Yes there is more water to travel through, but I think that carbon was limiting in most waterfall situations, not light. Also, with LEDs, light is probably not going to be lacking at all.
Yes there is more water to travel through, but I think that carbon was limiting in most waterfall situations, not light. Also, with LEDs, light is probably not going to be lacking at all.
Yesterday I started testing CO2 injection into the airflow of the new style scubber.
There was some concern that it might cause a large drop in PH but it's been running for 24 hours now with only a small effect on PH (8.5 to 8.3, so far), and it appears to be stable (reading hasn't changed since last night, 12 hours ago)
The next stage will be to set up two identical but separate upflow scrubbers, one with added CO2, and one without and see if it makes any difference to growth.
Ok... Here is the first build thread...... wahoo
I have been playing with the design of this for a while but was waiting for SM to see what was been trialled.... I knew that air injection was somehow going to benefit the algae we grow....
I have a mate that can supply and cut acrylic real cheap so this thing will probably cost me around $30 to make..... I will eventually build/source a Led fixture to light it...
HEre is a mock up of my design....
Screens will be weighted down by acrylic rods zip tied to the bottom of the screens. This way each screen can just be removed from the top of the box for cleaning.
I have a eden skimmer pump that has a venturi on it which I will use to feed the scrubber.
At the bottom of the scrubber box there is a feed pipe through a bulk head. This pvc pipe will be cut in half, like an open U that the acrilic rods can seat in. ( to ensure the screens are centred at all times)
The box is going to sit at the rear corner of the tank. (it is 3 x 3 x 20i)
The return will overflow back into the tank.... I have a glass pane across the top of the tank at the back that my current AtS sits on. I think I will run the return pipe all the way across it to help with the disipaition of bubbles before it returns into the tank.
I am just going to run my t5's on it for now but will upgrade to led when I feel I am where I want to be.....
I am also thinking of cutting up an old skimmer to try something cylindrical. I just think lighting something round is going to be an isssue.... But part of the fun I reckon.....
Will post results as they occur....I will be comparing the growth I get now from my vertical to this new design. Same tank, same feeding etc....
cheers
mick
Garf said: "Surely you will have to increase your feeding to give your new scrubber something to go at. You don't want to starve your new screen and skew your results."
Michael007 said: "I will take the vertical off line... I was just meaning I will compare the amount/type/ of growth I get now to the amount/type of growth i get from the new one...."
Sklywag said: "Did you see my post? Anyway. Besides the round skimmer. There are those HOB skimmers that are clear. CPR brand. If the tank sits far enough from the wall. You can easily fit LEDs on both sides(front & back)of it and paint the sides black. Cut out where the cup goes and hang the screen in it. That would be about 3" wide by 15" long."
Last edited by SantaMonica; 05-03-2012 at 08:41 AM.
For people with a ph controller, calcium reactor stuff lying around, life would be simpler. Just input co2 when the ph rises to the top limit through algae usage. Not an option for me to try unfortunately.
Adding CO2 ? I thought it was a "Simple less expensive" way of filtering a tank ?
And due by the size of my tank, i'll not put any "box" inside, even les if it contains mineral oil for cooling leds
What about "i go for vacation, 2-3 weeks" will it survive or the skimmer will be mandatory ? I know with a DSB it's possible
Hoe often will the bubbler stone/wood need changing due to clogging ?
I see the co2 experiment that Rumpy Pumpy is doing as more of a challenge to general beliefs. Everyone assumes that co2 injection will drastically lower ph but is that true. Anyway the air being pumped into the air stone or feed pump should contain enough co2 for general usage.
I know for FW aquaria, you need a lot of CO2 when the water is not soft enough do drop the PH level by a couple of points.
I think it is under "normal" conditions.
But when you run a calcium reactor, you're advised to aerate the outflow to "gas off" any extra CO2 dissolved in the water to prevent an effect on PH (as I understand it anyway, I stand to be corrected) - I guess that running CO2 enriched air through an airstone will achieve the same thing?
The idea is to increase the amount of CO2 available to the algae bed on the screen, without significantly changing the water chemistry of the system overall.
There is less than 0.04% CO2 in the air, so adding even a little CO2 to the airflow could have a big effect, theoretically.
Dunno if it's going to work, I'll let you know.
If it's that complicated to get a significant result over a standard design, why bother changing ? Except for "wannbe a scientist" fun experiments.
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