Mega-Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover Replaces Skimmer, Refugium, Everything

santamonica

santamonica

Member
I FINALLY REACHED THE END
That's so funny. Reminds me of spending two months reading the "lights out" and "herbie overflow" threads on the big reef site. 1000 posts each. Of course now, in addition to reading scrubber stuff everyday, I've spent the last nine months reading about feeding.
Can I use this thing right from the get go or will the algae die due to nitrogen cycle?
From the start is fine. Won't grow too much though, until you start feeding.
When you reference size of screen do I want 1in total for every gallon, or 1 inch in length for every gallon?
I square inch for every gallon. A 100g would need a 10 X 10 = 100.
If I have some fish and easy corals (zoos, Shrooms, star polyps) do I need anything other than the scrubber? and by anything I mean anything.... Lights are a given, but otherwise?
Pumps and rocks. If not at least 30 pounds of rock, I'd use a wet/dry too.
And you might top-off with kalkwasser (lime water). Read up on it first.
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
got bored, decided to kill twenty minutes and build a turf screen out of some spare parts I had laying around. I actually bought the screen to do it months ago I just never bothered. but figured why not since I have tons of available sump space.
here are a couple quick pics I snapped.

 
santamonica

santamonica

Member
Final screen version
The previous screen material that I had people testing was starting to rip where the tie-wraps went through, so it was not working. I did find a custom manufactured solution to solve this, which used a solid sheet on the inside of the screen, but it was just too much money. So it looks like the best screen material for me to offer is extreme-roughened, double-layered, plastic canvas.
As you know, if you already tried to rough up plastic canvas, all the work is in making it rough. You have to use a hole-saw (by hand), since sandpaper does not leave the "jagged" pieces that you want. You really need the jagged pieces which will grab hold of the algae, so the algae won't let go and fall into the water. This is of course because more algae growth (i.e, more filtering) means more weight. You DO want lots of algae (weight), but you DON'T want it to fall off of the screen. It should look like this:




Since the prickly catcus-like parts don't show well on the camera, I did a towell-drop test on the canvas. Here is the roughed-up version:
http://www.radio-media.com/fish/CanvasTowellDrop1.mpg
Versus the smooth version:
http://www.radio-media.com/fish/CanvasTowellDrop2.mpg
And both sides of both layers needs to be rough, so that algae will stay on the inside (between the layers) of the screen after you clean the outsides. And since the algae stays on the inside of the screen, you can clean the outside as hard as you want (scrape all the algae off) without worrying about "keeping some algae on the the screen".
So since this material has already been proven by hundreds of people who are using it right now (athough I never see it roughed up enough), it is just a matter of how much money is fair for a completed screen. If there is enough interest, then I'll start selling them.
It looks like I can make them for 20 cents per square inch. This is equal to:
0.20 USD per square inch
.032 USD per square cm
2.65 MXN per square inch
0.43 MXN per square cm
0.22 CAD per square inch
.035 CAD per square cm
0.14 EUR per square inch
.023 EUR per square cm
0.12 GBP per square inch
0.02 GBP per square cm
0.28 NZD per square inch
0.45 NZD per square cm
0.28 SGD per square inch
.045 SGD per square cm
1.49 ZAR per square inch
.024 ZAR per square cm
1.31 FRF per square inch
0.21 FRF per square cm
2.20 NLG per square inch
0.35 NLG per square cm
70.0 PHP per square inch
11.2 PHP per square cm
Shipping would be extra of course. Also, the screen area is just the finished screen size; you don't have to think about the multiple layers. So as an example:
A 10 X 10 inch screen = 100 square inches = $20 USD = $265 MXN = $22 CAD etc.
A 40 X 60 cm screen = 2400 square cm = $76.80 USD = $1032 MXN = $84 CAD etc.
A 3 X 6 inch nano screen = 18 square inches = $3.60 USD = $48 MSN = $3.96 CAD etc.
So post on here if you would get one at this price. There needs to be enough people otherwise it is not worth setting up to do it. If there is enough interest (at this price), then I will make them.
 
posiden

posiden

Active Member
WOW, SantaMonica. Your arm is gonna fall off in the middle of doing this. You may want to start thinking of how to do it a bit eaiser.
I am just now starting to see some benifits of redoing my screen like this. Only I did 3 layers on a hard back. It seams to me that the algae stays on better. We shall see. I do believe I lost my turff though.
 
santamonica

santamonica

Member
Pre-roughed with a hole-saw, yes. Takes about an hour. I'd have to hire someone, of course.
Yours will grow back much quicker now that's it's rough.
 
posiden

posiden

Active Member
Originally Posted by SantaMonica
http:///forum/post/3139706
Pre-roughed with a hole-saw, yes. Takes about an hour. I'd have to hire someone, of course.
Yours will grow back much quicker now that's it's rough.
What is your opinion on my turff? Am I going to loose it under the extra layers? I added 2 for a total of 3. The old screen in on the bottom. I do have some nice growth. Tomorrow is cleaning day so I will get to see what is going on.
I have a nano and I modded the back. The light shines into the display so I put a piece in there to block it. I don't peak in there so the weekly cleaning is a true shock if you will, as to what grew that week. I know it is there so no need to fool with it.
 
desertdawg

desertdawg

Member
Here's what I came up with...

Front

Back


It's 3 layers of plastic sheet 12X14, I roughed it up with the edge of a grinding stone from a die grinder held in my hand. (no grinder, just the stone)... It's not as rough as SM's but I think it's close.
I started to see growth on the 3rd day. What you see pictured is 3 days growth. The empty spot on the front side is lack of water flow... It's the best I can get from my overflow.
The lights are CF 40W 2700K.
Should I give it another day or two then clean it to remove the black/brown stuff!
 
santamonica

santamonica

Member
Posiden: The old algae will grow right into the new screen.
Desert: Just start cleaning every 7 days. Since you have multiple screens, you can clean the whole screen right down to the plastic; there will be enough algae inside the screen to do the filtering.
 
santamonica

santamonica

Member
Please rough that screen up so we can see jagged edges in the pics. And add another layer if you can.
Can you add a solid sheet behind it so all the water will go down the screen?
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
Originally Posted by SantaMonica
http:///forum/post/3140870
Please rough that screen up so we can see jagged edges in the pics. And add another layer if you can.
Can you add a solid sheet behind it so all the water will go down the screen?
I'm going to run with it as is for now. once I finalize my sump set up I will make whatever modifications I feel are needed. this is just a test run so to speak.
 
happyfeet

happyfeet

Member
I finished my Algae Scrubber last night! I'm going to test it today to make sure there are no leaks and I'll have some pictures up this weekend for you.
I still need to rough up the plastic, I use sandpaper with a rough grit, but I'm not sure its going to do the job.
 
posiden

posiden

Active Member
Originally Posted by Happyfeet
http:///forum/post/3142919
I finished my Algae Scrubber last night! I'm going to test it today to make sure there are no leaks and I'll have some pictures up this weekend for you.
I still need to rough up the plastic, I use sandpaper with a rough grit, but I'm not sure its going to do the job.
I used 80 gritt sand paper and it didn't really do the job. I have redone it with the hole saw trick and things are much better now. I also have three layers of the plastic canvas.
 
santamonica

santamonica

Member
Why Algae Works
More Info:
Algae and Human Affairs, By Carole A. Lembi, J. Robert Waaland, Phycological Society of America
www.PSAalgae.org
www.AlgaeBase.org

Text: 90 percent of all living matter (except bacteria) in the ocean is algae of all forms and colors. The remaining 10% (except bacteria) of all living matter in the ocean is: Corals, Plants, Sponges, Worms, Snails, Clams, Octopi, Shrimp, Crabs, Pods, Urchins, Starfish, Small Fish, Medium Fish, Big Fish, Sharks, Whales, Giant Squids, and Everything Else. The algae is what does all the filtering of the waste from the animals, and the algae is also what feeds all the animals through the various food webs.
Aquariums, however (especially ones without refugiums), have no algae to do the filtering or feeding. So all the filtering has to be done manually with equipment, and all the feeding has to be done manually too. At least with a refugium, there is some filtering and feeding, although most refugiums are far too small to do all of it. Scrubbers are powerful enough to do all the filtering by themselves, and can do a lot of the feeding too, if copepods are the food that is desired.
 
happyfeet

happyfeet

Member
Hey guys, I've got a problem, my scrubber is REALLY noisy, like someone is pouring out a bucket of water. I figured there would be noise associated with the scrubber, but this is too much. The girlfriend had me turn it off until I figure a way to quiet it down.
Any suggestions?
I'm going to build another one and this time I'll make the slit narrower and incorporate an overflow tube to dump extra water into the sump.
I don't have internet in my home right now so I can't post pictures. I'll try and remember to bring my camera to work to upload tomorrow.
 
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