Jaz's UAS test

[jaz]

Hey guys here's my build of the UAS style scrubber.

I've acquired all the bits and pieces but haven't yet installed it, hopefully in the next few days i'll get it done.
This will replace my waterfall scrubber and be installed in the sump. I'm hoping to use air from my overflow instead of using an air pump.

Specs
Screen size, 5 x 4 (20"), single sided. About 3/4 cube per day.
Air bubbles fed from overflow pipe.
Led lights, 5 x 3W 660nm. Rated for 750ma, only supplying 650ma, measured the voltage drop and calculate about 7.5 watts of power.

Heres the LED's.
Bought all parts, including heatsink and driver from Satisled.com, cheap as chips, fast delivery to New Zealand, approx 7 days.
http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/IMG_1122.jpg

This T connector with slot cut will fit onto my overflow pipe.
Using these neat little gutter clips i found at a hardware store.
The clips are secured to the T using good old plastic ties, and allows easy removal of the screen, just slides on no probs.
http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/IMG_1123.jpg

Here's what it looks like with the screen attached.
The slot is wider than a normal water fall scrubber would use, and the screen is positioned higher than the slot, hopefully to prevent blockage.
http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/IMG_1124.jpg

The screen is positioned to one side of the slot so that all the bubbles rise on the lit side of the screen.
http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/IMG_1125.jpg

At this stage im not going to block the sides of the T connector, I'm hoping that i all the bubbles rise up through the slot and not out the sides.
If i can keep the sides open then that will add a measure of safety and prevent algae from blocking the pipe.
Will just have to try it and see.

I'm not using the screen as seen in the pics, in case you are wondering about not being rough enough :p
I'll be using a piece cut off from my water fall scrubber.

More pics coming soon once i get it installed.

[jaz]

I never had success with my waterfall scrubber.

It never really took off, I couldn't get nice green algae to grow, but that's because i built it before the feeding guidelines came out and I didn't spend the time trying to fix it.

Just wanted give a comparison to my old scrubber.

New screen size is about quarter the size.
Lighting is 7.5 watts vs 48watts.
Old scrubber was noisy, this one should be a lot quiter.
I will have more room in my sump :)
I really hope this works for me, my tank is good, only a little bit of algae but certainly room for improvement.

[Floyd R Turbo]

Christmas light gutter clips, great use of them! I threw a few hundred of those away a few years ago when I switched to a better version...good idea!

[kerry]

Oh yeah, I seen that too!!! Great Idea!!!

[jaz]

My UAS is now live.

Starting with 12/12 lighting schedule.

A couple of things I've noticed so far with my design.
Bubbles aren't spread out across the screen, mostly in the middle.
Pressure from the flow/bubbles is bending the top of the screen backwards away from the bubbles.
Not too worried at the moment, I'm going to leave it be for a week and see what happens.

Heres a few shots.

http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/d5619fe9.jpg

http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/dd6b6905.jpg

http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/4c4d1bf3.jpg

http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/3e2c86e1.jpg

http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/424f83c4.jpg


A quick video.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD4PdSkLZXg

[jaz]

Progress update.

Growth so far. Note i didn't start with a clean screen, it had about 3 days growth from my water fall scrubber before i placed the screen into the UAS.
http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/2bed9161.jpg

I made a change to help spread out the bubbles better.
Used a piece of plastic canvas and inserted into the pipe.
http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/21da7145.jpg

http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/f0fd4f9b.jpg

http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/c18718b6.jpg

A video showing how the bubbles are spread out better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTtmJJ9v-Ec

[jaz]

Day 7 Progress update.

Very pleased, this is more green than I ever got on my (poorly designed) waterfall scrubber.
How long should I wait before cleaning?

http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/38250c0f.jpg

[SantaMonica]

It can probably go another 5 days.

[jaz]

Progress update - Day 13 - First Cleaning

Not much green hair algae mostly just a layer of slime.
http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/5c089304.jpg

Un-lit side
http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/bd81f5fc.jpg

After cleaning
http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/65d51549.jpg

Haven't made any changes, not sure if I need to do anything, do I wait another cycle to see how it develops?
I don't think bubbles are rubbing the screen since it slants backwards away from the bubble wall, but since there is growth does this need to be addressed?
I'm only feeding about 1/5th of a cube.
Lighting is 12/12.

Any suggestions?

[SantaMonica]

Actually it looks to be most all green hair. Just very fine hairs. If you turn the air off and look with a flashlight in the water, you'll see it.

[jaz]

Actually it looks to be most all green hair. Just very fine hairs. If you turn the air off and look with a flashlight in the water, you'll see it.

Cool thanks SM.
So no need to make any changes then? Let it keep going as is.

[SantaMonica]

Yes it will probably grow more next time.

[jaz]

Day 28 2nd Cleaning

Lit side, has the consistency of jelly, a little bit of hair algae.

http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/692da833.jpg

Unlit side.

http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/10aa42a4.jpg

After cleaning.

http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/fa7e7102.jpg


My previous water fall scrubber cfl lights weren't very well contained and i had quite a bit of algae growth on the glass all throughout my sump, as a result of removing those lights for the uas and led light I had a lot of that algae die off in the sump causing quite a large increase of algae in my display, it's not looking very good at the moment, so much so that I've purchased a protein skimmer.

My tank is 7 months old and I've never owned a protein skimmer before im hoping that it can help me clean up my tank, now I know a protein skimmer competes against a scrubber but right now I'm just trying to clean up my tank so want to try something different.

I'm not blaming the scrubber at all, im pretty sure my algae problem is due to the poor design of my previous water fall scrubber which never grew hair algae and slowly increased nutrients in my tank, I'm going to keep the scrubber running alongside the skimmer, I've got a feeling that there is so much algae in my display that it is starving my uas scrubber. I'm hoping that once I get the algae to a manageable level I can switch off the skimmer as I do have faith in scrubbers and want to get there in the end.

Here's a pic of the algae in my tank.

http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/2a595ea2.jpg

[SantaMonica]

The skimmer won't help with the die-off of algae in the sump.

[jaz]

Hi SM

The die off has already happened not much left in the sump now.
The skimmer is just to give me some extra nutrient export until I can get the UAS to work better, skimmer hasn't been delivered yet, probably a few days away.

I'll try manually removing some of the algae from my tank, as I stated before I think my scrubber is being starved.
The area of algae on my back wall is at least 30 times larger than my scrubber and it's all green hair, I think my scrubber wont be able to compete against that much algae.

I've made a change to my scrubber, the screen used to tilt away from the bubbles because I had all the bubbles on one side which push the screen away. I've moved the screen over the slot so that bubbles go up both sides, this is putting equal pressure/flow on both sides which is stopping the screen from tilting. This should allow better bubble to algae contact. I might even need more bubbles, maybe an air pump, I'll see after next cleaning.

[jaz]

3rd cleaning


About 4 days ago I tried changing the light schedule to 18 hours, this caused yellowing of the algae, too much light.
Previous schedule was 12 hours, I've now bumped it down to 10 hours, will see how that goes.
Also since my last cleaning I adjusted bubbles to go up both sides of the screen, this has made for thicker growth on the unlit side of the screen which is interesting since not as much light back there.

On another note I've been running a skimmer for 6 days, it hasnt broken in yet but it is removing gunk, i do want to eventually run solely on the UAS, but since I'm experimenting I'll leave it running until I'm happy with my uas design.



Lit side, as mentioned yellow from too much light.
http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/1b86b791.jpg


Un-lit side, certainly thicker than previous cleanings, and a few spots of green hair growing there.
http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/36d20237.jpg


After cleaning
http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/ab330/jazius/05b895cc.jpg


I haven't yet removed any of the algae from my display, ive been thinking about turning out the lights for 3 days to kill it off, has anyone tried this before?
Is it safe to do?
Your thoughts?

[SantaMonica]

Don't do lights out.

I'm not sure the scrubber is getting too much light. It's not bright yellow rubber. Actually might be not enough light.

[jaz]

Don't do lights out.

I'm not sure the scrubber is getting too much light. It's not bright yellow rubber. Actually might be not enough light.

Hmm really, it is less green with 18 hours than with 12 hours.
Do you think i should increase light?
I could order some more leds maybe 1 blue and 1 red, what do you think?
That would be a total of 6 red and 1 blue.

[jaz]

Also note that the yellow color is from only 4 days at 18 hours,the first 10 days were 12 hours.
If you still think i should increase light i'm happy to do so.

Many thanks SM.

[SantaMonica]

Try both.

[jaz]

By both you mean i should try first try less light and if no luck then try adding leds?

[SantaMonica]

Either or.

[jaz]

Ok cool, ill try less light first, 10 hours.
Will re-assess next cleaning. Thanks.