1sr algae harvest

[G Santana]

With my beautiful assistant in tow, we took our ATS screen to market lol.
This has been a pretty cool 1 week journey. It's amazing what an inexpensive light and a plastic grid can accomplish.
My nitrates have almost gone to zero and phosphates have been cut in half, again in just 1 week.
If you have nitrate and phosphate issues and you have room in your sump, this is the way to go!!!

 

[CMMorgan]

She is beautiful! When I was her age, I hated my red hair - because it was different. Now, I love being a redhead. I would not change it for the world.

Tell us more about your contraption. It looks like PVC, zip ties and a piece of plastic canvas from the craft store. How does the light figure in? Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[G Santana]

She is beautiful! When I was her age, I hated my red hair - because it was different. Now, I love being a redhead. I would not change it for the world.

Tell us more about your contraption. It looks like PVC, zip ties and a piece of plastic canvas from the craft store. How does the light figure in? Inquiring minds want to know.

My daughter loves her red hair and the fact that only 2% of the worlds population have it makes it more special for her lol

My light is a $22 led par 38 100 W from Amazon and the grid is a crochet grid which I got and have enough left over to make about 10 more and was about $10, the pvc and ties I had laying around so about $30 for everything.

I feed the ATS off of the main pump so no added cost for a pump.
Not much to it, I was in fact really surprised how well it worked.

 

[G Santana]

The light is just attached to a piece of wood that is along side the sump.

 

[CMMorgan]

So, you ran a T off of the return, then ran water through the PVC, connected with a union fitting... I'm assuming there are holes in the PVC allowing water to flow over the plastic canvas and back into the sump. The light encourages the growth and you scrape it off. What does that blue ball valve control? How do you control the flow to the algae scrubber? Is this connected to the UV in any way?

 

[G Santana]

So, you ran a T off of the return, then ran water through the PVC, connected with a union fitting... I'm assuming there are holes in the PVC allowing water to flow over the plastic canvas and back into the sump. The light encourages the growth and you scrape it off. What does that blue ball valve control? How do you control the flow to the algae scrubber? Is this connected to the UV in any way?

The blue ball valve regulates how much water goes into the spray bar. In the closed position, it would send all the bypassed water to the spray bar.
For the spray bar itself, I cut a slot roughly 1/4" its entire length using a dremel tool, I felt that If i drilled holes instead that it would clog quickly.
The UV is independent.

 

[CMMorgan]

I cut a slot roughly 1/4" its entire length using a dremel tool, I felt that If i drilled holes instead that it would clog quickly.

Excellent point..it also prevents channeling. Very creative DIY Cheato and I are not friends. I may give this a go down the road. Kudos!
Brava to your beautiful daughter, she has the right attitude. When I was a kid, I got all of the nicknames... casper... vampire... but as an adult, I use it with confidence. I once told my boss that redheads got a new freckle whenever they stole a soul and I lived in Florida, so I freckle easily. He questioned whether that counted as a hostile work environment but I made my point.

 

[sde1500]

Man I’ve been toying with ways to do an algae reactor or something like that for a while now. I’ve seen plenty of diy ATS, but this one just had me legit sitting in my sump holding a grow light and an 8x11 sheet of paper to see if this was feasible lol. Seems quite doable. Your plumbing confuses me, though most not entirely related to the ats. The ball valve drives water flow to the ats, but then it t-s off from there what goes off to the back and left of the tank and what goes straight up on the back, both returns?

 

[G Santana]

Man I’ve been toying with ways to do an algae reactor or something like that for a while now. I’ve seen plenty of diy ATS, but this one just had me legit sitting in my sump holding a grow light and an 8x11 sheet of paper to see if this was feasible lol. Seems quite doable. Your plumbing confuses me, though most not entirely related to the ats. The ball valve drives water flow to the ats, but then it t-s off from there what goes off to the back and left of the tank and what goes straight up on the back, both returns?