My Second Attempt at An Algae Scrubber

[dngspot]

A while ago I made an attempt at SantaMonica's early design. I followed his instructions to the "T", and had no luck growing anything in it.

During my research on scrubbers I came across a design that looked a little better than a bucket with a couple of floods in it. The design that I am going to use also uses two floods but, I have an old 150 watt mh I am going to use with a 10k bulb. I have 3 400 watt mh's over my 210g am hoping the 150 mh will give the algae a more favorable environment than the display. I am also going to use a different water delivery to the screen. The design uses a container on a pivot, I am going to use a piece of glass tilted to the screen and attached to three sides of the aquarium. The rest will be a close copy to the design below, except I will be using 20g aquarium.

The aquarium is a simple 20g long. It is about the same dimension as the original design. I bought this thing to be used as a refiugium for my 55g in our office, but that is no longer a need since I built the fish room in the basement. Eventually it be on the same sump as the 210g, This is what I started with.

This morning I ripped 4-1.5 inch pieces of 1/4 inch acrylic. Two are 24 inches long and the other two are 8 and 7/8 inches long. I used Weldon 3 to bond them together. This will be the frame for the screen.

I cut 2 pieces of 1/4 inch glass 24X1.5. I had the glass in the basement. These will be used to hold the screen assembly off of the bottom of the tank.

I used 2X4's on their sides to hold the glass strips in place during siliconing.

I cut 4 legs 1.5X3.5 inches from 1/4 glass to support the 24 inch long strips. I cut the bottom corners off of the legs to clear the silicone on the bottom of the 20g. This is my first setback. I attached the strips and did not put the legs in first. I cannot get my calking gun under the strips to silicone in the legs. I will go to Home Depot and pick up a tube of silicone, I should be able to reach them with the tube. You will have to look closely the legs are barely visible.

This is what it looks like so far. I will be using nylon screws to hold the frame up when done.

I found stuff that looks like the mesh inside the tank divider that SantaMonica recommended in his early design. It is used to pull yarn through and make rugs. Those dividers cost over $15.00 at the lfs and they are too short for my needs. Again my frame is 12 X 24 inches, the panel that I bought is 13 x 21.5. I bought a short one also. They both are 13 inches wide. My wife said she could sow them together with fishing line, how can you not love a woman like that? We spent about 15 minutes in the store and she knew exactly where to look of what I described. The total cost for the mesh pieces, $2.00. The stuff came from Hobby Lobby, it is a stone's through from my home.

More tomorrow.

 

[dngspot]

My wife finished sowing the panels, in the morning I will sand them, staying clear of the fishing line. They are cut to fit the screen frame. I am one screw short but, I need to take a trip to HD tomorrow anyway. The long bolts will also be used to set the angle of the screen assembly, the short ones to hold the screen to the frame.

 

[dngspot]

Today,
I pulled the glass strips, the strips that will hold up the screen assembly, and installed the legs. I tried to do it with a smaller tube of silicone and it looked pretty bad, I just can not get my fat hands to fit. After I siliconed all back in, I worked on the screen frame. Drilling and tapping 14 holes is not my favorite thing to do but, it came out pretty good. 6 holes have short 1/4 X 20 screws with washers, these hold the screen to the frame. 8 holes have longer screws, they will be used to adjust the height and angle of the screen. I also cut and installed a piece of glass that the water will hit before making contact with the screen.
Now off to the lfs, to pick up a 1 inch bulkhead.
Here are the pics of the work done this morning. The unit is on its side until the silicone dries.

 

[dngspot]

I forgot the spray bar. I drilled another hole in the upper corner of the tank. In the pic you will see the tool I used to cut the opening in the spray bar.

This pic has the finished cut and the parts that complete the spray bar.

The two final pics are of the spray bar assembly. The collar on the inside of the tank was cut from a coupler. I slid it over the pipe, then installed the pipe in the tank. I then put pvc glue in the area the collar was to rest and slid the collar over the glue. I installed a union on the outside so the union and collar are pressed lightly against the glass, I hope this will reduce spray outside of the tank. The union will also allow me to adjust the spray bar to optimize the stream across the glass plate.

Now it is ready to be installed.

 

[cbrownfish]

Wow, awesome work! I will say that you are a brave man, considering the amount of work you did before you drilled that baby.

 

[dngspot]

I do a bunch of drilling for our local club and the lfs's. Knock on wood, I have not broke one yet. I was given a brand new 180g reef ready tank and was told to drill 18 2 inch holes in it. That job took 3 days.

It is plumbed in and water is running through it. I think the spray bar will need to be done. I have found that most of the water is pushed through the far end of the opening. With that said, the screen is fully covered with water.
The valve that I installed is not needed as I can control the water with the valve I used to divert water to the scrubber from the line coming from the display.
I did not address the light it will wait until I fix the spray bar.

 

[dngspot]

To all, thanks for the kind words.

I attempted another spray bar with a much narrower cut, still the water is pushed to the end of the spray bar.
I have decided a different approach, a small pool of water then aiming the water in it. All it took for the mod was to cut out the slanted glass and reposition it. As for the spray bar, I will try a straight pipe into the pool of water first. If the water velocity is to strong, I will install a modified tee if needed.
Now I wait for the silicone to dry.

 

[johnmaloney]

looks complex, hope it works out for you

 

[dngspot]

Dang, you ever have a total brain fart you just cannot figure how you put your self in a situation? Well, me too. If you look at the pic above, I used 2 X 4's to support the slanted glass. I don't think you can see but, the lowest piece is too thick to be removed with out hitting the screen supports. After scratching my head for 10 minutes and playing a self inflected Chinese puzzle game for 5 more, I took out my smallest hand saw and spent 45 minutes cutting the 2 X 4. Heck of a way to spend an hour before bed time.

 

[dngspot]

I think I have it. No spray bar needed, just a pipe pointing down. An added boost, I said I was not interested in a surging setup, well, I have one anyway. The air in the return line reduces the flow enough to give a surge.

During the take down of a 35g octagon the Coralife 150 watt HQI was damaged. The mounting neck at the light housing was broken. My wife made the mistake of picking up the light and not supporting the ballast. She and I are pretty good to each other so all that came out from me was, I think I can fix it. So I brought home some gel super glue, I love the stuff, it is very useful. I glued the area that broke and held it in place for 10 minutes. Try that sometime, it seems like eternity. Now it dries.

Here are the pics.

The location in my fish room. If you look in the lower corner you will see the subtle hint from my wife, I need to clean the turkey fryer.

A closer look but, not very clear. The water is a bit high I need to adjust.

The upside down Coralife...My drill is supporting it to keep the neck from weight stress.

Blurry closeups of the glued fracture.

 

[dngspot]

And here she is finished with a light.