NarkyMark
09-27-2011, 01:04 PM
Hi all,
After doing plenty of WWW research and separating the wheat from the chaff I finally designed my own scrubber, obviously based around the basic requirements of flow & light as laid down in Santa’s various posts on the WWW, I wanted it to be a feature and not hidden away, so I understand my idea will not appeal to everyone!
I did alter a few things from the norm, firstly it is only one sided (both flow and light) and secondly it is neither horizontal or vertical It is at 45°, and it isn’t lit with compacts or sunlight, it is lit with both! :) Whether this affects anything I'm unsure as it’s my first ever build and part of the reason I decided to return to the hobby after a break of several years - I really loved the hobby but I hated the maintenance!
Now all I have to do is clean the screen every week and my nitrates never see 5ppm (on a Hagen Test kit) and my Phosphates hover around 2ppm (again on Hagen TK), being a Freshwater setup these amounts do not cause me any concern! I am now on my 5th full screen of green after starting off yellow then brown and then every shade up to green it is now nice and green every week, and not one bit of green algae in my main display – which isn’t bad considering one side of it gets full direct sunlight each and every day!
I'm still unsure about whether I will need to replenish trace elements through WC, but I suppose I'll cross that bridge when I come to it!
A couple of pics (Note to self: must get a polarising filter :roll:)
My setup during the cycle, 1 half inside a conservatory with a translucent polycarbonate roof and the other in my kitchen - In an old window aperture
http://www.nwaf.eu/images/AS2.JPG
This was taken near the beginning of the Aquarium Cycle - Two days after screen cleaning
http://www.nwaf.eu/images/AS1.JPG
With the scrubber getting a lot of natural sunlight (well as much as you can get here in the UK anyway :) I found that when the nutrients where low (near the beginning of the cycle) that the growth was stronger in between the gaps of the lights (IE Sunlight directly on the screen - If you look closely at the above pic you will sort of see what I mean by the darker green lines and also on the furthest side where there is no compact at all! I even questioned whether the compacts where actually more of a hindrance (in blocking sunlight) than a help :? , but now that the nutrient turnover is higher the growth is much more even on the screen and the compacts are working great!
This was taken about an hour ago, 2 days after cleaning, Sunday is the screen clean day BTW - I'll take one this Sunday (before cleaning obviously) and share that too.....
http://www.nwaf.eu/images/AS3.JPG
The scrubber tank also duoubles up as a home for a few apple & nitrile snails and they are often seen munching on the screen!
http://www.nwaf.eu/images/AS4b.JPG
Overall I love it, at first I just couldn’t believe the consistency of the nitrate and phosphate parameters and I started to question the water test kits, but they can’t all be wrong! :D
One thing I have found is that I do get an ever so slight increase in nitrate before the end of the week, still not 5ppm, but definitely a slightly darker pink than at the start of the week when the screen has just been cleaned – This proves to me no end that the weekly clean is a must!!
Here is another picture of my lovely & clear tank taken about 10 mins ago!
http://www.nwaf.eu/images/AS4a.JPG
The only downside is my friends & family seem more interested in my scrubber tank than in my dispay :cry: :)
Anyway I'd Just like to say a big thanks for all the free wheat that I gathered from the knowledgeable ones, I know that without all of this information I would not of been able to achieve this and more-so return to the hobby I loved! 8-)
ATB
Mark
After doing plenty of WWW research and separating the wheat from the chaff I finally designed my own scrubber, obviously based around the basic requirements of flow & light as laid down in Santa’s various posts on the WWW, I wanted it to be a feature and not hidden away, so I understand my idea will not appeal to everyone!
I did alter a few things from the norm, firstly it is only one sided (both flow and light) and secondly it is neither horizontal or vertical It is at 45°, and it isn’t lit with compacts or sunlight, it is lit with both! :) Whether this affects anything I'm unsure as it’s my first ever build and part of the reason I decided to return to the hobby after a break of several years - I really loved the hobby but I hated the maintenance!
Now all I have to do is clean the screen every week and my nitrates never see 5ppm (on a Hagen Test kit) and my Phosphates hover around 2ppm (again on Hagen TK), being a Freshwater setup these amounts do not cause me any concern! I am now on my 5th full screen of green after starting off yellow then brown and then every shade up to green it is now nice and green every week, and not one bit of green algae in my main display – which isn’t bad considering one side of it gets full direct sunlight each and every day!
I'm still unsure about whether I will need to replenish trace elements through WC, but I suppose I'll cross that bridge when I come to it!
A couple of pics (Note to self: must get a polarising filter :roll:)
My setup during the cycle, 1 half inside a conservatory with a translucent polycarbonate roof and the other in my kitchen - In an old window aperture
http://www.nwaf.eu/images/AS2.JPG
This was taken near the beginning of the Aquarium Cycle - Two days after screen cleaning
http://www.nwaf.eu/images/AS1.JPG
With the scrubber getting a lot of natural sunlight (well as much as you can get here in the UK anyway :) I found that when the nutrients where low (near the beginning of the cycle) that the growth was stronger in between the gaps of the lights (IE Sunlight directly on the screen - If you look closely at the above pic you will sort of see what I mean by the darker green lines and also on the furthest side where there is no compact at all! I even questioned whether the compacts where actually more of a hindrance (in blocking sunlight) than a help :? , but now that the nutrient turnover is higher the growth is much more even on the screen and the compacts are working great!
This was taken about an hour ago, 2 days after cleaning, Sunday is the screen clean day BTW - I'll take one this Sunday (before cleaning obviously) and share that too.....
http://www.nwaf.eu/images/AS3.JPG
The scrubber tank also duoubles up as a home for a few apple & nitrile snails and they are often seen munching on the screen!
http://www.nwaf.eu/images/AS4b.JPG
Overall I love it, at first I just couldn’t believe the consistency of the nitrate and phosphate parameters and I started to question the water test kits, but they can’t all be wrong! :D
One thing I have found is that I do get an ever so slight increase in nitrate before the end of the week, still not 5ppm, but definitely a slightly darker pink than at the start of the week when the screen has just been cleaned – This proves to me no end that the weekly clean is a must!!
Here is another picture of my lovely & clear tank taken about 10 mins ago!
http://www.nwaf.eu/images/AS4a.JPG
The only downside is my friends & family seem more interested in my scrubber tank than in my dispay :cry: :)
Anyway I'd Just like to say a big thanks for all the free wheat that I gathered from the knowledgeable ones, I know that without all of this information I would not of been able to achieve this and more-so return to the hobby I loved! 8-)
ATB
Mark