DIY algae scrubber

[mrwizard]

Well where do I start, I'm gonna try my hand at a DIY algae scrubber, my reason to try this is my nitrates are always at 20, even when I first set the tank up they were 20, not sure how, I think it may be leaching from the base rock I got but that's just a guess, anyway this algae scrubber is going to be a in sump scrubber and underwater, Id hate the sound of a waterfall in my front room so that option is out, I'm sort of copying an algae scrubber that's available to buy but my own version lol.
I have a few quick designs, and I have a electrical technician on hand who is going to make the led side of things, my first problem is finding the right kind of plastic that won't leach anything into my tank, any ideas?
I've found that
PETE- polyethylene terephthalate
HDPE- High density polyethylene
PVC or V- polyvinyl chloride or vinyl
LDPE- low density polyethylene
Are all considered the most aquarium safe plastics but has anyone used polycarbonate plastic in their tanks? If so any problems?
The idea is the air bubbles will push water (which will enter through the bottom of the scrubber) over the scrubber pad and the water will then be pushed out thru two holes at the top if you get what I mean?
Any other suggestions, flaws or heads ups anyone has come across making an algae scrubber or can see in this idea then plz jump in and let me know. Here's a few design ideas anyway.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Yep, that's a UAS. Design looks pretty good, similar to the SM HOG.5 except looks bigger. You can make your own using an unused take-home tray from a restaurant or TV dinner, that's what he does.

Also, my waterfall scrubber is dead silent. It doesn't have to be loud. Just depends on how you build them.

 

[mrwizard]

Yep, that's a UAS. Design looks pretty good, similar to the SM HOG.5 except looks bigger. You can make your own using an unused take-home tray from a restaurant or TV dinner, that's what he does.

Also, my waterfall scrubber is dead silent. It doesn't have to be loud. Just depends on how you build them.

Yeah the design I was looking at the hog.5, but as I have a 90 gallon theirs didn't look big enough so thought I'd use there idea with my bigger casing lol. I had a quote for an acrylic box for £40 so not going with acrylic lol,
never thought about using a takeaway container, great idea! I suppose it safe for us to use so should be ok for the fish.

Does your scrubber run off your plumbing pipes? That another thing I didn't fancy doing, taking my plumbing apart :/ lol

 

[Hondatek]

I agree a waterfall scrubber doesn't have to be loud at all. Mine is almost silent and not louder than my skimmer pump lol . My water fall scrubber is connected to my overflow pipes via a union. You can also make a pump driven waterfall type if you don't want to mess with your plumbing .

 

[mrwizard]

I agree a waterfall scrubber doesn't have to be loud at all. Mine is almost silent and not louder than my skimmer pump lol . My water fall scrubber is connected to my overflow pipes via a union. You can also make a pump driven waterfall type if you don't want to mess with your plumbing .

So if I close my ball valve a little on the drainage pipe and allow the water to go down the overflow pipe aswell I can use that for the scrubber?
Is the bottom of your scrubber submerged in the water a little to stop the waterfall sound? Think I need to look up more about the waterfall scrubbers.

 

[Hondatek]

Not sure what you mean. Overflow pipes and drain pipes are the same IMO or at least I consider them to be the same thing my overflow box has 2 pipes one is the scrubber the other just goes right in the sump. The water line is right at the bottom of the screen. Even when it evaporates it doesn't get any louder. I have videos I can post after work today .

 

[mrwizard]

Not sure what you mean. Overflow pipes and drain pipes are the same IMO or at least I consider them to be the same thing my overflow box has 2 pipes one is the scrubber the other just goes right in the sump. The water line is right at the bottom of the screen. Even when it evaporates it doesn't get any louder. I have videos I can post after work today .

Oh right lol, well in my weir I have 3 pipes, one that feeds the sump constantly, one for return pump and a pipe that is there just in case the pipe that feeds the sump gets clogged up then this pipe takes over. If you could post those vids when you can that'll be brilliant, thank you.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

What I did with mine is make an acrylic box with a fail-safe drain system. I have a secondary drain on the side of the box and then I put a gate valve on the bottom drain so that you can throttle that one back to a full siphon, and then the excess goes thru the secondary drain. Kind of like a Herbie of BeanAnimal. The secondary drain also acts as a backup in case the bottom one clogs. It's really dead silent. I run mine off a pump, but overflow feed or tap off return works also.

 

[Hondatek]

Here is the video. It just shows the plumbing. The first pipe behind the skimmer is one pipe from my over flow box and the scrubber is the other one . I have more videos of the lights and screen but it won't really help with the plumbing part. Hope it helps.

 

[mrwizard]

Here is the video. It just shows the plumbing. The first pipe behind the skimmer is one pipe from my over flow box and the scrubber is the other one . I have more videos of the lights and screen but it won't really help with the plumbing part. Hope it helps.

Yeah that helped a lot thank you, I'll take a vid of my setup, I think I can make it work that way (I hope), just not sure if I'll have enough flow of water getting to the scrubber. If that makes sense lol

 

[mrwizard]

Sorry haven't posted that vid yet, been doing a bit of thinking and decided to invest in a hog.5 just to test it out, if it works and does a gd job then I'm gonna change all my pipework and add a big scrubber, I'll let you know how the hog.5 goes.

 

[Hondatek]

Cool . Let me know how it works out for you. I know a fair amount about waterfall types not uas scrubbers.

 

[audifusion]

I'm going to build one of these on my 800g this week when I install my new skimmer

 

[mrwizard]

I'm going to build one of these on my 800g this week when I install my new skimmer

800gallon? Wow, that's not even a tank that's a swimming pool lol! I'll keep an eye out for that thread

 

[mrwizard]

Recieved my algae scrubber on Wednesday so installed it and turned it on yesterday for 16hrs, it's on again today gonna leave it for 16hrs again, I will up the length of time it's on in a week or so, I will post some pics of my progress. Having a few problems getting the bubbles to run evenly over the scrubber so gonna have a play around with that tonight. Pics later

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Where did you get it from?