Mega Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover - DIY!

[AHill40]

Thanks sm man that was a quick response, much appreciated, Im trying to get mine together. Im going to either use my old wet dry trickle filter of course gutting it out or use a old 10 gal acrlic (plastic) tank.The wet dry has a 1'' return on the bottom so i can use my in line pump 1290gph, I should be able to use two 10''x10'' doubled screens on both sides....I freekin hate green hair algea in my tank LOL

 

[SantaMonica]

Santa Monica 100 growth pics for first 7 days:

No seeding. Screen is one layer of roughed up playsic canvas, never used before:

 

[SantaMonica]

Videos:

Front Side:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNHlRScPYn4]YouTube - Santa Monica 100 -- First 7 days of growth, front side[/ame]

Back Side:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYiWOxdliiA]YouTube - Santa Monica 100 -- First 7 days of growth, back side[/ame]
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[PRC]

SM Great videos!. I've got alot of drown algae (diatoms) on my screen. This morning when I turned the lights on, I see that the screen is starting to clear up, there are less diatoms on it then yesterday. (There are also less diatoms in my tank)

It's only been 4 days since I've cleaned it....should I clean it prior to the 7 day rule or just let it ride?

 

[SantaMonica]

7 days, unless it's black algae.

 

[SantaMonica]

Here is the initial design for a nano scrubber. Nanos have always been the hardest to DIY a scrubber for. This scrubber is designed to be mounted above the waterline of a nano, and then drain down into it, without needing a real sump below the tank. It will come with a pump that will go into the display (like a powerhead) or into the hidden "sump" section at the back of the tank. I'm building a test version of it now, and if it works out good I'll post the plans for others to build:

 

[SantaMonica]

A great way to add a reflector to your DIY CFL bulbs:

Beercan CFL reflectors! Cheap, easy and effective! Photo how-to guide - Marijuana Growing

 

[dcantucson]

Now that was interesting.
Just what were they going to grow with that light! :lol:

 

[kevvin27]

I've had my scrubber going for almost 2 weeks now and right away I started noticing small white spiral looking things all over the glass, rocks and snails. What are they?

 

[SantaMonica]

Well normally you'll get tiny white specs which are copepods. But I've not heard of spirals. I'm sure they are some kind of pod. If you can stop the flow and watch them to see of they move. Pics will be hard to get that small.

Being 2 weeks, I hope you have cleaned.

 

[kevvin27]

Well they are almost like baby feather dusters or something. They don't move at all. And yes I have cleaned it once and tomorrow will be the second time. I've been wanting to get a Mandarin Goby. Do you think It would have enough pods to live in my tank now? Thanks SM

 

[bjohanson1234]

I believe that they are spiroid worms. They dont get much bigger than a grain of sand. I also doubt that it has anything to do with the scrubber. They usually spread as the tank matures more and more.

 

[kevvin27]

Yeah they are. Just saw pics of them. I had them when I first set up the tank btut they slowly disapeared and now that I'm not running my skimmer anymore they have come back again. I saw something about them being caused by nitrate levels but my nitrates are zero so I don't know.

 

[SantaMonica]

A mandarin will be easy now. I see them in 10 gal nano's with nano scrubbers, and little live rock.

 

[PRC]

SM,

Today is my 3rd cleaning for my scrubber. I've increased the flow on my screen and am starting to get a decent amount of green algae on the screen now.

I know you're only supposed to clean 1 side at a time, but I think the amount of brown algea on both sides will prevent green algae from growing fully.

The question is: Can I clean both sides of the screen in this circumstance as long as I leave 20% algae growth on both sides rather than 10% on one side? Or do you think that this may cause a nitrate spike? Thanks again.

Also, my nitrates are down to to less than 5 ppm. This is within approx. 4 weeks time. I have a light bio-load. 2 small clowns and a foxface in 90g tank with 50 g sump.

Here are some pics..

 

[Tristan]

would it be ok for maidens hair algae to grow on the scrubber? do they work just as well? thats the kind thats taking over my screen right now.

 

[SantaMonica]

One you clean the brown off, green will grow if it's going to grow at all. It just needs some place to grab onto.

The maiden's hair is probably just green hair algae, which is what you want because it filters the most.

 

[PRC]

I went ahead and cleaned both sides of the screen yesterday. Like you said, to remove the brown algae. It didn't look like there was alot of algae on the screen until I got it to the sink, i was shocked!..

 

[Gigaah]

I understand that.
Algea scrubber accessory #1:
Garbage disposal

lol

 

[Tristan]

One you clean the brown off, green will grow if it's going to grow at all. It just needs some place to grab onto.

The maiden's hair is probably just green hair algae, which is what you want because it filters the most.

no its really maidens hair because i had it in my tank, then it just died off and started growing in the scrubber lol.

Im now convinced that the algae scrubber a more suitable than a skimmer. all the algae in my dt is gone!