DIY algae scrubber plans - how do they look?

[ajmckay]

So I've been researching algae scrubbers lately and they seem pretty cool. In previous tanks I've always had issues with algae and ultimately ended up using a combination of shortened photo period and less food to keep it from overrunning the tank. Well that was a pain. I don't like spending the time to rinse my frozen food so much and dealing with algae is a sucks.

 

So with the new tank I'm setting up I think I'll give an algae scrubber a try. As I'm an avid DIY'er (one of my favorite parts of the hobby!) I will make one myself using 1/8" acrylic and PVC with a roughed up piece of nylon mesh for a screen.

 

Here's my design, v1. What suggested improvements do you see and why? Probably the most unique thing about this design is that instead of lifting the PVC pipe off the top I need to make it so I can pull it out the side because I only have about 8" above my sump. The pipe will be glued to a removable side panel which will attach using some acrylic brackets. The whole scrubber assembly will mount to a sump baffle using an acrylic bracket and some nylon bolts.

 

Notes: The stars are LEDs, 3w 660nm "deep red". Note that on one side there is 3 on top and 2 on bottom and on the other side 2 on top and 3 on bottom to prevent a concentration of light on both sides of the mesh. Budget wise I'm looking at under $40 for everything. $20 for a pump - maybe a maxi-jet 900, $10 for the acrylic, $3 for screen, and $5 for tubing and PVC parts. I already have a valve otherwise that would be a few more $.

[VW_TDI_02]

Looks good to me. Just make sure that the LEDs are protected.

[ajmckay]

Oh for sure, there will be a water tight layer of acrylic separating the LEDs from the wet section!

 

Thanks for looking at the design. Makes me feel more confident.

 

I was originally looking at upflow scrubbers, but it seemed those were pretty expensive, smaller, and more difficult to DIY. So I found a youtube video where a guy made one similar to this and it seems like a good way to do it - both sides of the screen are lit up, and the whole things sits above the water level in the sump and uses a dedicated pump.

 

His LED lights look like they're a commercially available grow light, but I'll probably just make my own.

Here's the video:

[VW_TDI_02]

I've seen that video multiple times now but those scrubbers are just far too expensive IMO. They look rather easy to build if you're used to working with acrylic and LEDs (I'm not) and I just couldn't justify the cost for something that looks so simple. Regardless, the concept of a waterfall algae scrubber is a ridiculously simple design. You have water being pumped over a mesh with lights on the side and that's pretty much the extent of it. If you can figure out how to put it together then go for it and also send me a quote for how much you would ask to build it for someone. haha.

[ajmckay]

Yeah it's a cool video and I agree that the commercially available units are quite expensive. But I think that's pretty normal in this hobby - things just cost a lot...

 

I mean a commercially available unit will probably look prettier, but I'm getting much better at working with acrylic. And I think this is a design I can pull off in an afternoon.

 

I personally think it would be really cool to run this instead of a skimmer. I mean I like my skimmer so I'll probably run both concurrently, but i'm not finished reading some of the guides I found so I need to learn a bit more about how to maximize algae production. It seems like there are certain environments where the best algae is grown.

[Benny314]

I don't have my design pictures with me as they're on the computer at work and I'm not in at the minute.

Your design seems good and as good as any other commercially or diy options out there.

 

I'll try and explain my design and if I can get to the pictures at some point I throw them up.

Basically like you I have limited space above my sump to allow "lift out" of the screen. I succsessfully ran an uplift style scrubber in a hob all in one unit for my fluval edge, but wanted a water fall type fed from my tank overflow for my new system (currently I'm going with macro algae and mangroves).

 

My design had 2 rain bars spraying at a screen suspended between them. The body of the unit held the heat sinks for the LEDs and hinged allowing a heat sink to lift up and away revealing the screen and meaning you can lift out the screen for cleaning.

 

It was the most compact design I could come up with. It's based around 2 300mm by 140mm heat sinks for the LEDs so the unit is only about 310mm long and I was planing about 250mm high. The unit would hang on the back of my sump in the refugum area and basically drain the screen right into the sump no need for a tray and drain that might clog and cause a flood.

The issue is my design needs quite abit of acrylic and over here in the UK it's bloody expensive. So far my system is holding around 20ppm NO3 so I haven't invested the time, money and effort yet into building one.

[ajmckay]

Benny yeah I'd like to see your plans.

 

After a little more research it looks like a lot of the waterfall style designs are based off of user "Floyd Trubo" and his "Turbo" ATS (I think the website is https://www.algaescrubbing.com/ then there is the "upflow" style ATS which usually sits in or floats in the tank and that type is actually patented by user SantaMonica - which are available on eBay, Amazon, and various online reef stores.

 

It's kind of funny the rivalry going on between the 2 actually. Each of them have been banned from the other's site haha. For the most part they're honest about pointing out the pros and cons of each of their designs though.

 

So I think I'm going to stick with a waterfall for now - the reason being is that's what I've done the most research on so far and I think I can build a better waterfall style than the upflow style.

 

I'm modifying my plans a little bit to include a false bottom for the chamber - this should help possibly reduce bubbles going into the sump. The most expensive part is going to be the LED lighting... I need to do a little bit of research to find the cheapest options there.

[Benny314]

Yeah I'll get them as soon as I can.

 

I was looking at 2 heat sinks from china on ebay, like £17 shipped, and diodes are cheap enough off ebay or aliexpress. I was guessing £25 for LED lighting, but acrylic will be nearly £30.

 

The Santamonica website made me laugh. Can't copy our designs lol. Most of their units are 2 take away trays and an LED and some air tube hahahaha.

[ajmckay]

Hahaha yeah the "upflow" style is a more recent introduction and the construction is pretty simple I agree. I might draw up a "competing" upflow algae scrubber plan for critique just for fun. It would be cool to have both running at the same time - a sort of contest/experiment/battle of the ATS "titans".

 

So with a waterfall style you have a ton of flow over screen you take out and scrape off. With the upflow style you have a little tray that sits in the water and receives low flow. You go in and "scoop out" the algae to clean it. I mean the concept is simple and it would be really easy to build - I just need to do a little more research on it. Either way there's no way that I would spend $300 on something so simple. I mean the most complex part is going to be the electronics - which given the wealth of information out there on DIY LEDs is something a kid can do (and there are kids around here who have!).

 

Speaking of the lighting system I am running into issues with finding the right heatsink... For a 4x6 piece of mesh I need a heatsink with a max size of 6x4 and a minimum size of 3x5. I found one that's 150mm x 65mm - which is 6 x 2.6". The only issue is the base material is only 2mm thick vs. the fins are 1mm thick. But I can get 2 of them from China for $9 shipped. Heatsink USA has a nice one that is 1/4" base and 1/4" tall fins but costs almost 3x that much. I use a heatsinkUSA piece for my main LED light and the thing is a beast though... It's a 24x8 heatsink and I've got about 45 XT-E's on there with no fan. At 50% it's cool to the touch and at 100% its only slightly above room temp. So I'm thinking that mass is probably the most important aspect and I really want this to be fanless.

[Benny314]

The heat sink I was looking at was http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x300-140-20mm-Aluminum-HeatSink-for-LED-Power-IC-Transistor-Module-PBC-/400870150638?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item5d55b911ee

 

I have used this seller before (bought one and cut it up to make a fluval edge array), they seem pretty good quality heat sinks, I was planing fans but that's because I was going to use a lot of LEDs.

 

I'm locked out of the work computer at the minute as my password has expired (I've been off a while lol) so my plans will be along directly.

[ajmckay]

The heat sink I was looking at was http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x300-140-20mm-Aluminum-HeatSink-for-LED-Power-IC-Transistor-Module-PBC-/400870150638?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item5d55b911ee

 

I have used this seller before (bought one and cut it up to make a fluval edge array), they seem pretty good quality heat sinks, I was planing fans but that's because I was going to use a lot of LEDs.

 

I'm locked out of the work computer at the minute as my password has expired (I've been off a while lol) so my plans will be along directly.

 

Yeah that heatsink looks extremely similar to the one I'm looking at here: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2pcs-lot-150x60x25mm-Aluminum-Heatsink-Cooling-for-LED-Power-Memory-Chip-for-IC-Transistor-Free-Shipping/32245706713.html

 

I think I'll need something bigger though unfortunately. The one you linked to was rated for 8 3w leds, and the one I linked to is about 1/2 that size - so 4 leds where I want 5 or 6 per side. Not that their "rating" is absolute by any means, but I would tend to think that the seller would more likely exaggerate the capacity than under rate it.

 

Here's the other one I'm looking at, I would buy two 4" (100mm) pieces: http://www.heatsinkusa.com/6-080-low-25-fin-height/ This one has 1/4" (6.3mm) of base material and 1/4" (6.3mm) tall fins. So while the fins are shorter there's just so much more base material and I have to believe that goes a long way to dissipating heat.

[Benny314]

Yep totally, and you have to consider in the sump area in the stand you'll have reduced air movement and the air in there will already be warm due to a volume of warm water flowing around in there. This is why I had factored in fans for my design.

Thick bases to heat sinks do indeed make a marked difference. My new arrays for my system are on super smart looking pin heat sinks. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aluminium-Pin-Fin-Heatsink-160x160x25mm-/261817710163?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3cf58d3653

These are perfect. 8mm thick bases and the pins make for a massive surface area. With 30 3w LEDs mostly cree it takes 5 minutes to even get warm at 75%.

If you can get pin sinks you might get away with natural cooling no fan, the people who supply these do a 50mm tall version. But they're a UK company.

[dillct]

Some good design info here https://s3.amazonaws.com/Expressions-LTD/Downloads/ATS+ALGAE+SCRUBBER+BOX.pdf

 

I believe this is the same scrubber as in the video you posted. The latest versions seem to be designed with an emergency drain. I know it's also important that your feed pump be able to supply suitable pressure to the screen (an MJ-1200 won't cut it). Leds typically being used are 6-8 red to 1 blue (660/460).

[ajmckay]

Thanks dillct for the link. He shares quite a bit of info considering he also sells them.

 

I'm still not sure if I want to add a blue into the mix... I'm seeing conflicting information on that - some say it doesn't add enough benefit, while others say it's beneficial, but only if run at lower current - say 350ma. I should post links but I've also seen some claims that it's only beneficial to flowering plants. Not sure how reliable that info is though since I don't remember where I got it from.

 

I'll probably stick with all 660nm red due to the fact that I would have to get another driver to run 2 blue LEDs and the costs are already racking up pretty quick! I'm at about $100 for the box, grow lights, and cheap pump.

 

Finally, I'm at a bit of a crossroads about what to to about a pump. There will be about 1ft. of head from the pump input to the scrubber pipe. I calculate that I need at least 210gph to supply the scrubber (using 35gph per linear inch of overflow per turbofloyd and mine is 6" long) So either I buy a cheap pump like a maxi-jet 1200 which is rated for 295 so I'm reasonably confident I can get 210 with ~1ft of head, or my other idea is to use my current return pump, a QuietOne 1200 which is also 300 gph rated to supply the reactor and use it as an opportunity to spend $50 more and buy a more powerful return pump. The quiet one is a bit more robust than a maxi-jet so I think it may be a bit more reliable for supplying the scrubber.

 

For a new return pump I'm thinking somewhere around 5-600gph either a sicce syncra 2 (3?) or an eheim compact. Something around $80-$110. Or a cheaper Mag5...

[Benny314]

Right, so I'm back at work (boooo) and have access to all my mad designs I have come up with on the quiet nights.

 

As promised my design for a hang on in sump water fall scrubber.

 

 

 

 

My design had 2 rain bars spraying at a screen suspended between them. The body of the unit held the heat sinks for the LEDs and hinged allowing a heat sink to lift up and away revealing the screen and meaning you can lift out the screen for cleaning.

 

It was the most compact design I could come up with. It's based around 2 300mm by 140mm heat sinks for the LEDs so the unit is only about 310mm long and I was planing about 250mm high. The unit would hang on the back of my sump in the refugum area and basically drain the screen right into the sump no need for a tray and drain that might clog and cause a flood.

The issue is my design needs quite abit of acrylic and over here in the UK it's bloody expensive. So far my system is holding around 20ppm NO3 so I haven't invested the time, money and effort yet into building one.

 

Both heat sinks would have fans counter sunk into them to save space and keep the unit as slim as possible, the clear splash guards would be full height and width with black acrylic sides and black acrylic boxes stuck directly to the splash guards that the heat sinks would then clamp too so it would be dead easy to access the LEDs/fan on a heat sink if something went tits up. The front part would over lap the back part which has the hanger built in, the spray bars will be in the back part and a cut out both sides of the front to allow it to swing. The screen would be clipped in place so it can be easily unhung for cleaning.

I'd like to think light spill would be next to nothing using black acrylic as the sides.

 

Hope this is food for thought.

[ajmckay]

Hey Benny thanks for the response. I'm not exactly sure what's going on so I made a representation using different colors. Am I sort of on the right track? Basically the green side (can be front or left side) hinges on the purple spot.

 

Are the spray bars fastened to the green side or the pink side then?

[Benny314]

Your close.

 

 

Hope this makes more sense.

Side 1 hangs on the back of the sump and has the spray bars fixed in it and the screen.

 

Side 2 has a cut out that allows it to fit over the spray bars which would poke out of side 1 and hinges up towards you for access.

The heat sinks sit on black acrylic boxes that are stuck directly to the splash guards (with holes cut for the LEDs of course) containing the light from the LEDs and also giving some support to the sides of the unit. These boxes are oversized slightly so some stand off type mounting screws can be fitted which would be used to clamp the heat sinks in place with some acrylic strips allowing the heat sink to be removed quickly and easily if there was a problem just by undoing the stand off clamps.

[ajmckay]

BRILLIANT!

 

I was thinking a similar thing with the end piece, but it would be a lot easier to do the side piece...

 

Design being modified!

[Benny314]

Glad I've been useful lol.

 

Obviously there will have to be some sort of bracing between the 2 sides and for the hanger hooking the unit on to the sump to stop it bending/snapping as the splash guard and light box alone will not support the depth of the unit if flexed/got knocked. But I didn't want to draw all that in as in 2 dimensions it would be confusing to look at and over complicate things.

[ajmckay]

Your input has certainly helped!

 

As most current ATS designs utilize a design where the entire spraybar is disconnected from the pump and then removed to harvest algae, I wanted to make it a bit simpler so that the screen would slide out of the spray bar. But that left me dealing with the end cap. If it's too loose it will leak, and if it's too tight I'll have to take the whole unit out to wrench it off.

 

This design will have the benefit of having the spray bar essentially in a fixed position and the screen can be removed by itself easily.

 

I'm also thinking that it could be a feature as well to have the moving side be completely separated from the fixed side! Similar to how I initally designed it where the end cap was removeable to allow you to slide out the screen, this would have the entire side basically lift off. This IMO would have a further effect of reducing the height requirement.

[Benny314]

Glad I could help and my ramblings have made sense.

 

Yes the only issue removing the side would be cable connections for the LEDs and fan, there are waterproof connectors, but if you were disconnecting it frequently I'm not sure how the wiring would hold up.

It is a great idea though and maybe worth a design mod to make it possible to remove it as well as hinge so for just checking/cleaning the screen you can hinge it up and for more maintenance you could disassemble the unit.

 

The biggest issue I can see so far from design stage would be the spray bars not giving an even enough water flow across the screen, the bars I was looking at are the cheap ones on ebay. Maybe drilling extra holes would be a solution.

With using the ebay spray bars I was going to be able to order the exact length of bar I needed and also be able to use rubber hose like used on external filters to hook it up off a tee in the main plumbing with a hose tail on it making it easy to shift around on the back/side of the sump.

 

Like you said I wanted something that didn't have the screen fitted in the supply pipe, however this is done to get even water coverage from a slit in the pipe as opposed to drill holes.

 

If you get something put together I'd love to see some pics.

 

My nitrates have been around the 25ppm mark and I think I may have to start looking to invest some time and money into building this scrubber.

[Jellyingabout]

I've had both upflow and waterfall scrubbers and have personally found upflow to be easiest and cheapest but my tank was much smaller and my upflow algae scrubber screne was only 9"x6" perfect for a few large airstones.

 

If your heart is set on a waterfall scrubber then i'd definitely advise having the first 2 inches of mesh under the spray bar covered with opaque film to stop the spray bar from getting covered in algae. I didn't do this on my first one and it was a pure nightmare to clean it all off.

 

I'd also recommend a little blue, If found when i added blue i didn't get more growth but i got more good growth, more hair algae, with purely reds i was getting a lot of other slimes.

[Nstocks]

Very interesting topic. My skimmer has just broke and I'm not planning on getting another.

 

Couldn't any clip on aquarium light work for growing algae? Like those really inexpensive LED's for pico tanks?

[Jellyingabout]

If you get it right an upflow skimmer can produce a sud on the top which you can have collect in a cup. built in skimmer

[Benny314]

Very interesting topic. My skimmer has just broke and I'm not planning on getting another.

 

Couldn't any clip on aquarium light work for growing algae? Like those really inexpensive LED's for pico tanks?

 

Yes most lights will grow algae eventually, but your best bet for affordability is a 6500k compact florescent and a reflector. Like people use to grow cheato.

You want the par intensity to get good results as the algae has to get enough light to grow quickly allowing it to use up all available nutrients from the water and keep nutrient levels down.

The down side to the CF powered scrubbers is they end up big and bulky. LEDs take up far less space and you don't need as many to get good results. 2:1 ratio of 660nm red:450nm royal blue is often said to be best. I had good results with warm white and royal blue 50/50 on a little uplift scrubber built into a mini sump for my fluval edge.

 

If you get it right an upflow skimmer can produce a sud on the top which you can have collect in a cup. built in skimmer

 

In theory yes, this is quite an interesting idea, the biggest issues would be getting enough fine bubbles to give you a good skim would limit light hitting the screen and prevent good growth and then there's the practicality of access for maintenance and cleaning as the scrubber screen would have to be in the skimmer body and you'd have to disassemble everything to clean the screen and constantly clean the skimmer body too.

Worth thinking about though.