Biokabe
Valuable Member
So, I've had a bit of an algae problem in my tank.
Just a small problem. Despite the abundance of algae, the tank itself is actually doing fantastic - corals are growing, fish are fat and happy, nutrients are not a problem. Well, how could they be, with so much luscious growth to absorb it?
Anyhow, for some reason my wife isn't really happy with the forest I have growing. And I'm not terribly happy about it either. It actually is getting much better - that picture was taken two weeks ago, but dogged removal, disciplined water changes and directed H2O2 treatments have been cutting back on it. But as the algae goes away, whatever is fueling it will likely not change, so I need to give to give the tank more appropriate avenues to express its desire to get wild and wooly.
So, an algae scrubber. I have a refugium, but if I'm being honest I've never been so convinced that it's been great at nutrient control. It grows chaeto, but clearly my tank loves to grow hair algae.
And while I'm building something pump-driven that will live in my sump, I figure I can also include a way to eliminate buckets from my water changes. So here are my initial plans:
The scrubber itself will be a waterfall-style scrubber. Instead of using a slot pipe, my plan is to essentially build a mini-sump on top of my sump, using the natural spill-over across a weir to get the smooth sheet of water. Partially this is because I don't want to futz about with using a Dremel to cut a pipe, partially it's to avoid a situation with worrying about a pipe clogging with algae, but mostly it's just an excuse to play with building an acrylic tank-like thing for experience, in a format that won't really matter if I mess up on it.
Here's a very rough Paint diagram, very obviously not to scale.
The dotted borders in the top picture represent the panels that would be transparent, with the rest of the acrylic panels being solid black to cut down on light bleed. The middle chamber would be where the algae screen would be, attached to a pull-off lid and positioned so that the water flowing over the center wall will pass through it and down to the base of the chamber. The back top chamber would be dry and would hold the light, with additional light provided from outside of the unit from the Tunze submersible light that I already own. The bottom chamber in the back would be the return chamber and would have a pair of return pipes with an attached valve for noise control.
The whole thing would be powered by an adjustable DC return pump I have laying around (never opened, never used), which would be teed off, with one branch going to the scrubber and the other going to a separate valve attached to a hose for water changes. In normal operation 100% of the flow (on the lowest flow rate) would go to the scrubber. During water changes I'd attach the hose and open up the valve to remove water.
So, where are the flaws in my plan? Am I overthinking it (undoubtedly)? Any critical fundamental feature I've overlooked?
Just a small problem. Despite the abundance of algae, the tank itself is actually doing fantastic - corals are growing, fish are fat and happy, nutrients are not a problem. Well, how could they be, with so much luscious growth to absorb it?
Anyhow, for some reason my wife isn't really happy with the forest I have growing. And I'm not terribly happy about it either. It actually is getting much better - that picture was taken two weeks ago, but dogged removal, disciplined water changes and directed H2O2 treatments have been cutting back on it. But as the algae goes away, whatever is fueling it will likely not change, so I need to give to give the tank more appropriate avenues to express its desire to get wild and wooly.
So, an algae scrubber. I have a refugium, but if I'm being honest I've never been so convinced that it's been great at nutrient control. It grows chaeto, but clearly my tank loves to grow hair algae.
And while I'm building something pump-driven that will live in my sump, I figure I can also include a way to eliminate buckets from my water changes. So here are my initial plans:
The scrubber itself will be a waterfall-style scrubber. Instead of using a slot pipe, my plan is to essentially build a mini-sump on top of my sump, using the natural spill-over across a weir to get the smooth sheet of water. Partially this is because I don't want to futz about with using a Dremel to cut a pipe, partially it's to avoid a situation with worrying about a pipe clogging with algae, but mostly it's just an excuse to play with building an acrylic tank-like thing for experience, in a format that won't really matter if I mess up on it.
Here's a very rough Paint diagram, very obviously not to scale.
The dotted borders in the top picture represent the panels that would be transparent, with the rest of the acrylic panels being solid black to cut down on light bleed. The middle chamber would be where the algae screen would be, attached to a pull-off lid and positioned so that the water flowing over the center wall will pass through it and down to the base of the chamber. The back top chamber would be dry and would hold the light, with additional light provided from outside of the unit from the Tunze submersible light that I already own. The bottom chamber in the back would be the return chamber and would have a pair of return pipes with an attached valve for noise control.
The whole thing would be powered by an adjustable DC return pump I have laying around (never opened, never used), which would be teed off, with one branch going to the scrubber and the other going to a separate valve attached to a hose for water changes. In normal operation 100% of the flow (on the lowest flow rate) would go to the scrubber. During water changes I'd attach the hose and open up the valve to remove water.
So, where are the flaws in my plan? Am I overthinking it (undoubtedly)? Any critical fundamental feature I've overlooked?
