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Thread: The new Upflow Algae Scrubber (UAS)

  1. #31
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    Came up with it over few days, about one year ago. It works because of the better delivery of carbon to the algae:

    Click image for larger version

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    Last edited by SantaMonica; 04-26-2012 at 02:28 AM.

  2. #32
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    holy crap you could easily do a slanted screen. that might even be better. Bubble rubbing for longer and pushing through the screen. booyah

  3. #33

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    Given that future ones will be prettier, I guess we shouldn't put too much effort into trying to make our first test one look anything but ugly.

    Quote Originally Posted by SantaMonica View Post
    Lights are always better on both sides.

    No gallon rating that I saw; just a cheap one.

    For nano's this is just the ugly, but cheap, one. Future ones will look better.

  4. #34
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    HOW KEWL IS THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Floyd, your remember my scrubber you thought was unsafe right!!!!? Its on now brother, its me and you!!!!! Let the algae growth begin!!!!!!! Yes that's a challenge Sir!
    I am not sure how the horizontal would work, it would be fine until the algae started to fill in and then the light would be blocked. Just a suggestion but, maybe someone will prove me wrong. I have some of the best horizontal growth with the regular scrubber so maybe its time someone else did better with this new one.
    OK, here it is!!! WHO can top this growth, that card is regular size credit card type. Yep, that's the best horizontal growth pic I have seen with the old type scrubber. So lets just say this is the bench mark. Lets see what you can do with this new stuff. Bring it on as Floyd says!!!!! LOL. You are invited to Floyd!!
    I had to repost the pic, sorry.
    150G. Reef/Mix
    125G. 3 Regular Oscars/1 Jack Dempsey
    75G. 20+ Africans
    40G. Fish/Reef. Algae Scrubbers on ALL my SW
    10G. SW Fish/Reef.
    10G. SW Hospital/new fish quarantine/pod breeder tank
    6 stage RO/DI system 200 GPD.

  5. #35
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    Excellent concept SM. And so simple.

    I'm away on holiday atthe moment but will definitly be having a go at one of these when I'm back home.

    Thanks for thinking of it.


    I wonder if there would be any advantage in injecting a little CO2 into the airline?

  6. #36
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    It would really drop your pH. It seems to grow good already, so there is probably no need.

  7. #37
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    Well before our Spring Frag Fest here in Des Moines, I knocked out a prototype of my "L2" scrubber here







    Dollar bill for scale. Inside box dim is 3"

    As I mentioned, right after I bonded the bottom on I realized that I forgot to route the hole in the bottom for the bulkhead. Like I said, maybe that was fate LOL.

    My plan all along was to add a secondary drain on the side, about 1/2 way up, and put a Uniseal bulkhead in there and a 1" street elbow, but the hole for that also fits a 1" BRS ABS bulkhead. Also not shown yet is a 1" strip of black 1/4" acrylic on either side of the bottom window, which will support a false bottom over the drain which blocks light in the lower inch of the box and routes the water to either side of the bottom and around to the drain underneath vs the screen running right into the drain. This proximity to the drain is what causes thick growth to block it and cause an overflow, so that was my solution. Also since this didn't require a lot of flow (6" wide x 35 GPH = 210 GPH) it only needed a $33 Eheim Compact 1000 pump, which so conveniently has a flow adjustment slider on it.

    So given this setup, and since the box is watertight, conversion to a UAS is simple:

    1) plug the drain or, more preferably (but less reversible) seal over the bulkhead hole
    2) move the bulkhead to the side and put in an elbow on the inside, turned up or at a 45 (probably the latter)
    3) hard pipe (or vinyl hose) the drain from the side to the sump or tank
    4) run the hose from the pump into a hose barb-to-NPT adapter and into a 45 or 90 elbow inside the box via one of the pipe support cutouts and route that to the bottom of the box somewhere (with a siphon break) or just the opposite end of the box from the side drain to maximize turnover
    5) put airstone in with screen attached (same screen used for the downflow algae scrubber (now known as DAS)) in the bottom of the box and attach air pump, which sets on top of the box
    6) mod the lid (not shown in pics above either) to compensate for bubbles popping causing water to condense on the underside of the lid and escape the box (lid would also block the other slot pipe cutout)
    7) possibly mod the false bottom so that it has a 'tray' to keep the bubbler in position and also block light from it (I see the airstone growing algae and needing cleaning)
    8) use same LED lights, same screen as DAS

    The main reason for the last one is...I have 9 sets of heat sinks that I bought for making DAS scrubbers. LOL.

    So if this works, the next step is to make the chamber much narrower, like 1", do away with bulkheads completely, and build in an internal overflow box basically so that the water just gets skimmed off the top of the box internally on one end. The challenge there is making it so you can cleanly pipe it down to a sump or back into the tank, but I have mad crazy ideas in my head about how to make that happen as I am a mad crazy acrylic engineer.

    Since there is no air layer, I'm guessing that burning algae with intense light is not so much of an issue. Also making the box thin cuts down (however insignificant) light loss through water. Theoretically you could have the LEDs right against one side and the algae right against the other side without a problem.

    Then the issue become algae growth in the box, particularly on the acrylic windows. I would be recommending cleaning by removing the box from the system when needed and soaking in vinegar for an hour and scrubbing with a toothbrush, which would eliminate potential scratching.

    I'm excited to get all this going now. This is exactly what you said it would be, simple and effective. I'm excited to not have to clean a friggin slot anymore.

    Also if you make a enclosed box with a screen that is smaller than the box, I forsee that you could go weeks without cleaning the screen. This is HUGE for maintenance companies. HUGE. hell this is huge for me as I maintain 3 tanks and hardly have time to do anything on 2 of them but bring in top off water and change a filter pad/sock. With this I can clean the screen in 10 seconds in a 5g bucket with a gallon of RO/DI in it, at the tank, or just show them how to do it. I was kind of dreading having to maintain scrubbers on 3 tanks, not any more man. So what if they forget to do it for a while, the roots will get water and light and won't die so no harm done. Damn this just keeps getting better.

  8. #38

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    Hello!

    Whooow, this is a great consept, it is just stunning, have to congratulate you coming up with this SM.

    I think i will try to do a simple in tank first to test out the consept, i do think this is the idea with this test tread tatt SM made, this test group that we are in testing the consept by just making simple scrubbers first to Get some results.
    I did a small in tank scrubber beafore that did not work, but that scrubber might just work with SM bubble idea, i might eve use the same light as i used beafore.
    Do you think i can use this scrubber with some modifications? Here is a link to the scrubber:
    http://algaescrubber.net/forums/show...=Jnad+scrubber

    There is a couple of problems that has to be solved that i think of when using a in tank scrubber:

    1. Snail problem: with my previous in tank scrubber the screen ended up full of snails eating up the algae. Have to make the scrubber snail safe.
    2. Micro bubbles: SM, do you think there will be problems with micro bubbles escaping from the scrubber to the main display when using air stone in the scrubber placed inside the main display.

    I will use a couple of days thinking what to do, this new idea from SM was just like a Shock

    Jnad

  9. #39
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    I figured the screen would be laying on top of the water so I was a little off. I think you can make something with that scrubber Jnad. I am not sure if the snails will really hinder the screen all that much, I would think it would fill in pretty quick and maybe make cleanings less. I have one above my tank and I think I am going to plug the drain and make one up higher and install an air stone as my test pilot.
    I have also been playing with the LED photo period because I was getting slight burning on the 10G. So I think you are correct on the water eliminating the burning Floyd.
    150G. Reef/Mix
    125G. 3 Regular Oscars/1 Jack Dempsey
    75G. 20+ Africans
    40G. Fish/Reef. Algae Scrubbers on ALL my SW
    10G. SW Fish/Reef.
    10G. SW Hospital/new fish quarantine/pod breeder tank
    6 stage RO/DI system 200 GPD.

  10. #40
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    I don't think the microbubbles will really be much of an issue either. Microbubbles are usually caused by turbulence, the bubbles produced by an airstone will generally be bigger and since they are 'traveling' upward by design, will tend to break at the surface. If you think about the usual sponge filter bubbler, or old undergravel filter with airstones at the bottom, you don't get a microbubble problem in those systems.

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