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

6stokes

6stokes

Member
Originally Posted by SantaMonica
http:///forum/post/3257174
Flow looks good. However, you need to re-build, using plastic canvas; screen divider does not work.
Then, you need to get some light on it; whatever light you are using now is a non-light.
Quick guideline:
0.5 actual (not equivalent) fluorescent watts per gallon MINIMUM.
1.0 actual (not equivalent) fluorescent watts per gallon for HIGH filtering.
1.0 square inches of screen per gallon, with bulbs on BOTH sides. (10 x 10 = 100 square inches = 100 gal)
2.0 square inches of screen per gallon, if ONE sided.
18 hours of lights ON, and 6 hours of lights OFF, each day.
Flow is 24 hours, and is 35 gph per inch of width of screen, EVEN IF one sided.
Very rough screen made of roughed-up-like-a-cactus plastic canvas.
Clean algae off of screen every SEVEN (7) days NO MATTER WHAT YOU THINK.
Another question for you Santa Monica. When you're talking about the lighting, are the gallons based upon total display and sump, or the 35 gph you're quoting?
 
king_neptune

king_neptune

Active Member
I owuld recomend more than half hour to be fair.
If water flow is cut, and the lights are on for 12hours or so, there will be a considerale amount of heat.
I believe a fire hazard is unlikly. But a good long test to see what happens isnt a bad idea either, especially on a prototype/test model.
 
santamonica

santamonica

Member
Stokes: If you have nothing living in your sump, you don't need to count it. If you have sand or rock or macro's, then count the sump. The 35gph is not related to the display + sump gallons.
King: I'll probably be doing other tests. It get's to it's high temp pretty fast, and stays there. The acrylic stays rock-solid.
 
king_neptune

king_neptune

Active Member
for your tank? or to power a scruber for your tank?
for a scrubber, ya. that will do. thats more than I had on my 125g system. worked great.
 
R

ryno368

Guest
ya of course for the scrubber :) i got a aquaticlife 4 bulb 60 inch light set for my DT
 
john rambo

john rambo

Member
Originally Posted by SantaMonica
http:///forum/post/3255535
On your pics I still cannot see how the lighting is set up, or the bulbs you are using. I can tell by the growth that it's certainly not enough, however. Your 125 gal need 125 watts of light for high filtering, or 60 watts for medium filtering. And the bulbs need to be within 4" of the screen. I don't see why you can't just use a clip-on CFL near the screen. And there should be no heat if you are using CFL's. You should not use incandescents.
If needed, re-build it with the screen left to right instead of front to back. This will let you put the bulb near it in front and in back.
All the growth you have now needs to come off.
Quick Update:
I scrubbed all of the algae off the screen, some small dark patches wouldnt scrub off so I just left them. I removed the acrylic sides to allow my lights to be closer. On each side of the screen within 4 inches I have a 100 watt equivalent CFL. One of them is Bright White, the Other is Daylight. They both put off some heat, not sure why. On one side I also have a 120 watt growth light set up about a foot from the screen, can't get it any closer because of space but don't really want to either because of the amount of heat coming off of it.
I'm not having much luck growing any green hair algae, I have been rinsing and rubbing the screen with my hands every 3 days to wash off the majority of the brownish growth. Should I just buy a new plastic canvas screen and start over? My flow is excellent, and the lights are much closer so I'm stuck on what to do now.
Thanks.



 
R

ryno368

Guest
hey santa monica u should talk the guy nineball on -- to make a scrubber for his huge 1500g tank lol
 
R

ryno368

Guest
hey john i would run the daylight cfl on both sides and also wait about 7 - 9 days to even scrub the screen the brown is ok to have
 
santamonica

santamonica

Member
It looks to me like you did not rough up the screen, and you are not turning the lights off for 6 hours.
Replace the growlight with the biggest CFL flood 3000 or 2700k that will fit... probably 44 watts, equiv to 200, or similar. That's the only way to get passed the 12 inch distance.
 
santamonica

santamonica

Member
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.
 
santamonica

santamonica

Member
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.
 
santamonica

santamonica

Member
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:
 
6stokes

6stokes

Member
This may have already been asked, but could you put the screen in your display before cleaning it to let the fish eat the algea? It would seem if they can eat any growing in the display, then this should be harmless too. Does it release the nitrates back into the water?
 
king_neptune

king_neptune

Active Member
Originally Posted by 6stokes
http:///forum/post/3267607
This may have already been asked, but could you put the screen in your display before cleaning it to let the fish eat the algea?
On a side note:
you can dip it in the DT to shake off any pods that are clinging to the algae.Would be a shame to waste any if you could help it.
 
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