Mega Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover - DIY!
- Thread starter SantaMonica
- Start date
Videos:
Front Side:
YouTube - Santa Monica 100 -- First 7 days of growth, front side
Back Side:
YouTube - Santa Monica 100 -- First 7 days of growth, back side
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hey man...ive had lots of success with my scrubber....i recently built a new more "powerful" one with 6 cf 75w flood light bulbs... the algae doesnt seem to be growing as much. today when i cleaned it i noticed some yellowness all over the area where the bulbs usually are...what does that mean? too much light?...
thanks
thanks
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:
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
Beercan CFL reflectors! Cheap, easy and effective! Photo how-to guide - Marijuana Growing
What to dose when you don't do waterchanges
Many folks ask if anything needs to be dosed, if they stop doing water changes. If a reef tank, you'll certainly need to dose Calcium and Alkalinity. Then some Magnesium when needed. And maybe Strontium. The easiest way to dose Cal and Alk is by mixing some powdered lime with your topoff water. For details, search for "kalkwasser dripping". The powder is cheap from here: Mrs. Wages® Pickling Lime 16 oz. (454g)
Everything else is supplied by the food you feed, and by the organics from the scrubber. This includes all the trace elements that you always hear about. Remember that in the ocean, 90% of all life (besides bacteria) is algae. Algae provides all the food for everything that lives in the ocean, by coverting the sun into organics. And included in these organics are the trace elements that your tank needs too. Cal and Alk, however, are inorganic, and are used up quickly by corals and coralline, so you need to dose them often or continuously. Mag is dosed when your test says to. And the same with Strontium.
Many folks ask if anything needs to be dosed, if they stop doing water changes. If a reef tank, you'll certainly need to dose Calcium and Alkalinity. Then some Magnesium when needed. And maybe Strontium. The easiest way to dose Cal and Alk is by mixing some powdered lime with your topoff water. For details, search for "kalkwasser dripping". The powder is cheap from here: Mrs. Wages® Pickling Lime 16 oz. (454g)
Everything else is supplied by the food you feed, and by the organics from the scrubber. This includes all the trace elements that you always hear about. Remember that in the ocean, 90% of all life (besides bacteria) is algae. Algae provides all the food for everything that lives in the ocean, by coverting the sun into organics. And included in these organics are the trace elements that your tank needs too. Cal and Alk, however, are inorganic, and are used up quickly by corals and coralline, so you need to dose them often or continuously. Mag is dosed when your test says to. And the same with Strontium.
Here is the design for the nano scrubber box. This can be easily built by giving the plans to an acrylic shop. They can either build it for you, or, they can cut the pieces for you and you can silicone it together (use only aquarium-safe silicone)...
full size: http://www.radio-media.com/fish/25.jpg
full size: http://www.radio-media.com/fish/25.jpg
Professional In-Wall Aquarium
Hey SantaMonica, where did you get that live rock from? I want to add some to my inside wall aquarium. I have an awesome set-up with clownfish and yellow tangs but the best part is that it is inside my wall. It looks like a living painting. Check them out yourself at www.kooltanks.com
I got the Jumbo myself. I just need some live rock so reply if you know a cheap source.
Frank the cat man
www.wallcats.com
www.isabella-rose.com
Hey SantaMonica, where did you get that live rock from? I want to add some to my inside wall aquarium. I have an awesome set-up with clownfish and yellow tangs but the best part is that it is inside my wall. It looks like a living painting. Check them out yourself at www.kooltanks.com
I got the Jumbo myself. I just need some live rock so reply if you know a cheap source.
Frank the cat man
www.wallcats.com
www.isabella-rose.com
*celebrate*celebrate
Hi Santa Monica
I love your idea i have built mine 1 year ago and it has made the maintenance of my tank so easy the appearance of the glass and water is crystal clear
i keep coral and fish .
i only have one issue i cannot think of a solution to ...
I have set up a sub tank under my main fish tank which is in my upstairs lounge , the sub tank is in my garage below it above the door on brackets about 10 feet high so its out of the way
, I have two pipes one gravity feed to my screen with the light on it , its on 24 hours as its in the garage its no problem
In the tank is a pump that pumps the water back into the tank above ,
Here's my problem.. we have occasional power cut so the pump stops and the gravity feed continues to flow into the sub tank until it overflows .
I have limited the outflow by reducing the depth of the pickup pipe in the main tank so it will only empty the water by a few inches but it still overflows in to my garage .when the power comes back on i have to reset because the water is now pumped back into the tank above but no gravity feed as its run dry
I would be grateful for any ideas
Once again thanks for your great idea
Donny mac
Hi Santa Monica
I love your idea i have built mine 1 year ago and it has made the maintenance of my tank so easy the appearance of the glass and water is crystal clear
i keep coral and fish .
i only have one issue i cannot think of a solution to ...
I have set up a sub tank under my main fish tank which is in my upstairs lounge , the sub tank is in my garage below it above the door on brackets about 10 feet high so its out of the way
, I have two pipes one gravity feed to my screen with the light on it , its on 24 hours as its in the garage its no problem
In the tank is a pump that pumps the water back into the tank above ,
Here's my problem.. we have occasional power cut so the pump stops and the gravity feed continues to flow into the sub tank until it overflows .
I have limited the outflow by reducing the depth of the pickup pipe in the main tank so it will only empty the water by a few inches but it still overflows in to my garage .when the power comes back on i have to reset because the water is now pumped back into the tank above but no gravity feed as its run dry
I would be grateful for any ideas
Once again thanks for your great idea
Donny mac
Success Updates:
PRC on the LR site: "I tested my nitrates tonight. they are officially at ZERO. Couple of small details. I installed this DIY unit on a tank that was cycling. I started out with 20ppm Nitrates. i'm not running anything on this 90g tank except the algae scrubber. So within a 1 1/2 months I have a nice stable system. It may have taken a little less time, if I would have initially had the flow where I needed it. The entire thing took me less than 1 hr to make and install in my sump. And it works great. I use 4 lights (2 on each side). I'm using the lights recommended at the beginning of this thread. All I can say is the thing works... My nephew is running a skimmer, a filter, and has 100lbs. of rock and can't get his nitrates under 15ppm.. I spent .39 on a screen and have 0 nitrates."
Tristan on the LR site: "Im now convinced that the algae scrubber a more suitable than a skimmer. all the algae in my dt is gone!"
waucedah_joe on the RS site: "This thing works. When my [CFL] scrubber-prototype crashed [due to broken pump] my nitrates got up to 25 ppm before I was able to get this [LED scrubber] online, and then in 3 weeks they were near non detect level with the Salifert test kit. Rather than just say it's working for me, here's the datum:
Tank specs: 75g display w/ 40g sump. Heavily stocked. 1-3" blue tang, 1-3-1/2" powder brown tang, 2-Oscy clowns, 1-lawnmower blenny, 1-purple firefish, 1-manderin goby, 1-radiant wrass, 1-high fin goby, 3 BTA's, shrimp, crabs, 1-sand sifting star, 1-brittle star.
1/7 Return pump failed while out of town. Small CFL scrubber pretty much dead from drying up. Cleaned both sides and continued to use while working on new scrubber.
1/10 Nitrates 20 ppm. 20 gal water change
1/21 New scrubber on-line
1/24 Nitrates 25 ppm, old scrubber off-line. 20 gal water change. Last big water change. From here on out the only water change is 3-4 gallons every other week to replace water removed from vacumming detrius from return chamber of sump.
1/30 Nitrates 10 ppm
2/14 Nitrates 5 ppm
2/20 Nitrates 2.5 ppm
2/27 Nitrates <.2 ppm, Increased feeding 17% (from 5 cubes in two days to 6 cubes in two days. Mini icecube sized homemade frozen food. + small piece of nori every other day)
3/7 Nitrates 2.5ppm
3/14 Nitrates 2.5ppm
3/21 Nitrates 2.5ppm
No sugar, no skimmer, no macro algae. This is my only filter."
Rosenaa on the algae scrubber site: "Well its been a good while since I put up my ATS and I am very pleased! I had problems with red bubble algae and they are all gone now! Also coraline algae have sprung up everywhere and covering stone, glass and powerheads".
Inkidu on the algae scrubber site: "As far as this working, after several weeks with only a power head running, which feeds the scrubber, and some air pumps, there is absolutely nothing that is filtering besides the ats, my tank of 5 (say 5") discus and some cardinal tetra. My fish seem content (in fact I brought them back from the brink of death), I feed pretty heavily, the pea green water disappeared, and I have no algae in my tank. Thanks for all the help guys, I am going to call this a success."
Aeros on the algae scrubber site: "As a RO/DI is not within my budget at this time, I have been using tap water to top off and in my salt mix. [...] all my corals have doubled or tripled in size since December, and since adding my ATS all the hair algae has dissipated from the display (thanks mostly to the yellow tang) as well as the red cyano, and nitrates dropped from ~80 to ~10ppm. And pods galore!" All that being said, I will be investing in an RO/DI as soon as possible. For peace of mind mostly, and as part of an ATO set-up; manual topping off sucks."
Pepetj on the FL site: "As I reached the 2 months mark [with the scrubber], this is what I have to share. I've been measuring for Nitrates and Phosphates (Nitrates with Seachem's Nitrite/Nitrate test kit as well as calibrated PinPoint Nitrate Monitor; Phosphates with API's Phosphate test as well as Hagen's). I can tell that in my setting, which is a Nano Reef, I have been obtaining almost negligible readings (meaning as close to steady zero as I've ever seen) for both phosphates and nitrates."
Sillygoose on the RC site: "It's been two weeks since we scraped algae off of our new turf scrubber. As you can see in the pictures, growth has really taken off. Today, cleaning maybe 2/3 of the outer surfaces, we got 1 1/2 cups of algae off. The mat was 3/4-inch thick in places. The best part is that our NO3 is down from around 10 to below detect in 2 weeks without a water change. I can't tell if PO4 went down because I have a hard time with interpreting the test, but we are starting to see new coraline growth. It's very cool."
Gowingsgo on the RC site: I have been running a ATS for about 8 months now but set mine up with a skimmer. I built my sump with 5 separate chambers. (1 intake from main tank) (2 ATS) (3 skimmer) (4 fuge with live rock and sand so if I need to I can also put stuff in my sump) (5 return to main tank) I set mine up to remove algae from my display tank (and that is exactly what it is doing). But I have noticed that my skim-mate is much darker [note: scrubbers should not affect skimmate] and that I do not have to clean it as much (about once every week not every other day). also my nitrates have never been undetectable (more like 5+ ppm) but they have been 0 for the last 6 months now. [...] With turf scrubber [I have to clean the glass] once every 4 days, sometimes longer, without the scrubber I have had to clean the glass every day. [...] I love my ATS and don't think I would run a tank without one."
Lewk on the RC site: "I'm running a very simple scrubber on my 65 gallon. I've been using it since day one on the tank and my nitrates and phosphates have been at zero for several months now. I set everything up according to the algae scrubber site, and it's working great so far. I'm in the planning stages for a 135, and plan on using a scrubber there as well."
PRC on the LR site: "I tested my nitrates tonight. they are officially at ZERO. Couple of small details. I installed this DIY unit on a tank that was cycling. I started out with 20ppm Nitrates. i'm not running anything on this 90g tank except the algae scrubber. So within a 1 1/2 months I have a nice stable system. It may have taken a little less time, if I would have initially had the flow where I needed it. The entire thing took me less than 1 hr to make and install in my sump. And it works great. I use 4 lights (2 on each side). I'm using the lights recommended at the beginning of this thread. All I can say is the thing works... My nephew is running a skimmer, a filter, and has 100lbs. of rock and can't get his nitrates under 15ppm.. I spent .39 on a screen and have 0 nitrates."
Tristan on the LR site: "Im now convinced that the algae scrubber a more suitable than a skimmer. all the algae in my dt is gone!"
waucedah_joe on the RS site: "This thing works. When my [CFL] scrubber-prototype crashed [due to broken pump] my nitrates got up to 25 ppm before I was able to get this [LED scrubber] online, and then in 3 weeks they were near non detect level with the Salifert test kit. Rather than just say it's working for me, here's the datum:
Tank specs: 75g display w/ 40g sump. Heavily stocked. 1-3" blue tang, 1-3-1/2" powder brown tang, 2-Oscy clowns, 1-lawnmower blenny, 1-purple firefish, 1-manderin goby, 1-radiant wrass, 1-high fin goby, 3 BTA's, shrimp, crabs, 1-sand sifting star, 1-brittle star.
1/7 Return pump failed while out of town. Small CFL scrubber pretty much dead from drying up. Cleaned both sides and continued to use while working on new scrubber.
1/10 Nitrates 20 ppm. 20 gal water change
1/21 New scrubber on-line
1/24 Nitrates 25 ppm, old scrubber off-line. 20 gal water change. Last big water change. From here on out the only water change is 3-4 gallons every other week to replace water removed from vacumming detrius from return chamber of sump.
1/30 Nitrates 10 ppm
2/14 Nitrates 5 ppm
2/20 Nitrates 2.5 ppm
2/27 Nitrates <.2 ppm, Increased feeding 17% (from 5 cubes in two days to 6 cubes in two days. Mini icecube sized homemade frozen food. + small piece of nori every other day)
3/7 Nitrates 2.5ppm
3/14 Nitrates 2.5ppm
3/21 Nitrates 2.5ppm
No sugar, no skimmer, no macro algae. This is my only filter."
Rosenaa on the algae scrubber site: "Well its been a good while since I put up my ATS and I am very pleased! I had problems with red bubble algae and they are all gone now! Also coraline algae have sprung up everywhere and covering stone, glass and powerheads".
Inkidu on the algae scrubber site: "As far as this working, after several weeks with only a power head running, which feeds the scrubber, and some air pumps, there is absolutely nothing that is filtering besides the ats, my tank of 5 (say 5") discus and some cardinal tetra. My fish seem content (in fact I brought them back from the brink of death), I feed pretty heavily, the pea green water disappeared, and I have no algae in my tank. Thanks for all the help guys, I am going to call this a success."
Aeros on the algae scrubber site: "As a RO/DI is not within my budget at this time, I have been using tap water to top off and in my salt mix. [...] all my corals have doubled or tripled in size since December, and since adding my ATS all the hair algae has dissipated from the display (thanks mostly to the yellow tang) as well as the red cyano, and nitrates dropped from ~80 to ~10ppm. And pods galore!" All that being said, I will be investing in an RO/DI as soon as possible. For peace of mind mostly, and as part of an ATO set-up; manual topping off sucks."
Pepetj on the FL site: "As I reached the 2 months mark [with the scrubber], this is what I have to share. I've been measuring for Nitrates and Phosphates (Nitrates with Seachem's Nitrite/Nitrate test kit as well as calibrated PinPoint Nitrate Monitor; Phosphates with API's Phosphate test as well as Hagen's). I can tell that in my setting, which is a Nano Reef, I have been obtaining almost negligible readings (meaning as close to steady zero as I've ever seen) for both phosphates and nitrates."
Sillygoose on the RC site: "It's been two weeks since we scraped algae off of our new turf scrubber. As you can see in the pictures, growth has really taken off. Today, cleaning maybe 2/3 of the outer surfaces, we got 1 1/2 cups of algae off. The mat was 3/4-inch thick in places. The best part is that our NO3 is down from around 10 to below detect in 2 weeks without a water change. I can't tell if PO4 went down because I have a hard time with interpreting the test, but we are starting to see new coraline growth. It's very cool."
Gowingsgo on the RC site: I have been running a ATS for about 8 months now but set mine up with a skimmer. I built my sump with 5 separate chambers. (1 intake from main tank) (2 ATS) (3 skimmer) (4 fuge with live rock and sand so if I need to I can also put stuff in my sump) (5 return to main tank) I set mine up to remove algae from my display tank (and that is exactly what it is doing). But I have noticed that my skim-mate is much darker [note: scrubbers should not affect skimmate] and that I do not have to clean it as much (about once every week not every other day). also my nitrates have never been undetectable (more like 5+ ppm) but they have been 0 for the last 6 months now. [...] With turf scrubber [I have to clean the glass] once every 4 days, sometimes longer, without the scrubber I have had to clean the glass every day. [...] I love my ATS and don't think I would run a tank without one."
Lewk on the RC site: "I'm running a very simple scrubber on my 65 gallon. I've been using it since day one on the tank and my nitrates and phosphates have been at zero for several months now. I set everything up according to the algae scrubber site, and it's working great so far. I'm in the planning stages for a 135, and plan on using a scrubber there as well."
Finally got a finished acrylic box to work with:
Did a flow test:
YouTube - SantaMonica 25 flow test
Then did a melt test; put the bulb in, and let it set with no water flow for a half hour. No acrylic softening. Then, poured boiling water into the compartments; still ok...
YouTube - SantaMonica 25 boiling water test
Did a flow test:
YouTube - SantaMonica 25 flow test
Then did a melt test; put the bulb in, and let it set with no water flow for a half hour. No acrylic softening. Then, poured boiling water into the compartments; still ok...
YouTube - SantaMonica 25 boiling water test
Finally, I have a combination that has some green. Had to up the flow on the one-sided screen from 50 to 75 gph on the one screen (am not currently using the other screen), and reduce the lighting to 16 hours. Bulb is 1 inch (2.54 cm) from the screen. The bulb is setting on the bottom of the box at an angle, and the screen is also at an angle, and that's the reason that the burned-yellow part is at the bottom, and why the waterline is tilted:
(right click and "view image" to see the whole pic)
I cleaned it today, then sanded the clear window to diffuse the light. The bulb is so near to the screen that you are almost able to see the outline of the bulb in the growth. Scattering the light should help a lot; it's just a matter of how much.
To build this at home, you would just attach vinyl tubing to the pipe, and set the screen down evenly inside the box.
(right click and "view image" to see the whole pic)
I cleaned it today, then sanded the clear window to diffuse the light. The bulb is so near to the screen that you are almost able to see the outline of the bulb in the growth. Scattering the light should help a lot; it's just a matter of how much.
To build this at home, you would just attach vinyl tubing to the pipe, and set the screen down evenly inside the box.
Nutrients vs. Nutrition
The word "nutrient" and "nutrition" are commonly mixed up when talking about reefs. Skimmers (in this case, air bubbles) only remove nutrition, which is fine if all you have is fish, but skimmers/bubbles have no affect on nutrients. "Nutrients" are Inorganic Nitrate, Inorganic (Ortho) Phosphate, Ammonia, Ammonium, and Nitrite. Matter of fact, if you took a fresh batch of newly made saltwater and put a skimmer in it, then added pure nutrients, the skimmer would not have any skimmate at all. Algae, however, would start growing out of control. If, however, you added nutrition (phyto, plankton, ground up flakes, etc) to that same batch of saltwater, the skimmer would go crazy and remove it all.
The word "nutrient" and "nutrition" are commonly mixed up when talking about reefs. Skimmers (in this case, air bubbles) only remove nutrition, which is fine if all you have is fish, but skimmers/bubbles have no affect on nutrients. "Nutrients" are Inorganic Nitrate, Inorganic (Ortho) Phosphate, Ammonia, Ammonium, and Nitrite. Matter of fact, if you took a fresh batch of newly made saltwater and put a skimmer in it, then added pure nutrients, the skimmer would not have any skimmate at all. Algae, however, would start growing out of control. If, however, you added nutrition (phyto, plankton, ground up flakes, etc) to that same batch of saltwater, the skimmer would go crazy and remove it all.
Updates:
Coral color: If you use zeo/vodka (with a skimmer) and have pale coral colors, it is not because the "nutrients are too low". It is because the FOOD is too low. The skimmer removes the food (almost all of it) that the corals need to eat. Turn the skimmer off and the colors will come back. Of course your nutrients (Inorganic Nitrate and Inorganic Phosphate) will come back too, but hopefully you now know how to fix that by now. Some people mistakenly try "adding nutrients" such as potasium nitrate, but that is the opposite of what is needed. Nutrients (Inorganic Nitrate and Inorganic Phosphate) are not needed; FOOD is needed. Eric Borneman says: "Adding potasium nitrate to a tank whose corals are losing color because of zeo/vodka dosing is the most convoluted, complex, unnatural and bizarre way to get to an end result that is so easily achieved other ways."
Screen Growth: Don't forget that the more algae you remove every week from your screen, the more nitrate and phosphate you are pulling out of your tank. Thus, the more growth, the lower your Inorganic Nitrate and Inorganic Phosphate will be in your tank, and, the more baby pods you will have in your water.
Bulbs: Importance of the light being consistant across the screen: CFL bulbs are cheap and easy, but they put all the light into one spot. So there is really no purpose in having a screen much larger than the bulb:
Coral color: If you use zeo/vodka (with a skimmer) and have pale coral colors, it is not because the "nutrients are too low". It is because the FOOD is too low. The skimmer removes the food (almost all of it) that the corals need to eat. Turn the skimmer off and the colors will come back. Of course your nutrients (Inorganic Nitrate and Inorganic Phosphate) will come back too, but hopefully you now know how to fix that by now. Some people mistakenly try "adding nutrients" such as potasium nitrate, but that is the opposite of what is needed. Nutrients (Inorganic Nitrate and Inorganic Phosphate) are not needed; FOOD is needed. Eric Borneman says: "Adding potasium nitrate to a tank whose corals are losing color because of zeo/vodka dosing is the most convoluted, complex, unnatural and bizarre way to get to an end result that is so easily achieved other ways."
Screen Growth: Don't forget that the more algae you remove every week from your screen, the more nitrate and phosphate you are pulling out of your tank. Thus, the more growth, the lower your Inorganic Nitrate and Inorganic Phosphate will be in your tank, and, the more baby pods you will have in your water.
Bulbs: Importance of the light being consistant across the screen: CFL bulbs are cheap and easy, but they put all the light into one spot. So there is really no purpose in having a screen much larger than the bulb: