Experimental algae scrubber

[Paul B]

I have been experimenting with this concept and so far the small version grew an enormous amount of algae so I built one on a larger scale. It is basically just a cotton sheet suspended over my tank by an acrylic tube that has holes drilled in it which tank water drips through slowly flowing over the material then back to the tank. A light is hung in front of it. Soon, hopefully, it will be covered in algae.

 

[Mark...]

I think I'll try that with my polyester felt filter sock material I have on hand. What size is the material and what are you using to pump the water?

 

[Paul B]

That is a Tee Shirt. I drilled a hole into the tube that feeds my Reverse UG filter but any small pump will work. The water just drips out the holes enough to wet the shirt and drip down into the tank. Algae grows like crazy on this material because there is no water to filter the light. I accidently found this out when algae started to grow wild on the side of my algae trough. I draped a piece of material over the thing to see what would happen and in a couple of weeks algae covered it about 3/8" thick. When it gets covered in algae I can easily remove it and wash it or replace it.

 

[Paul B]

Sorry double post

 

[Paul B]

This is the original experiment. This was a small sheet of cotton material draped over the algae trough. Water is not even pumped over it, it is just wet from one edge laying in the water flow inside the trough. I peeled algae from this to seed the new device. This grew in a few weeks.

 

[Paul B]

The thing started to grow algae from the top down. I added some iron paper clips to the cloth to see if the algae grows faster in those places. It's a test

 

[Mark...]

In the scrubbers I've been researching it seems Plastic Canvas is the way to go. Lights and cloth could become a fire hazard.

 

[Paul B]

I realize that but I do my own research through my own experiments and come to conclusions that way.
All of mine also used plastic mesh. Fire is not a problem as the thing is always soaking wet as water is constantly flowing over it. I am trying the cotton as an experiment because of the wicking effect you don't get on plastic or canvas.

 

[Mark...]

I realize that but I do my own research through my own experiments and come to conclusions that way.
All of mine also used plastic mesh. Fire is not a problem as the thing is always soaking wet as water is constantly flowing over it. I am trying the cotton as an experiment because of the wicking effect you don't get on plastic or canvas.

If you had a pump failure, it could dry out and then be a fire hazard. I'm just overly careful.

 

[Paul B]

That is true, but the cabinet the tank is in is wood and a fire hazard, and the basement that the cabinet is in is wood and most of the house that the basement is under is wood so everything is a fire hazard.
That light is a low voltage LED so not much chance of burning anything.

 

[Paul B]

So it's been a week and this is what I have so far. Some streaks. The blobs are pieces of algae that I stuck on there to "seed" it but it looks like I didn't need to do that. A am not sure why it is growing in those streaks but I assume in a few weeks the thing will be covered in algae. If that is the case, I will make another piece of cloth and change it or just clean it. I don't know yet. But it seems this will grow algae much faster than a submerged screen because I added a piece of this cloth to my algae trough almost a month ago and it is just barely growing anything. This is just a test to see if the algae grows better in air and using a cloth instead of a plastic mesh. Yes, I realize I am not curing cancer, it's just a hobby and I also realize people have been making all sorts or algae scrubbers for decades. I like it.

 

[Juano908]

So it's been a week and this is what I have so far. Some streaks. The blobs are pieces of algae that I stuck on there to "seed" it but it looks like I didn't need to do that. A am not sure why it is growing in those streaks but I assume in a few weeks the thing will be covered in algae. If that is the case, I will make another piece of cloth and change it or just clean it. I don't know yet. But it seems this will grow algae much faster than a submerged screen because I added a piece of this cloth to my algae trough almost a month ago and it is just barely growing anything. This is just a test to see if the algae grows better in air and using a cloth instead of a plastic mesh. Yes, I realize I am not curing cancer, it's just a hobby and I also realize people have been making all sorts or algae scrubbers for decades. I like it.

Very interesting Paul, thanks for sharing.