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Thread: Helical Algae Scrubber

  1. #21

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    Monthly update Feb01/16

    1. pH: 7.4
    2. Ammonia (NH3): 0.0
    3. Nitrite (NO2): 0.25
    4. Nitrate (NO3): 40+
    5. Phosphate (PO4): 2.0

    First monthly report! For some reason Nitrites spiked a little. I added 2 capsful of Prime to neutralize that. Phosphate is down over the month from 10 at the beginning of Jan. So that's a good sign. I expect it will go to zero before the end of the month. Algae has regrown nicely throughout the tube since I restarted the airflow. It's very thick again.

    Jan30: I started a single 'large' pouch of Algone in a small, hang-on overflow type filter. This stuff is supposed to reduce nitrates. From my experience so far, I don't expect the algae scrubber alone to bring down nitrates within a reasonable timeframe (months rather than years). So I'll see if the Algone helps.

  2. #22

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    Weekly update Feb05/16

    1. pH: 7.4
    2. Ammonia (NH3): 0.0
    3. Nitrite (NO2): 0.0
    4. Nitrate (NO3): 40+
    5. Phosphate (PO4): 2.0

    Click image for larger version

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    The left photo was made on Feb03 and the right photo today. The sock was totally clogged on Feb03, so I made a photo prior to cleaning it. I do not know how long it had been clogged before I happened to look at it and notice water going over the top. So now, I check the sock every day. Even though the pores of the sock were clogged all the way to the top, there was not all that much algae in the bottom of the sock, maybe about 3/4" - 1". I don't know if that was the total that had accumulated or if algae had run over the top once the pores clogged all the way up. I cleaned the prefilter the day before and today and it was heavily saturated with algal dust both days, although I recall it was a bit more clogged three days ago than today. That suggests that the sock had been clogged for at least a day or two before I noticed and algae was flowing out over the top during that time. The algae dust that gets into the main tank is still not causing any noticeable cloudiness, so I guess the prefilter is sucking it out of the water pretty efficiently.

  3. #23

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    Weekly update Feb12/16

    1. pH: 7.4
    2. Ammonia (NH3): 0.0
    3. Nitrite (NO2): 0.0
    4. Nitrate (NO3): 40+
    5. Phosphate (PO4): 2.0

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  4. #24

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    Monthly update Mar08/16

    1. pH: 7.2
    2. Ammonia (NH3): 0.0
    3. Nitrite (NO2): 0.0
    4. Nitrate (NO3): 40+
    5. Phosphate (PO4): 1.0

    Dropping down to monthly reports. Not enough happening to warrant weekly any more.

  5. #25

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    Monthly update Apr01/16

    1. pH: 7.0
    2. Ammonia (NH3): 0.0
    3. Nitrite (NO2): 0.0
    4. Nitrate (NO3): 40.0+
    5. Phosphate (PO4): 2.0+

    The scrubber seems to be growing lots of algae and I added a small filter with Algone. But still no sign of any drop in nitrates and phosphate went back up. Maybe last month's phosphate was a fluke.

    I'm going to start 'cleaning' the scrubber tubes more frequently by turning off the air and lights for a couple of days each week. Maybe that will force the algae to grow more vigorously. I don't get a lot of algae in the filter sock, although, a lot seems to get pulverized and passes through into the aquarium. So I'm wondering if the algae in the tubes doesn't grow all that well and only falls off when the air and lights are out.

  6. #26
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    Turning off lights or air will kill a lot of the algae in the tubes. Probably not the best way to clean them.

  7. #27

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    Quote Originally Posted by SantaMonica View Post
    Turning off lights or air will kill a lot of the algae in the tubes. Probably not the best way to clean them.
    I don't know what else to do to stimulate the growth. Running a brush through the tube is impossible; I tried, and it only goes a few feet before it binds up. I bought some API Nitra Zorb today and I'm going to use it to try to knock down the nitrates in the tank. If that's successful I will then see if the scrubber can maintain the low level or not. So two or three months or so of continued testing.

    If the helical idea doesn't work, I have another idea for a 'modular' scrubber to function as the sole filtration. I'm beginning to think of 'bio-filtration' (i.e. nitrification) as just a high yield nitrate system. I'm going to do some testing of concept with the 15 gallon gourami tank. There are currently 2 1.2x drops and a sponge filter in there. I'm going to pull the sponge since it's the source of all the nitrates. If I get all the nitrates out, so the algae can't eat that, I will see if the two drops can keep the ammonia low enough to be safe.

  8. #28

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    I am starting to wonder whether the helical scrubber is actually doing much of anything. Although there is a fair amount of green, presumable algae, dust in the main pre filter, I collect very little algae in the outflow filter sock. What I suspect is happening is that algae has colonized the tubing and is just sort of sitting there, neither sloughing off nor growing much at all.

    I have removed a set of two LED light units from the helical scrubber and used them to build a big upflow HOG scrubber. I will start another thread to describe this new scrubber.

  9. #29

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    May23/16

    I am officially taking the helical scrubber offline. It's had almost 4 months now and the scrubber does not seem to grow much algae. There is algae in the tubes, but it's patchy and has been for several weeks now. So whatever has grown in the tubes appears to have just reached a kind of 'steady state' low level of growth. So I must conclude that it's not very effective. There is quite a bit of fine algae 'dust' caught in the pre filter every day. That can only be coming from the helical scrubber sock where the water flow must be pulverizing it through the mesh. That means it's not totally dead, just not very good at doing what I need it to do. I think the new UAS will grow more algae faster, so I'm scavenging the LEDs off the helical scrubber to build UASs: one more big one for the big fish tank and a smaller one for the gourami tank.

    I should also mention here that the Nitrate level in the fish tank has actually gone down. I'll report on that over in my NitraZorb test thread.

  10. #30
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    This design was made a while back and patented, but they never marketing it. Maybe they had the same trouble.

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