Mega-Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover Replaces Skimmer, Refugium, Everything

[SantaMonica]

That's another solid lookin' build! What's your tank size, load, and pump capacity for the screen? That screen looks pretty big, so yes the 125W equivalent would be much better (and they're only 23 real watts). Matter of fact, you might consider getting two more and putting them side by side on each side. It's fine with just one, but the IA turf is coming from under halides, and the more you can get close to that, the more you'll make use of real turf.

Keep the dremel around, you'll need it to widen the slot as you do your screen fitting (keep the screen wet during the process.) Putting a valve on there was a great idea... I should have done that.

When you get the screen just give it a good FW scrub with your fingernails. Then take pics each day (and measure N and P each day), and you can clean the green off for the first time after it grows enough to start covering the brown/red. For you (with a pre-grown screen) the green that grows will only be a nuisance; your real filtering will be the brown/red. It's a bit opposite of folks growing their own; they'll need to use the green for filtering for several months by itself (which is still as strong as caulerpa). Try to get a nice close pic of the turf so folks can see what real stuff looks and feels like.

What is N and P now? You might want to create a little text table like I did of the date and N and P for that day, and post it after a while.

[Witfull]

our members Rock~

thanks Santa~

[jski711]

The mats from inland are single sided bc they are run flat instead of vertical like this so I might just use the 2 lights on a single side. Also I am going to be turning the mat 90 degrees each day bc from what I was told the turf needs a more turbulent flow instead of flow always the same way. I also have no N or P test kits so I might go to the lfs and have them test my water. They use the more accurate phosphate tester, the digital light one so we'l see.

Jake

[SantaMonica]

They are single sided, but you want it growing out the back side too... that's what the sizing was designed around. Also, it's way to much trouble rotating them; that's not the kind of turbulence they mean... rotating won't do anything. If you want surging, just put a wavetimer on the pump, at 30 or 60 seconds. And yes now would be the time for test kits. Salifert would be best so we can get similar readings.

[SantaMonica]

Here's a neat screen that someone just built. Since there was no vertical room in his sump area, he asked about horizontal options and I showed him the commercial floating turf screens. He made one out of floating material:

[jski711]

the way it was described to me was the laminar or straight flow from the way it's setup will not work right. it's natural habit is in a place with varied flow.

Jake

[SantaMonica]

Yes that's what Morgan told me too. But, I got the screen, set it up as per my post, used a wavetimer, and now I'm getting real turf growth out the back of the screen (for detailed pics of the IA screen, see my post on RC.) Matter of fact, since I mistakenly scraped the entire front of the screen (should've only done 1/4 of it, horizontally), I now have more real turf on the backside of the screen which is doing the filtering.

Understand that the IA folks mean well, but they have never run a waterfall version, or even heard of one before I ordered mine from them.

[jski711]

I didn't mean that it's not going to work. they told me that they weren't sure if it was going to work or not. btw where is your post on rc, im banned and can't find it.

[Kerchakone]

I just did a test EXTREMELY cheap version. I ran an extra piece of acrylic I had laying around from the out port on my remora skimmer to the far side of the tank. It runs down it and flows into the main display. I scratched it up with a file and hacksaw blade cause I couldn't find any sandpaper. I'm going to keep an eye on it and see if it does ANYTHING. If it does I'll build a real one.

It looks TERRIBLE, but it seems like it will work and at least give me an idea of how it works.

[jski711]

nm i found it.

[SantaMonica]

Kerch, it will work, it's similar to the nano screen I posted. Just give it the most light you can. The main difference between a solid "screen" like acrylic, and a true screen with holes, is that you will only get green hair algae on it; true stiff red/brown turf will probably not develop because it needs holes to grab onto, so that then you scrape it it does not pull out. But green hair is fine, it still exports more than caulerpa. If this is for your 46gal, you'll need 46 sq in. if you light it from both sides, or 90 sq in. if you light it from just one side. So please post pics now and each day, and tell us N and P each day too.

[Disciple882542]

Originally Posted by SantaMonica

Here's a neat screen that someone just built. Since there was no vertical room in his sump area, he asked about horizontal options and I showed him the commercial floating turf screens. He made one out of floating material:

What type of material did he use for this?

[Jukas]

I'm definitely interested in trying this out for my 75g with a 20g sump. Can I setup an in sump waterfall type, that's gravity fed via the overflow drain line, or would I need have it pump fed?

[SantaMonica]

You can T-off from the overflow, with a valve to control the flow through the waterfall pipe. You don't want to run all your overflow through the waterfall, of course. And you only need a 10 X 10 inch screen, lit on both sides.

[jski711]

Turf scrubber in action. there is one light on each side and i can't believe how well this diy thing worked. now i have to get my parameters tested. enjoy and LMK what ya think.

jake