FW Scrubber for African Cichlid tank

[jeffg57]

Thanks SantaMonica !!!

I've been following you on the different forums for most of this year and it's great stuff.
I appreciate your efforts in sharing this concept. I believe it will make a huge
difference in my enjoyment of this hobby.

Please let me know what you think of my initial scrubber.

I like to keep what I consider to be heavily stocked tanks and the scrubber should
make a big difference in my maintenance tasks, namely water changes. Ideally I should
do a 40% water change in my 75 gallon tank at least once a week to keep the water quality
reasonable and change the filter material in the 2 Whisper 60 Power filters every 5 or 6
days. This tank contains about 37 fish, half of which are adults. The 2 largest are 5 to 6 inches.

My nitrate never goes below 20 ppm and easily rises to 40-50 if I don't keep up my water change
schedule. I know this is way to high.

This first scrubber is crude, but I have a couple newer models in my head.

Scrubber Details

- Started scrubber on July 11.

- Screen is the normal plastic mesh that I see on most of the scrubbers.

- I roughed it up with heavy sand paper.

- It was not seeded.

- Usable screen area, above water, is 10 x 10.5 inches.
There is about an inch below water level.

- I have a ViaAqua 1800 pumping 18 inches above the tank to the scrubber. This should be about
370 gph according to the chart. I never tested it.

- The pvc pipe the screen is slotted into is 1 inch id. It is very easy to lift out for cleaning.

- I have 2 23 watt 2700 CFL bulbs that are approx 3 inches from the screen.

- I built those stupid looking light stands because I haven't been able to find a
resonable way to mount them yet. The stands are very convenient though. I can
position them any way I want and they lift out easily.

- I built the scrubber in a plastic tote to contain the evaporation, light and noise,
although it is surprisingly quiet.

- My first light cleaning of one side of the screen was on Aug 7 (a little behind schedule),
then the opposite side needed a heavier cleaning 3 days later.

- I pulled the screen out of the pipe every 2 weeks and cleaned the top inch with a tooth
brush to prevent clogging and spraying. I've had no flow problems.


Progress

- My last water change was Aug 7. It pulled the nitrate down to about 20 ppm.

I was thinking the nitrate should be falling faster. There are a couple reasons I think it hasn't ...

- When I took the screen out today to clean it, I was surprised at how much of the dark slimy algae
was on it and needed removed. It didn't look like there was much there until I pulled it out.

I haven't been cleaning the screen often enough!!!

- Also there was a significant amount of thick dark algae on the bottom of the tote the should have
been cleaned earlier. It doesn't grow as fast as the screen, but I should probably clean it every
couple weeks.

It got a good cleaning today, so I got a chance to get some pictures while it was down.


Current status

As of today, a week after my last water change, the nitrate doesn't seem to be rising. It usually has
by this time. It's holding close to 20.

*** I think it's kicking in ***

I will be more diligent with the cleanings and expect to see a noticeable drop in the next couple weeks.



Sorry the pictures aren't a little better. I should have let my wife take them. :D

I noticed this morning that some of these images aren't displaying correctly for me in FireFox.
You can also view them at http://picasaweb.google.com/jeff.izft/AlgaeScrubberProject#

http://www.nb.net/~jgassoc/p01.jpg
http://www.nb.net/~jgassoc/p02.jpg
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http://www.nb.net/~jgassoc/p25.jpg

[SantaMonica]

Great build! Those totes seem to work great. Also is the first use I've seen so far with a simple clip-on screen holder, and, a simple raise-it-up pipe holder. Lights are perfect. Flow looks good. Super easy to clean.

Your N will drop mostly after you've cleaned the screen 3 full times. A second layer of screen (with a wider slot) would help hold more algae too. But it should work well as is.

[kcress]

Do run those lights thru a GFI outlet. The potential for them to get wet is fairly great.

Nice build too!

[jeffg57]

Thanks for the comments. This project has been fun. GFI is coming soon. In the mean time I'm being very careful. That's one issue that will be improved on when I figure a better way to mount the lights. My next model will probably will be acrylic, and under the tank. I've found a high quality blade for my table saw that will make clean cuts on acrylic.