Algae scrubber as bio filter.
- Thread starter markstrimaran
- Start date
As clean as it gets. Self harvesting.
Scrubber chamber with sump pump.
Above the tank, mechanical filtration. The pipes on the left go into a sealed 55 gallon drum. For water changes, and cooling.
This tank has no bio media, less decorations. Nitrates have not increased, this week, still at 15ppm.
Mechanical filter gets cleaned about once a month.
Stocked with 14 adult African cichilds.
And one 10" pleco.
The glass is covered with tiles, made with the scrubber screen sand. A full length return bar, mounted at the bottom pushes, the pleco ammo, forward, then it gradually gets pulled into a 3/8" suction hole, in the base of the algea scrubber chamber box.
Once inside the box, it gets tornadoes until it is pulverized. The internal upflow scrubber, air wand, with a 450gph pump about 10" off the floor. Creates lots of turbulance.
The red valve is a left over from a fluidised sand filter, the I removed recently.
I lost another led to inferior epoxy, so the test tank, has been on about 30 watts.
I am going to roll with it, and see. So far the only noticeable difference is the PH dropped from 8.20 to 7.80. The fluidised balls are only illuminated on one side.
I am waiting on 660nm 3 watt leds, and have built a replacement using 10 watt cob leds.
Epoxied to aluminum heat sink, vacuum bagged marine grade epoxy. Then GE silicone with a glass lenses.
They are nice little aquarium heaters, also. The glass will crack like a heater if the water fluctutes. I broke 3 on a open air scrubber.
The top picture led is of the wrong spectrum. 10 watt 6 volt cob, 640nm.
My latest is a 10 watt 24 volt. 660nm x 520nm. 8x1 cob. On a 48 volt cc cv power supply.
I am going to roll with it, and see. So far the only noticeable difference is the PH dropped from 8.20 to 7.80. The fluidised balls are only illuminated on one side.
I am waiting on 660nm 3 watt leds, and have built a replacement using 10 watt cob leds.
Epoxied to aluminum heat sink, vacuum bagged marine grade epoxy. Then GE silicone with a glass lenses.
They are nice little aquarium heaters, also. The glass will crack like a heater if the water fluctutes. I broke 3 on a open air scrubber. The top picture led is of the wrong spectrum. 10 watt 6 volt cob, 640nm.
My latest is a 10 watt 24 volt. 660nm x 520nm. 8x1 cob. On a 48 volt cc cv power supply.
The top tank, was 20ppm a month ago, today it is 15ppm, with the scrubber only.
The bottom tank, had it's scrubber removed, and the wet/dry bio balls flow bypassed, so the in the tank, algea moss growth does the bulk of bio filtration.
Today it is at 15ppm. I am working on an full flow scrubber as bio. Mostly waiting on 3 watt leds, but might retro with cfls. The 10 watt chips are too hot, to cool down inside a closed spacs, with out a large heat sink. Liquid cooled ones, worked, ok but fluctuations in sump water level, caused them to crack the glass lens.
Update 4
19 days since last WC
Lights have been going down, " lost a whole batch from pourus epoxy "
Last week has been with balls one sided, with two 10 watt cobd
I am hoping the glass gets completely covered. I almost killed it last week, as I added about 8ppm ammonia. Had the PH up to 10.5.
Awesome that your getting results.
Trully a mad scientist at work. Did you ever hear back from the members that purchased the santa monica scrubbers ? I remember one was having issues
Trully a mad scientist at work. Did you ever hear back from the members that purchased the santa monica scrubbers ? I remember one was having issues
No he fell off the internet. Really, seams like Very few use algea scrubbers.
More lights coming in April.
Then Spring is about here, So I will provably fade away, before May
And fire up the trimaran..
More lights coming in April.
Then Spring is about here, So I will provably fade away, before May
And fire up the trimaran..
