Revolving algae scrubber

[Sharkey18]

Is the thing growing any algae?

 

[kcress]

A nice feature is probably the pods will all croak on the ride. I've seen them strip my screens in 24hrs. They'll strip them back 2 weeks in 24hrs if you try to skate on reasonable cleanings.

 

[Paul B]

I removed the thing to make some modifications. I will have to wait until after the hurricain passes. I may not have a fish tank by then. :fun5:

 

[Dave Thebrewguy]

Good luck with the storm, Paul. I just woke up and looked out a porthole, with Sandy still a day away the tide is just about up to the finger pier. This could be an ugly one.

 

[_shorty_]

I have seen these using a round drum. They seem to work well in the applications that I had seen. About 10 years ago there was a place in Mission KS making large ones... I believe that Inland Aquatics in Terre Haute still has a couple in operation.

I was recently at Inland Aquatics after not being there for a few years so wanted to comment on this. They used to (10ish years ago) have wet-dry - with black corregated Pipe wrapped around rotating pillar that spun and drew water up and let it fall back down - but that's been out of service for quite a while. They currently only use algae scrubbers and claim the don't do water changes since the A.S implementation... (they dose calcium, magnesium, and trace elements - he didn't mention alk - but assuming so since they propogate stony corals). But they have a unique design that they say they have patents on since like the 70's or 80's. They use a 'dump' method and say the algae contact with air during each dump is beneficial to the scrubbing process (I'm guessing because of the exchange of CO2). Water fills a trough (the trough has the algae media screen on the bottom surface) - once the water fills up enough, the whole thing surges/dumps into the larger tanks. They have these in the back, they are the white fiberglass pods about waste to head high. I highly recommend the place if you've never been. Make sure you go in the back and check out the big 'tubs' of reef they have. And ask about the Algae scrubbers.. they'll crank open a pod and show you.

 

[Paul B]

Shorty thats the theory of my revolving scrubber. It is mostly in air and hardly in water at all. It is just a test and if it works out well I will design a larger more efficient one.

It is snowing here now and we have about 4" already. This was 4 hours ago.

 

[_shorty_]

Shorty thats the theory of my revolving scrubber. It is mostly in air and hardly in water at all. It is just a test and if it works out well I will design a larger more efficient one.

I like it! Keep us posted. Also interested in ease of screen cleaning. Ease of maintenance is big for me because I tend to be lazy... The past couple weeks been trying to think of something similar to this.. With high flow/volume of water movement but is exposed to air periodically. I guess your design just depends on how sump flow... But don't see why it won't work. What's RPM on this guy? ( hope that's not a redundant question )