isenhart
06-08-2016, 01:40 AM
A coworker of mine has a 29 gallon salt water tank in his office. The only filters he runs is a pair of hang on the back filters. There is a lot of several kinds of algae in his tank. I thought it would be good opportunity to build a scrubber and test out the new GEM5 light.
Continuing with the hang on back footprint, I'm putting the scrubber in an Aqueon QuietFlow 20 filter. It happened to be free because it was missing the suction tube, hence the diy pcv suction tube in the picture below. It might be possible to use the stock filter frame, but lots of bubbles will enter the display tank. So I started by removing the filter pad, backer, carbon etc so there is just an empty box. Then I cut a piece of plastic that fit in the groves where the original filter was. I think something dark in color that would contain the light would be better, but I used 1/16" clear plexiglass I had left over from another project. I also heated it and bent it out quiet a bit to give more distance between the lights and the screen. The light is very bright, it might be too much for such a small space. So the little extra room might help, but otherwise bending it would not be needed. The plexiglass is to contain air bubbles and salt creep. It should have a small gap at the bottom and come up out of the water on the top and fit tightly against the sides. That way rising bubbles come to the surface, but the water has to exit out the bottom. Placed directly behind that is a piece of knitting canvas I got from a craft store for under $1. It's roughed up with a wood hole saw on both sides. I also have a piece of airline that is plugged on the end and has 4 holes in it, spread even along the ~6" wide screen, and zip tied near the bottom. If the air line is too close to the bottom the current will carry the bubbles down and out of the filter/scrubber. If it's too high the bottom of the screen won't get any air. A little trial and error placed it just right. Then I just set the GEM5 against the back wall and plugged it into a timer and turned on the air pump.
Right now I have the filter/scrubber set up on my 20 gallon quarantine tank. There is already an up flow scrubber on that tank built into the 3" PCV pipe directly below it. In fact the Aqueon is dumping the return water directly into my existing scrubber. I usually work from home, so I'm going leave the filter "cycling" on my tank until I go into the office again. There is a pretty light bio load in my quarantine tank, I'm not sure if it will support 2 scrubbers or not. I'll post some before and after pictures of the target tank when I get a chance. Stay tuned for more.
Continuing with the hang on back footprint, I'm putting the scrubber in an Aqueon QuietFlow 20 filter. It happened to be free because it was missing the suction tube, hence the diy pcv suction tube in the picture below. It might be possible to use the stock filter frame, but lots of bubbles will enter the display tank. So I started by removing the filter pad, backer, carbon etc so there is just an empty box. Then I cut a piece of plastic that fit in the groves where the original filter was. I think something dark in color that would contain the light would be better, but I used 1/16" clear plexiglass I had left over from another project. I also heated it and bent it out quiet a bit to give more distance between the lights and the screen. The light is very bright, it might be too much for such a small space. So the little extra room might help, but otherwise bending it would not be needed. The plexiglass is to contain air bubbles and salt creep. It should have a small gap at the bottom and come up out of the water on the top and fit tightly against the sides. That way rising bubbles come to the surface, but the water has to exit out the bottom. Placed directly behind that is a piece of knitting canvas I got from a craft store for under $1. It's roughed up with a wood hole saw on both sides. I also have a piece of airline that is plugged on the end and has 4 holes in it, spread even along the ~6" wide screen, and zip tied near the bottom. If the air line is too close to the bottom the current will carry the bubbles down and out of the filter/scrubber. If it's too high the bottom of the screen won't get any air. A little trial and error placed it just right. Then I just set the GEM5 against the back wall and plugged it into a timer and turned on the air pump.
Right now I have the filter/scrubber set up on my 20 gallon quarantine tank. There is already an up flow scrubber on that tank built into the 3" PCV pipe directly below it. In fact the Aqueon is dumping the return water directly into my existing scrubber. I usually work from home, so I'm going leave the filter "cycling" on my tank until I go into the office again. There is a pretty light bio load in my quarantine tank, I'm not sure if it will support 2 scrubbers or not. I'll post some before and after pictures of the target tank when I get a chance. Stay tuned for more.