PNY's almost floating algae scrubber - The Belgian Blue

[Pny]

Hi there!

After seeing the SURF2 algae scrubber sold by Santa Monica I wanted to try out the algae scrubbing myself... and here's some photos of my DIY water driven multi chamber almost floating algae scrubber in progress... I call it the "Belgian Blue". ;-)

/Peter

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[Rumpy Pumpy]

Why "Belgian", when you're in Sweden?

[Pny]

Why "Belgian", when you're in Sweden?
"Swedish Blue" might have been more geographically correct, but "Belgian Blue" is more appropriate since it associates with the super cow "on steroids" with the same name (google it!)... With its triple chamber with 3,7 liter total volume this is supposed to be the "incredible hulk" of floating algae scrubbers... Its so powerful, that it does not even float! ;-)

[SantaMonica]

Looks mean and green :)

[Pny]

The algae growing substrate in place... I started with a too coarse media that was difficult to glue. The end result is a mix of coarse and fine media. Wondering if the strings found on the SURF2 really adds any significant difference or if I can skip that part on my scrubber...

I hope to get my heatsink back, within a few days, from my contact that is doing some changes to it with his CNC, so I can go on with my build, adding the LEDs and diffuser plate to it...

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[SantaMonica]

Growth usually starts first on the strings. And for FW the strings continue to grow very good.

[Pny]

Started working with the LEDs for my Belgian Blue almost floating scrubber...

LEDs tinned and mounted:
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What it might look like with light diffuser placed in front of the LEDs:
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[Devs]

Nice job :)

Where did you get that diffuser material from, I like the look of that ?

[Pny]

Its some kind of prismatic acrylic plate, I bought it from a private person in germany on ebay.

[Pny]

I've not yet decided if I should use a controller to be able to dim the light, thats maybe a must, since the amount of light this device outputs is just sick! Just look at it and get an instant eye surgery.

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The drivers
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[SantaMonica]

Start with 9 hours and lots of flow/bubbles and it should be fine.

[Pny]

I've got some problems getting the seal between the aluminum heatsink and the plastic diffuser watertight. I've tried twice now. The glue I am using attaches good to the acrylic but not as good to the metal, since it starts to leak after about a week. Any tips to get it watertight?

[SantaMonica]

It just takes practice.

[Pny]

Considering screwing it all together using a silicon sheet as sealing.

[Floyd R Turbo]

If I'm understanding this right, it sounds like you need to anchor something to the perimeter of the heat sink face that will bond with the silicone, since the heat sink itself is not bonding to the silicone. As long as you can find something that you can seal on to the heat sink that will also bond with silicone. But then you have 2 things you need to seal. hmmmm...

[Pny]

I've tried seal it with silicone (for aquarium use) now... That will attach to the aluminum for sure... if it does not attach to the acrylic I can glue the acrylic to the silicone on the heatsink with the loctite glue I used before...

[Floyd R Turbo]

Ahh, yes. I had that backwards. If the silicone sticks to the heat sink, and you can glue the diffuser to the silicone, that should work. At least I think it should....

[Greenchaos]

Why do you want it sealed? Is it just to reduce noise?

[Pny]

Why do you want it sealed? Is it just to reduce noise?
It must be sealed since it get in contact with the water...

[Greenchaos]

Cheers. My brain don't work the same as most folk, but why not suspend the light above the scrubber, and immobilise the scrubber base?

[Pny]

The Led fixture need to be close to the water to avoid the light to light up the entire sump area. It would not be safe to keep it unsealed.

[Pny]

Things goes really slow... i've started dosing NO3 (to balance the PO4-NO3 uptake) and got some growth in the scrubber... looks like red turf algae.

[SantaMonica]

I would not dose. It will just increase nutrients, causing darker growth.

[Floyd R Turbo]

If you're feeding, you really should not have to dose N. I would test K first and does that (potassium)

[Pny]

Well, the algae scrubber isn't my only filtration for the moment... The biopellets+vodka dosing takes my NO3 levels down to zero, so I dose KNO3 to be able to also get my PO4 down...

[Floyd R Turbo]

I would stop dosing the vodka, or at least back it off. Vodka and vinegar dosing seem to interfere with scrubber growth, biopellets do not so much.

[Pny]

I took a closer look at the algae in the scrubber today. Some of it looks like slimy cyano, some are red algae that sticks very hard to the strings it is growning on, and some looks very light/white (burnt?)... I think i have too much light since I have not yet fixed the LED dimming electronics yet... Parts ordered today. ;-)

[Pny]

Finally got my components for dimming control of my scrubber... I've added three knobs for controlling the LEDs for each chamber individually using the PWM outputs of an Arduino Pro Mini 5V controller. The individual controls enables me to do some experimenting with the light intensity when I have a good growth started in my scrubber.

I will try the scrubber with a bit less light from now on...

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Belgian Blue Scrubber Control Box internals.

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Belgian Blue Scrubber Control Box with three dimming controls.

[Pny]

Algaescrubbing doesnt seem to work with my tank at all...

After 3-4 months, all I got is some green coating in the scrubber... I've removed the biopellets reactor and stopped the ozone unit and removed all phosphate removers for months, I've cut down / stopped with carbon dosing for periods of time (Can't stop completely since my levels would rocket), tried one and two photoperiods, tried high/medium/low intensity lightning...

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[SantaMonica]

Some more growth pics besides just one would help. Also did you check for pods?

How about a vid of the bubbles.

[Pny]

No pods, but a bit of cyano bacteria... I have not harvest any algae since I started it about 3-4 months ago... I've just brushed it with a toothbrush every other day to prevent the cyano to build up and to remove any detrius on the bottom. I have both bubbles and water flow in one of the chambers and only waterflow in the other two... The one with the bubbles has just a little bit more algae around the top compared to the other two chambers. I have no algae in the display but I have a lot of algae eating fishes... (I will soon try to take a video of the scrubber)...

[SantaMonica]

Sounds like weak light.

[Pny]

Sounds like weak light.
I doubt that, since it is much stronger than the SURF2/4 lights if not dimmed down... The one thing left to try is to increase the mount bubbles. My scrubber has much less air than the SURF2/4 units since I thought water flow could be used instead. Maybe I was wrong, and the bubble itself has far more significance... The second option is that the water could be lacking something important such as iron, the tank has been up running for more than 5 years and water changes has always been on the low side...

[SantaMonica]

If you are growing anything then you have iron. Also if you feed anything then you have iron.

If you have much less air bubbles than the videos you've seen so far, then that's the problem, because the videos so far are with minimal bubbles. The new SURF4 vids with 3X the air have a tremendous amount of bubbles.

[Pny]

Ok, I will give more bubbles a try...

[reef r madness]

when i went into lfs and said im scrubbing my tank ....they laughed and said whats that.........im like wow ive been out of the hobby for 10 + years.....to me this makes the most sense....

[kerry]

They think that around here to until I bring them a water sample and tell them I am almost ready to do my 6-8 month 10-20-ish% water change. Then they want to know more and come by to take a closer look.

[Pny]

Increased bubbles but still very little growth...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTPDjrJsKWQ

[SantaMonica]

What does the harvest look like

[Pny]

The algae in the scrubber is very dark, brown?, very hard to scrape off and with a texture like steel wool...

[SantaMonica]

Try more light.

[Pny]

I've tried this for about 6 months now, and this is all growth I got... Must say I'm a bit disappointed of the growth (lack of) in this floating-type scrubber... I think I'm about to give up the whole scrubber idea now...

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Whole scrubber. (I've concentrated the bubbles to the left chamber).

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Close up view.

[SantaMonica]

Pods are probably keeping the growth from growing at the bottom. And, the dark turf is stopping green hare from attaching at the top.

Try this: Take to the sink and scrub/scrape away all the dark. This will open up the textures for attachment, and the FW will kill the pods,

[Pny]

Giving the Belgian Blue scrubber another try... Getting a bit of growth in the chambers this time... (Middle chamber has a LED-failure that currently impacts growth)

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