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wicked99ford
05-04-2012, 01:23 PM
This is the first scrubber ive ever built so take it easy on me. Also my first time working with acrylic. The plan is to use the drain coming from my remote fuge to feed water gently through my scrubber. I know the point of this design is to conserve space but this should work out perfect in my application. Water will come in at the bottom of the scrubber, rise and go out another buldhead right into the first chamber of my sump. This will all happen before my bubble trap so i think thats a plus. I want a screen cartridge that can be easily removered for cleaning. I built the screen insert out of eggcrate to see if angling the screen will improve bubble contact with the screen.When or if an optimal angle is found i will remake the insert out of acrylic with the bottom cut on the angle so it resets the same after every cleaning. Kerry has been helping me out with making sure im not completly screwing this up.


http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad128/wicked99ford/665a79e8.jpg
http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad128/wicked99ford/27ff2792.jpg
http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad128/wicked99ford/eda98979.jpg
http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad128/wicked99ford/1295d42a.jpg

Ok, i got the prototype screen/ bubblestone insert together and it works perfectly. Easy to remove and clean.

Here is how it works. this is the insert.
http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad128/wicked99ford/008ffce3.jpg
just set it in.
http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad128/wicked99ford/8b1b4d15.jpg
slide the pipe through it and put the end cap on
http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad128/wicked99ford/9b6fc14a.jpg
Hook the air hose to the pump and your good to go. testing for leaks and bubble contact.
http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad128/wicked99ford/0b7f853e.jpg
http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad128/wicked99ford/441b0c8c.jpg

Next up will be blacking the thing out, roughing up the screen, lighting, blacking the enclosure to contain light, making a lid for salt creep, and drilling the bulkheads....... darn i though i was getting close, lol! let me know what you think about my design.

SantaMonica
05-04-2012, 02:24 PM
Crank those bubbles up :)

kerry
05-04-2012, 02:50 PM
Good to see you over here Wicked!!!!! Welcome and thanks for posting here too!!

wicked99ford
05-04-2012, 03:46 PM
Thanks Kerry. Check out the idea i came up with on floyds uas test page! i think i might be on to something.

Tien23
05-05-2012, 09:14 AM
Hi there,

Where did you buy the mesh screen?

wicked99ford
05-05-2012, 10:04 AM
Screen came from hObby lobby for the whopping price of $1.99

kerry
05-05-2012, 12:31 PM
I like the speakers you got there too!! I like big speakers too. My wife says four 15's in the living room is over kill. I will check out Floyds page.

wicked99ford
05-07-2012, 01:00 PM
My heatsink came in today. Now im just wairing on my led`s to come so i can put this thing together.

kerry
05-07-2012, 02:36 PM
What are you using to get the LED's on the heat sinks? I like to use the adhesive stickers from rapidled.

wicked99ford
05-07-2012, 02:42 PM
What are you using to get the LED's on the heat sinks? I like to use the adhesive stickers from rapidled.
Heatsink plaster. this will be my 4th led fuxture using this. Never had a problem before.

kerry
05-07-2012, 02:44 PM
Is it easy to remove them with that stuff. I was afraid to try it because of that. With the stickers they come off with a razor blade pretty easy for replacement or what ever reason.

wicked99ford
05-07-2012, 02:47 PM
Is it easy to remove them with that stuff. I was afraid to try it because of that. With the stickers they come off with a razor blade pretty easy for replacement or what ever reason.

not as easy as i would imagine tape to be, but its not hard to remove at all. i just take a small flathead screwdriver and give it a little bump with the palm of my hand and they will pop off.

kerry
05-07-2012, 02:49 PM
Thats not to bad then.

wicked99ford
05-07-2012, 02:56 PM
Im hoping to get some good energy savings with this. Im hoping to be able to take my protien skimmer off-line after this thing is up and going. Thats one mag-12 out of my sump and alot of heat to go with it. Not to mention the extra space i will have.

kerry
05-08-2012, 06:03 AM
Its nice when you can take things out of line and save time and money.
I am very happy to be not using anything but a scrubber, oh and a couple power heads for flow in the DT, I dont use anything but a drip bottle for my Kalk, Ca., and Mag. Matter of fact I dont even have sumps on my SW tanks anymore. What I have done with this savings is build some LED fixtures. I am working on my LED build for my 150G now, I got one strip build and installed and only have 4 more to go!! LOL. Its slow and study around here, I got four kids in school, two are ready for college after next year, and My wife is in nursing school for three more months then she will be working for a few months only to go back for her PhD. Once that is done I hope to put a bit more into the hobby.

wicked99ford
05-08-2012, 09:21 PM
So i got the fixture put together tonight and made a slot for it to sit in so it can be slid back and forth for adjustment. Did a quick install see if there were any problems. The only problem i see other than the obvious needing to black it out and put a lid on it is that i need to bring the water level down a bit. Other than that i think this will work. My original plan was to use the overflow from my fuge to flow water through it but i just put a maxijet on it and drilled the bulkhead a little smaller than i had planned at first. I think i may drill it a little bigger so it will bing the water level down the little bit that i need. here are some pics. Ill be starting the progress pics as soon as i get the bugs worked out. Oh yeah, i upgraded the air pump......big time.

http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad128/wicked99ford/f8895c59.jpg
http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad128/wicked99ford/88776a35.jpg
http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad128/wicked99ford/11ae1837.jpg
http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad128/wicked99ford/18d28b5c.jpg
http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad128/wicked99ford/8dae0de9.jpg
http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad128/wicked99ford/98f9cff3.jpg
http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad128/wicked99ford/e011c98d.jpg
http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad128/wicked99ford/5313cb0c.jpg
http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad128/wicked99ford/72cecd12.jpg

http://s928.photobucket.com/albums/ad128/wicked99ford/?action=view&current=0ab51b0b.mp4

SantaMonica
05-08-2012, 09:30 PM
First over-the-sump version, I believe

michael007
05-08-2012, 11:16 PM
looks loud down there,,,, hows the splashing noise...?

wicked99ford
05-09-2012, 05:09 AM
looks loud down there,,,, hows the splashing noise...?

Its not that bad. im going to put a 90 on the drain coming out of the scrubber and run it down to the water line. just didnt have one last night. I have a lid for the compartment of the sump also but it will have to be drilled to accomodate the scrubbers drain pipe.

kerry
05-09-2012, 06:29 AM
Looking good!! Let the scrubbing begin!!!!!

Floyd R Turbo
05-09-2012, 06:37 AM
First over-the-sump version, I believe

That's beside the sump I believe. Otherwise the LEDs would get wet pretty quick on an outage. Am I right Wicked?

wicked99ford
05-09-2012, 02:25 PM
That's beside the sump I believe. Otherwise the LEDs would get wet pretty quick on an outage. Am I right Wicked?

The unit sets beside the sump and overflows over the top of it into the first chamber. In an outage my sump doesnt come up much more than the level its at because i have a check valve on my return going to the tank. I noticed that when i shut the scrubber down it backfeeds out the feed line until the scrubber is almost empty, so i will be getting a check valve for it too.

SWhite
05-11-2012, 04:48 AM
Keep in mind that check valves will always eventually fail due to the nature of a marine tank. Very often small feather dusters growing in the lines catch debris and prevent a valve from working when you need it to. You can make it part of your maintenance schedule to remove and clean the valve regularly to help prevent an issue when you need it to work. It's up to you, but I'd look at trying to find a better way to run pipes for long term piece of mind.

wicked99ford
05-13-2012, 07:21 PM
After 4 days of running ive just noticed some brown and green patches on my screen. i figured it would take a while so im being patient and leaving it along on a 12 on 12 off schedule. hopefully it will take off soon

SantaMonica
05-13-2012, 08:13 PM
Can you do 18 hours?

Floyd R Turbo
05-13-2012, 08:18 PM
With LEDs I would suggest 12/12. when I went 18 I got lots of brown slime.

wicked99ford
05-13-2012, 08:30 PM
i figured for a test i would leave it at 12/12 for a good while so i dont change any variables in the experiment. So far im not seeing any difference in grown from the red led`s compared to the pink led`s. The pink was my own personal experiment since i didnt notice anyone else running them.

SantaMonica
05-13-2012, 08:38 PM
I'd probably attribute brown slime to photo-inhibition of gha. I'd bet that once the gha took hold and got a half inch thick, it could handle it.

wicked99ford
05-13-2012, 08:51 PM
maybe once im getting good gha growth and have cleaned a couple of times i will see if bumping the hours up will help.

kerry
05-14-2012, 05:11 AM
I bumped my LED photo period down to 12/12 as well.