New algae scrubber experiment

[Paul B]

I have been experimenting with this concept and so far the small version grew an enormous amount of algae so I built one on a larger scale. It is basically just a cotton sheet suspended over my tank by an acrylic tube that has holes drilled in it which tank water drips through slowly flowing over the material then back to the tank. A light is hung in front of it. Soon, hopefully, it will be covered in algae.

 

[iliriano]

Let us know how it turns out Paul. Also what kind of fow do you have on it.

 

[Paul B]

Water just drips through it. I just got a new valve so I will slightly increase the flow

 

[Paul B]

This is the original experiment. This was a small sheet of cotton material draped over the algae trough. Water is not even pumped over it, it is just wet from one edge laying in the water flow inside the trough. I peeled algae from this to seed the new device. This grew in a few weeks.

 

[ReefDiver]

Will algae grow faster being exposed to air rather than fully submerged? and do you think it will give a strong odor to the room?

 

[Paul B]

That algae in the picture is on the side of the algae trough which has been there for many years. Algae grew on this piece of cotton in a few weeks and there is almost none in the algae trough which is lit with the same light and has water flowing very fast through it. So I would say, yes, algae grows much faster in air

 

[JBNY]

Paul, are you keeping track of Nitrates and/or Phosphates to see if growing algae this way contributes to lowing of N and P?

 

[ulmo]

I would love to see readings of Nitrates and Phosphates before and after the addition of the algae scrubber.

 

[Paul B]

Paul, are you keeping track of Nitrates and/or Phosphates to see if growing algae this way contributes to lowing of N and P?

No, not really. The last time I had the nitrates checked they were 40 ish.
I never checked the phosphates.

 

[Reef Lobster]

looks good! id maybe add some form of a plastic shower curtain around it aswell to limit contamination. Dust is a killer!

 

[oh207]

Nice DIY project.

 

[Paul B]

I add mud from the Long Island Sound. I am sure there is a lot of dust in the Sound so I won't worry about any of it getting in my tank. But thanks for the idea. :smokin:

 

[Paul B]

The thing started to grow algae from the top down. I added some iron paper clips to the cloth to see if the algae grows faster in those places. It's a test.

 

[Paul B]

So it's been a week and this is what I have so far. Some streaks. The blobs are pieces of algae that I stuck on there to "seed" it but it looks like I didn't need to do that. A am not sure why it is growing in those streaks but I assume in a few weeks the thing will be covered in algae. If that is the case, I will make another piece of cloth and change it or just clean it. I don't know yet. But it seems this will grow algae much faster than a submerged screen because I added a piece of this cloth to my algae trough almost a month ago and it is just barely growing anything. This is just a test to see if the algae grows better in air and using a cloth instead of a plastic mesh. Yes, I realize I am not curing cancer, it's just a hobby and I also realize people have been making all sorts or algae scrubbers for decades. I like it.

 

[SantaMonica]

The air/water interface of turbulence does wonders for remove the boundary layer around the algae and allowing metabolite transfer.

Cotton is great too, for attachment, before it degrades.