Algae Turf Scrubber in progress

iidylii

iidylii

Active Member
so ive decided I have the room for an ATS so why not try one out and see what happens...I had all the pvc and what not laying around so just had to buy a union and knitting screen and was done...anyways here is a crude quick put together with no glue...still have to cut the slit in the bottom of the straight piece of pvc and figure out something for the light to mount to....
 
2quills

2quills

Well-Known Member
May wish to consider some sort of a splash shield.

1. For when water decides to shoot out of the slot at a angle from the screen.

2. There will be quite a bit of splashing and salt creep due to the eater falling from the screen into the sump.

I had the bottom of my screen sitting in the water with a splash shield around the screen and still got quite a bit of salt creep.
 
iidylii

iidylii

Active Member
2quills said:
May wish to consider some sort of a splash shield.

1. For when water decides to shoot out of the slot at a angle from the screen.

2. There will be quite a bit of splashing and salt creep due to the eater falling from the screen into the sump.

I had the bottom of my screen sitting in the water with a splash shield around the screen and still got quite a bit of salt creep.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tips quills...I will be having the screen flush with the top of the water...like I said this was just thrown together in a couple mins to see how it looked...I will also have another light on the other side..I did forget about the splash guard though...I will have to rig something up for that
 
iidylii

iidylii

Active Member
Quills...for a splash gaurd did u just mount a piece of glass in front of your light or did you do some kind of overhang where your PVC and screen are at?
 
beaslbob

beaslbob

Well-Known Member
I predict it will be the best thing added to your tank. PH will rise just before lights out. Nitrates and phosphates will drop to unmeasureable levels.

But that's just my prediction

and worth at most .02


ps don't worry in nitrates hold on or even bump up during the first few weeks. Could be the algae is consuming ammonia for nitrogen forgoing nitrates. Then as ammonia is consumed by bacterial nitrates will finally drop down.
 
iidylii

iidylii

Active Member
beaslbob said:
I predict it will be the best thing added to your tank. PH will rise just before lights out. Nitrates and phosphates will drop to unmeasureable levels.

But that's just my prediction

and worth at most .02


ps don't worry in nitrates hold on or even bump up during the first few weeks. Could be the algae is consuming ammonia for nitrogen forgoing nitrates. Then as ammonia is consumed by bacterial nitrates will finally drop down.
Click to expand...
I'm excited to keep my trates down lol then I can feed the hell out of my tank and get my fish all growed up in like a year lmao;) I'd say not having algae in your display is worth more then .02 and definitely worth more then the $30-$50 for everything needed for the project...especially for how dam easy it is to do this project for hopefully good to decent results...I'm just hoping some algae blooms so I know it's actually working lol...if not oh well I wasted a few dollars and some PVC that I was gonna throw out anyways
 
iidylii

iidylii

Active Member
should be easy to monitor considering my trates for the most part off the charts lol...

and to my surprise I have 2 pieces of glass one for each side that will be perfect for a shield...so I will have the glass and light mounted this evening sometime..ill post some more pics
 
iidylii

iidylii

Active Member
Ok so I'm going to keep mine very much less pretty than that...that's amazing! My sump will continue to look like Frankenstein lol going for more function then looks in my case lmao...thanks though yeah that look amazing
 
iidylii

iidylii

Active Member
One problem I could see is the water going through the ats is sort of just recirculating instead of going through the whole system...which isn't a huge deal because obviously there has to be new water coming through all the time but just something mentioned before when I did my chaeto reactor
 
iidylii

iidylii

Active Member
so just got back from vacation and checked the screen...about 5-6 days now since it has been set up...some brown algae has started growing nothing much but at least its a start...it looks exactly like the stuff that grows on the front of your display tank that you wipe off with the mag cleaner...I can only assume the next step is for it to turn into hair algae? I had the scrubber running for 16 hours a day and just today I am changing up the schedule after reading a couple other knowledgeable peoples posts around the net...I have now switched my timers to turn on for three hours and off for three hours and so on throughout the day
 
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