two weeks with our algal turf scrubber

[sillygoose]

We set up our algal turf scrubber 2 weeks ago. It might actually be working. The algal colonies have gone through a progression from what may have been a bright blue/green to a more mature hair algae growth. It seems to be bringing nitrates down because they dropped from 20 to 5-10 since last week with no water change. (You go algae!) I think between skimming the precursors of nitrates and the algae removing them, we could be on to something. If anyone is interested, I'll try to post a picture.

 

[fishaholic911]

Pic's please

 

[richpoolboy]

yes please

 

[sillygoose]

This has been Andy's recent project. The first photo shows how he made a bypass valve in our skimmer chamber. The red valve can be adjusted to divert more or less flow to the skimmer or the pipe that leads over to the scrubber. (There a couple short pieces of PVC just stabilizing things - no plumbing purpose.) The next shows how the PVC pipe in suspended over to the actual scrubber. The shot of the scrubber shows the substrate hanging vertically from a PVC pipe with a slot cut into it. The substrate is plastic craft weaving stuff from Michaels and is held in place with tie-ups. We have two CFLs - one on either face of the mat. They run 24/7. The final pic is the set-up. Also - I'm apologizing in advance for the size of the photos - my re-size utility is goofed up at the moment.

 

[sillygoose]

sigh...I'll get an important one posted.