow. This stronger flow will allow the algae to grow in front of the light.

 

[project5k]

ok i started mine in a homer bucket too, but what i ended up doing was using some bulkhead lookn kinda connectors from the electrical department, i guess i'll have to take a couple pictures tonight to really be able to explain, but my plan is to basically have the same thing as what you have, just minus the syphon, cause i cut holes low in the bucket for the drains...

I did see all thoes pictures, i just wasnt sure if yours was one of them, or what..

so, what is the screen material that you are using? i havent been able to find it local yet.

 

[Wes888]

Oh? bulkhead lookn kinda connectors in electrical? Is it plastic? I gotta check it out!!

The screen is a plastic canvas. I got mine in Michaels, a very big art and craft store. Cost like $0.40-$1 or something.

 

[bigploch]

Finally got the right light bulbs. I have been running 1 bulb (the other broke) and the only 65w incandescent to boot and getting good growth getting 80% coverage with weekly cleanings. Now I have the recommended 23w 2700k bulbs. All levels were reading at or below one while using this setup but I already had a tank full of HA. I have since manually removed 95% of HA and got the right bulbs. Now my real test begins....updates to follow. See https://www.livingreefs.com/waging-war-hair-algae-t17099p2.html for my struggles.

 

[daugherty]

these work best for curved things like buckets

Bulk Reef Supply - Bulk Reef Supply

 

[Wes888]

Does that uniseal still need a bulkhead?

 

[daugherty]

it is the bulkhead look at the videos they have about them just click on one of them and pictures come up that show them being used

 

[bjohanson1234]

ok i started mine in a homer bucket too, but what i ended up doing was using some bulkhead lookn kinda connectors from the electrical department, i guess i'll have to take a couple pictures tonight to really be able to explain, but my plan is to basically have the same thing as what you have, just minus the syphon, cause i cut holes low in the bucket for the drains...

I did see all thoes pictures, i just wasnt sure if yours was one of them, or what..

so, what is the screen material that you are using? i havent been able to find it local yet.

I beleive, if I am thinking right, that you got one PVC to male pipe and one PVC to female pipe couplings. I have used those for bulkheads before. Just get some of that gasket material and make your own gaskets for each side of the bucket. Also, the threads on electrical connectors are straight threads where as on water or gas pipe fittings they are tapered. You are going to need to seal the threads pretty good. What I did was load it up with PVC cement and then put them together. The only problem is if you want the bulk head removable.

Brian

 

[project5k]

damn i forgot to take pictures, but yea, its a plastic thing from electrical, and i had to get some jam nuts that would thread onto it, (i think that they were for use on plastic threaded conduit), then i took the dremel to the nuts so that they could screw all the way down onto the "bulkhead" cause before they would only go on about a 1/4 inch.

then i just drilled the holes in the bucket, siliconed the crap outta it, and stuck it together.. it holds water, and lets me put a clear hose on it, so i'm happy, and it only cost me like $5 for like 4 of em if i remember right,

ok, i set an alarm on my phone to remind me to take pics when i get home.

 

[SantaMonica]

Success Updates:

Tarraza on the AS site: "THANK YOU SM. without this site my tank was a mess. Now I can enjoy this hobby for ever. 8 months now and i forget what NITRATE, PHOSPHATE IS ALL ABOUT, AHH!!, WATER CHANGE? NOT FOR ME ANY MORE!!!!! GOD BLESS YOU GUYS!!!!"

Firestarter on the SG site: "I was rather hesitant to change to an algae scrubber at first and doubted it would really work, as it was too good to be true. Almost 1.5 weeks of converting to the scrubber, I can see such great results! My corals are finally doing better, pods population has almost tripled, and I don't even need to clean the tank glass at all (usually by now it would be covered my a thin film of brown diatoms). Its amazing what the results were. Forget expensive skimmers, denitrators etc, just a good light source and good flow will do. One of the main reasons why I changed to a scrubber was because of my high nitrate reading. When I finally bought a test kit and tested it, the reading was more than 100mg/l and now it has dropped significantly to 25mg/l. Another advantage was that I could skip the skimmer pump which resulted in my water temp dropping 0.5 - 1 deg."

Craig on the NZ site: "My tank water is so clear and clean looking, and the sand is clean.
I have a Dragon Goby and he has gotten fat ever since I moved to the scrubber and removed my skimmer, he moves a heck of a lot of sand. But I stirred up my sand like I occasionally do and this time there was no muck coming out as I stirred it. My [nuisance] algaes in my overflow have receded, and the coraline on the rocks has grown quite quickly over the last few days. Even the water in my sump (even thou there is a bit of crap on the bottom) is clear and clean."

Gannet on the NZ site: "i have gone from cleaning the glass on the front of the tank 2-4 times a week to once every 2 weeks ... my nitrates has gone from 80ppm and is now 0-5ppm ... and the pods and mysis, i have that many in my sump now that i scoop them up with a net and feed them to my fish works a treat."

ImDaring on the LR site: "I built mine [scrubber] because I had to clean my glass every day because of green algae, and then to top it off I had a Brown algae breakout... it had covered the bottom of my sand bed it; looked like slime. the first week of having my scrubber hooked up I only cleaned my glass 1 time, now on my 2nd week I have not had to clean it at all, and the brown algae is almost gone."

 

[Wes888]

In that case, put a bulkhead in, and put the bucket higher, and then increase the flow. This stronger flow will allow the algae to grow in front of the light.

ok. Drilled a hole and put in a DYI bulkhead to directly return water to the sump. I can have the water gushing out like a water fall if needed. Would too much flow be non-effective as well? I can now literally have 1/2 inch thick of water flowing on the surface of the sheets.

 

[SantaMonica]

High flow is good, as long as the screen is as rough as a cactus; otherwise the algae will get washed off into the water...

 

[Wes888]

Yea, just did that over the weekend. The hole saw is amazingly effective! All the algae got scrubbed off though. They have to all grow from scratch again.

 

[bigploch]

Wes, I think that is the point. Once you establish a nice algae bed, you are supposed to remove 90% each week. The growing algae is what is using up the nitrates and phosphates so they aren't getting into your display. SM please correct me if I am wrong.

Also SM, what are your experiences regarding an algae scrubber vs. a refugium with macro algae? Same function? Is the scrubber more efficient?

 

[Wes888]

I meant the rate of growth. Cause I've noticed that the first week I had it, it was very very slow growing. By the end of the first week, the entire sheet had just some slight color. After 8 days or so, it started blooming. I guess because the sheet was seeded. I could see new growth even from the morning to the evening. It was that fast!

The weekly maintenance suppose to just clean off 1 side of the sheet.

 

[bigploch]

Wes, see below where SM talks about complete cleaning or AT LEAST cleaning half of the screen.

Update: Results of not cleaning

If you do not clean your screen in FW once a week (or at least put the whole screen in FW, and clean half of it), here is what happens:

1. Pods start growing and multipling in the bottom layers of the algae. They do this by eating more of the algae. They then get washed off into the water and get consumed.

2. The bottom layers of algae (attached to the screen) start getting shaded by the new algae that grows on top of it.

3. The bottom layers of algae (attached to the screen) start getting less flow, because they are being covered up by the new algae that grows on top of it.

4. The algae starts growing up into the slot in the pipe, causing less water to flow out.

5. The algae gets thicker and longer and heavier, and thus "lets go" from the screen easier.


The results of 1, 2, 3, and 4 above, is that the bottom layers (which you can't see because they are underneath) start dying and disolving back into the water. The result of #5 is that large pieces of algae on the top layers (that normally would be useful) also go into the water and die due to lack of light.

However, you don't see any of this. What you do see is that the growth seems to be great, but it gets to a certain point and stops. It seems to have "stopped growing". Also the nutrients start rising. So the tendancy of some folks is to leave it longer without cleaning it, so to give the algae "more time to grow". Big mistake.

What is happening is that the underlying layers are dying off so fast, that the algae is being removed from the bottom as fast as it is growing on the top. Kind of like building a second floor on top of a house, but then removing the first floor: You end up with a one-level house again. But then you take all the materials that you got from removing the first floor, and you use them to build a new second floor. But then you tear apart the first floor again, etc.

So what is happening is that the bottom layers (and the top layers that let go) are putting Inorganic Nitrate and Inorganic Phosphate back into the water, which gets used to grow new algae on the top layers again. So the scrubber can no longer filter your tank because it is so busy re-growing new layers to replace the old layers that died.

The easy solution to all of this is to just do your weekly cleaning in FW. And the solution to #5 (which really is the smallest problem) is to put a light-shield along the slot.

I have had mine up and running for a few months now. I clean off 90% from both sides and they are both completely recovered in a week.

A few of the keys to this thing are the right lights, the proper distance of light from the screen, and the right amount of flow over the screen. Once you get those things in line, this thing grows like a weed.

 

[Wes888]

I've noticed that the same thing as well. It'll take a week to recover/start blooming.