Huma's DIY Turf scrubber

[huma-huma]

this would be the screen and slot tube in loose fit..

then the quick test of the flow tube

obviously a mock-up pipe but the drain tube will be shortened and connect right to the end of the slot tube.

 

[huma-huma]

a better angle of the mock-up pipe.. its gonna sit up snug against the support joists (PS.. notice the tunnels my goby has dug over the months?? its crazy)

andddd then theres the tusk poking his head out...yes random, but oh so cool

gotta love random fishie pics!!

 

[coffeetwitch]

love the tusk.... when can you put him in the dt???

 

[coffeetwitch]

unions would help. if your water shoots out slanted like you could just loosen the unions and spin it until it fell straight down on your screen right? idk

 

[Buffy]

Ok, so I made it third to the thread, count me lucky I only have to catch up on 3 pages LOL.

I'm following along cause I thought bout doing this also when I first read about it. However..........brain is still fried, so gotta wait til I get the other stuff out of the brain LMAO.

So now that I'm here I gotta get to sleep b4 I sleep in again, I'll be reading up tomorrow at work on break.

Since you are going to be the expert soon, I'm sure I'll be asking some questions.

Check ya later

 

[huma-huma]

Jesse, not for a while... hes still way too small. in my instance I don't think unions will help, I think there's an angle on my slot cut end so the water kinda ramps out. Gonna sand it down tn. And buffy I promise the info will be here waiting lol. Def understand that your brains fried. This is an extremely, and I do stress extremely, easy diy. The hardest part is doing the calculations (true flowrate, optimum screen area, actual screen width, slot width, lighting intensity.) ....Uggh that sounds soo horrid but it only takes prob 30 minutes including testing lol. Im willing to be the guinea pig and get it sorted out for you and Jesse...ill let ya know next decade when I succeed

 

[coffeetwitch]

ha thanks brent.

 

[huma-huma]

Ok im gonna attempt to type right, ive been staring at my scrubber lights for 10 minutes and im slightly blinded lol. Had to take back a majority of pvc to lowes due to I didn't even need it. And I also apologize for not having this posted yesterday. Well the diy is up and running! Not at full strength yet because I have a few bugs to work out, but its running!! Was surprisingly easy to put together and get running...now a few days to see if I get anything growing. Ought the reason why I didn't finish this up yesterday is because I just found out that we are moving to a bigger house!!! Sooo excited to move, NOT excited to move the tank but anyways ill get to uploading the pics. Make sure you notice the flow coming off the sheet...that's with a single pump running...it gets ridiculous with both on. Enjoy

 

[huma-huma]

 

[huma-huma]

Well already looks like there's some sort of growth forming on the sheet!!! Its brown in color so Idk but we shall find out. Here's a pic to show it.. if you look closely you'll see the light brown.

 

[Buffy]

Sweet, looks like you got it started going. Woohoo.

 

[huma-huma]

Yep and all for less than 10 bucks...prob around 25-30 if youd need the glue and lights... still dirt cheap. Just crappy Im moving so any forward progress it makes will prob be null and void

 

[SantaMonica]

Good flow. How are you going to remove the pipe for cleaning?

 

[huma-huma]

2 screwdrivers-one flathead and one Phillips will take the pipe out not that it matters now that my 125 sprung a leak

 

[coffeetwitch]

in all your research for this what would happen if you built it bigger than necessary? like maintain the 35gph for every inch length. but if i where to build it so that my screen where longer than i needed so i dont get the waterfall affect. what if i had too much flow? is 35gph because too much more and i wash the algae off the screen but close enough to properly nourish the algae?

thanks brent.

 

[huma-huma]

In researching it, oversizing the scrubber would simply give you a quicker "scrubbing" ability...meaning it would be able to handle a higher bi-load and also remove spikes more quickly. You can go 2 different routes, pump fed or overflow fed. I personally went with overflow fed for the simple fact hat I didn't see it efficient to have to run yet another pump when I had decent existing flow. All in all, you could make it any size you want, as long as you maintain the 35gph.. which the reason for that number is because water rushing over algae at that rate actually causes the molecular filtering of the water. Something that's not accomplished outside of that. I wouldn't go any higher than 35 gph, once you see the flow in person, you'll understand. Its a pretty high flowrste for such a relatively small area. Oh and lighting is a BIG factor...gotta light both sides and as evenly as possible. I believe its roughly 2-3 watts per square inch.

 

[coffeetwitch]

lighting... what bulb did you use?

 

[huma-huma]

26w spiral florescent bulbs with 120v equivalent. I used 1 on each side each with a separate dome reflector

 

[coffeetwitch]

hahaha your going to have to spell it out for me... your replying to a guy that has looked for a light bulb for a sump for 3 hours and still not convinced i got the right one.

 

[huma-huma]

Lol why do you think I love fowlr soo much? My lighting requirements consist of " does it look good?" And that's it you prob wanna check the link to be specific but I believe for our 125s we need roughly 125-150 watts per side for lighting