Ats

My Eco-wheel came from the original designer, it uses the mat covering the fins. I harvest the algae fortnightly, this coincides with a water change, the loose algae that does not get vacuumed up ends up floating in the water in the eco-wheel tank, by removing this water I limit how much algae ends up in the display. Any algae that ends up in the display is eaten quickly by the tangs.
I recently did some major maintenance on the Rco-wheel I had noticed a couple of years ago that the wheel bearings were wearing, so I organized replacements through Chris Limcaco at www.algaewheel.com.
Here are some images you might find interesting.

Here are the old bearings next to the new

bearings.jpg


The old and the new side plates

side.jpg


The wheel
wheel.jpg


The bioballs in the wheel tank
bioballs.jpg


One of the plates from the wheel tank
plate.jpg
 
Wow. Cool pics. Probably not that many that would appreciate what your showing but it's facinating to me. I avoided use of the bioballs b/c Brett (putawaywet) suggested they were contributing to a nuisant nitrate issue in his tank. I have the one plate one the bottom in use, but the others sit unused in the shop. The bearings on my wheel are not like yours, I essentially have a rod that runs through the wheel, and sits in teflon like holders that are actually part of the acrylic box. I do not have a cage surrounding my eco-wheel like your model.

I have been using regular nylon screen around my wheel for the past 6-8 months, and I enjoy the easier removal of algae during harvest. However regular nylon screen does not last. I would like to find material that is more stout as yours looks.

I assume you terminally scraped your screens in this picture? In other words, do you leave quite a bit more algae on your screens or do you aggressively remove most of the algae? Would you mind estimating how much algae you remove per harvest? I usually pull off at least 2 packed cups of algae each time. Is the algae primarily a red turf as mine has become? How often do you replace your lights above the eco-wheel?

I usually don't worry about the algae that escapes back into my tank during harvest, I have a rabbitfish and 2 tangs that feast on the scraps.

Matt
 
The new plates I received have the Teflon like holders built into the plate.
The material surrounding the wheel is similar to a product we have locally called gutter guard. If you contact Chris at Algaewheel he should be able to tell you where to buy it from in the US.

In the picture the wheel had been removed from the tank so I was able to clean it quite aggressively. Normally I scrape back to the surface of the mat leaving remnants behind in the holes. Two cups of algae sounds about right. I scrape a section at a time and vacuum the loose algae with a small 12V vacuum cleaner.

I went with less Bioballs this time, I have not had a nitrate problem with this tank, though I did feel the bioballs overtime were teapping a lot of detritus and became a home as you can see for many organisms. Over time the bioballs became heavy and eventually they all stat on the bottom plate, my main concern was it may impact on the overall flow through the tank.
The algae is primarily red turf algae which the tangs seem to really like. Though the center section which has no screen get a green turf algae, as well as a lot of coraline. In one section of the mat where the algae is the thickest I also get a type of algae which looks like a turf but each fillement looks like it contains water, much like valonia, though it is not valonia.

I am currently using a 4300K 150W MH lamp which I change yearly. The lamp is turned off for 1 hour during the day, I read in one of the MH lamp manufacturers instructions that is was a good idea to do that if the lamp was run continuously.
 
I was using the Venture 150W 6000K DE in a PFO Mini Pendant over my filter before I shut down my tank and this packs a pretty tight punch: high PAR, high lumens/watt, tightly focused beam. Plus the glass was WAY easier to clean than an open PC or MH fixture over a filter with lots of popping bubbles. The EYE DL 150W 6500K is a nearly identical bulb but I knew someone who could get me the Ventures at a better price. Hard to go wrong with EYE bulbs though, very consistent product IME and probably worth the extra money.
 
I use two 96 watt PC quad bulbs, 6700K. It's what came with the eco-wheel. There isn't much spray on the bulbs, b/c there is an acrylic top to the eco-wheel that prevents spray getting on the lights.

I originally thought I could let these run until they burned out, so what if the color drifted down? Perhaps they would become more effective as they aged. I went ahead and recently changed mine - I was hoping I might see a shift in the algae growing from a red turf to a green turf. We'll see if over the next few months whether there any increase in green turf results.
 
Most scrubbers I have seen have red turf algae with maybe a bit of green. I do not think ot matters with regards to nutrient uptake.
 
Great thread. I'm thinking of putting an ATS in my sump and had a question.

My sump is an old 30 gallon tank and is in the basement of my house. I was thinking I could put a wheel type scrubber (like the eco-wheel system) in my sump. Has anyone built anything like this before? What did you use as the wheel? Mounting shouldn't be hard and I could split off the main tank return to turn the wheel but I'm having a little trouble coming up with what to use for the wheel.

I was thinking of buying a couple of the largest hamster wheels I could find and covering them with nylon mesh. Opinions?

Thanks,

Andy
 
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