Experimental algae scrubber

[Paul B]

I just built this new (experimental) algae scrubber. I built a small version which quickly became covered in algae so I built a large one. It is basically a cotton sheet hung over a tube with holes in it so that water runs down the material. Algae grows very fast in air because there is no water to impede the light.

 

[Quintus]

you going to need to change that light, you need warm white below 4000K for the algae

 

[Pepper]

I found this about scrubbers.

Algae Scrubber Basics | Algae Scrubbing

Although most lights work fine it Interesting that you basically need red and blue (7:1) for best results. I wonder if the same applies to macro algae like chaeto

 

[zippy]

looks interesting Paul, is it successful as yet?

 

[Paul B]

Remember I have been designing and using algae scrubbers on this tank in various configurations for forty years. They are all experiments and most of them used plastic screens. My existing 4 foot algae trough uses a screen. This is just an experiment. That light is an LED and it grows algae just fine.
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.

 

[zippy]

very interesting Paul, so by what I read there is no additional hardware required in terms of pumps to keep the water within the cloth?

 

[Paul B]

I don't use any other hardware. It is just some extra water that feeds my reverse UG filter