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Thread: Quantifying Biomass

  1. #1
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    Quantifying Biomass

    Thought it was about time we did some comparisons of biomass per surface area of screen. Maybe some of the myths can be dispelled and get the most efficient usage data for scrubbers. I'll kick it off; (I know you need to do dry mass for it to be accurate, but wet mass will suffice for now)

    Two sided waterfall, 200sq inch (100 each side), aerated, single side cleanings, 50watt LED growlight on one side, 40watts of 6 month old cfl's on the cleaned side, flow approx 2500lts hr over 13 inch width.

    Harvest average 400grammes, 9 days

    So 400g/200sq inch/9days = 0.2222 g per sq inch per day.

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    You want just the screen or weekly harvest from the entire system? LOL. I just pulled out at least 2x as much out of my display compared to what I just cleaned off my screen. I don't have a scale to weigh it, but it was 2 'softball' size handfuls out of the display and 1 baseball size handful off the screen, all in a weeks time, and I have been slacking badly in the feeding department recently (pinch of pellets a day and a few cubes of frozen 2x a week).

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ace25 View Post
    You want just the screen or weekly harvest from the entire system? LOL. I just pulled out at least 2x as much out of my display compared to what I just cleaned off my screen. I don't have a scale to weigh it, but it was 2 'softball' size handfuls out of the display and 1 baseball size handful off the screen, all in a weeks time, and I have been slacking badly in the feeding department recently (pinch of pellets a day and a few cubes of frozen 2x a week).
    Play fair Ace just the scrubber. Not sure what a softball of algae weighs

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    Ace, what is going on in your tank that your scrubber can't beat that out?

    Back to the topic, I do have a small digital scale I can try to remember to bring with me on cleanings. But how are you defining wet weight, dry weight, etc?

    If I scrape and weigh without squeezing, that's wet. If I scrape then squeeze out the water with just my hands, that's not really dry, but not sopping wet. If I dry it out in an oven, that's really truly dry.

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    Your right Floyd, it needs to be standardised. I just wait and let it sit for a minute or so, on the cheeseboard i use for scraping it on (angled into the sink) until there's just a few spots of water a second dripping off it. Open to ideas though.

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    Squeezing, salad spinner, centrifuge, something like that...some way of purging the 'loose' water without the need to oven-dry the stuff.

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    How about a length of 4 inch drainpipe, with 7 count mesh glued on one end. Then a plunger (the full width of the drainpipe) of a certain mass, say 1kg. Leave it one minute, then weigh.

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    I think the mesh material should be much finer, so as to only let liquid through. Like micron rated stuff, filter paper (coffee filter), etc.

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    Ok. Pipe as described above for strength, place on a coffee filter that's put in the plug hole of the sink, pipe placed on top, retain coffee filter collection for inclusion in weigh up.

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    Something like that. Probably would still need a harder surface to press/squeeze through. I'm thinking of something. For drain tile in a window well, there is a cap that is made which has slots in it, like a strainer, so that rocks/etc don't go down the drain tile. You could lay a piece of #7 or #10 canvas over that, then the coffee filter, put algae on that, and something on top to squeeze the water out.

    Something like this, I think this is not quite what I was thinking of, but you get the idea - more rigid...

    http://www.farmandfleet.com/products...A#.UXWZwkqhxsI

    or better yet, the metal or plastic from a drain strainer

    http://kbrsinc.com/site/kbrs_product...strainers.html

    again, with canvas over it, then coffee filter. The coffee filter might break where the grating it.

    Egg crate for that matter would probably work. Then just a flat weight, or a formica-covered board with weight placed on it.

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