Speed
Unregister Member
good stuff! was he helpful?
birth of 2 builds totaling 30k gallons
- Thread starter hedgedrew
- Start date
Sure......first Friday of every month.....interesting speakers....talk with other knowledgeable reefers....see Joe and Laura etc. Frags for auction.....
Frank
Robb in Austin
New member
Gotta post update with pics of your visit with Bill. The masses demand it!
I really wish he was still around here; his story, build, and insight were/are fascinating.
I really wish he was still around here; his story, build, and insight were/are fascinating.
SantaMonica
Well-known member
Well of course you could always build a massive upflow scrubber. Would be about the size of a refrigerator laying down sidways, but at least you could just reach in and pull out armfuls of algae.
For nutrient export, Santa Monica suggested an algae turf scrubber (+1) which in combination with a sulfur-based denitrification reactor would be an extremely effective means of keeping low nutrient levels in big systems like these. Shark keepers have been using sulfur denitrators for a while now, as solid carbon dosing can be difficult. On my shark system, I've been using kilos of Brightwell's Katalyst BioPellets to combat nitrate and phosphate levels, in conjunction with agressive protein skimming.
Ive also tried several other DIY methods, like coil reactors and others. But the sulfur based technology has come a long way and with the risks aside, it is the most effective method.
But... the ATS is a nutrient removal method that has been used in waste water treatment plants on a massive scale. As well as other algae-based nutrient removal methods on the commercial level.
At Inland Aquatics, all of the marine tanks are filtered through in-line "dump-bucket algae scrubbers" exclusively. BlueZooTV has featured them in several videos on youtube. Heres a link to one of the vids, and at about the 3 minute mark he starts discussing the Algae Turf Scrubber that filters their warehouse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsVEVUfVtcM
Hope this helps!
Ive also tried several other DIY methods, like coil reactors and others. But the sulfur based technology has come a long way and with the risks aside, it is the most effective method.
But... the ATS is a nutrient removal method that has been used in waste water treatment plants on a massive scale. As well as other algae-based nutrient removal methods on the commercial level.
At Inland Aquatics, all of the marine tanks are filtered through in-line "dump-bucket algae scrubbers" exclusively. BlueZooTV has featured them in several videos on youtube. Heres a link to one of the vids, and at about the 3 minute mark he starts discussing the Algae Turf Scrubber that filters their warehouse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsVEVUfVtcM
Hope this helps!
Great. I think youll be surprised with how effective they are. CaribSea sells the "live" sulfur media that some units use. The effluent from the sulfur reactor often MUST discharge into a carbon reactor, IIRC. This provides a bit of safety, the same way putting carbon inline with ozone does.
The dump-bucket style ATS, lit by some high watt Metal Halides would definitely produce some gunk. The benefits to turf algae are incredible. In the zones around a tropical reef, turf algaes are the outer most "filtration" zones, with lots of wave action. In a captive situation, the provide the same great degassing and oxygenation, as well as nutrient uptake and micro-invertebrates.
I think if you had the ATS built with certain specifications, you could have some sort of automatic wiper/algae remover that would wipe the bulk of the algae off of the scrubber (when it needed cleaning).
Just my 2 cents...
Good luck!!
The dump-bucket style ATS, lit by some high watt Metal Halides would definitely produce some gunk. The benefits to turf algae are incredible. In the zones around a tropical reef, turf algaes are the outer most "filtration" zones, with lots of wave action. In a captive situation, the provide the same great degassing and oxygenation, as well as nutrient uptake and micro-invertebrates.
I think if you had the ATS built with certain specifications, you could have some sort of automatic wiper/algae remover that would wipe the bulk of the algae off of the scrubber (when it needed cleaning).
Just my 2 cents...
Good luck!!
not necessarily a review, but an older thread that got split at some point, this link is for the first half. This is the DIY Sulfur Denitrator thread from 2008. Its really long, lots of detail, and the first page shows how to build a smaller, DIY Denitrator with pictures. Pretty informative...
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1288082
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1288082
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Question for reefers. Is anyone opposed and how much if I added those synthetic rubber fake coral table tops to the Marco rock for time being until reef matures. It gives structure and outline to rock pile and caves and I think it will be long time before coral and matuire coral in tank suitable size to make reef look right. I need to decide soon cause they need to frill holes in rock before water goes in. The purist in me says no. But these things look so real and look good. Series of table top acros that don't stn!! Can always take them out as tank matures. Can only go in now. They have natural brown tone and span 1 to 3 feet in size. Was even thinking once hardened could use as shelves to place coral on. Mistake or not????
