Hello Guys, I've been doing a lot of reading and I'm really excited about this new "technology" that I believe is just completely changing our hobby! At the time I'm building a new aquarium setup so I haven't been able to put a scrubber to work in an aquarium yet, but my new aquarium will surely use a scrubber and hopefully make my life so much easier! Anyways, I've been thinking and had this idea for a scrubber that would enhance 3D growth. It could save up space and take more advantage of the lighting, and it would be a really simple mod to the L2, L3, or L4 scrubbers Bud is making. Here's a picture of the idea: So the water feed tube would be perforated in a jigsaw pattern and then the mesh would also follow a jigsaw, and that way you fit more mesh in the scrubber and grow even more algae. I'm a little concerned with waterflow that might be affected by the weird shape and thus could be less laminar, also cleanup could be more of a hassle.. anyways, if somebody wants to try it would be super cool to see if it could work better!!!
Wow. I have to say that it's been a while since I have seen a radically new idea like this. Good one. Not sure exactly how it would fare in the real world, but that's a great way to compress more screen and flow into the same space.
Yeah of course, more area and the same light means less lumens per square inch, but I don't think it will be a problem. Do you guys see more growth on parts of the mesh directly in front of the LEDs? From the pictures I've seen growth on the mesh looks fairly regular throughout the mesh, and light intensity is not, specially in lamps without optics that spread the light from the LEDs. ¿Bud, do you use lenses on the L2, L3, and L4? Anyways, I don't think the reduction in lumens per square inch will be significant enough to affect growth, and you could easily cram 50% more surface area for algae to grow on. Also had another idea this afternoon. You know how fawcets have a little metal screen that makes the water come out really bubbly? Pressure has to be strong enough so that the mesh creates the bubbles, but once you have enough pressure then water becomes really full of small bubbles. Anyways, it would probably help to do something like that with the perforation in the feed tube. If water mixes with air right before waterfalling down the mess it would be way more rich in CO2, probably boosting algae growth and also helping with stabilizing the pH of the aquarium.... I don't know if I explained myself well, I'll sketch something up and upload it later.. best,
Heres the idea you can see theres a fine mesh in the perforation for the bubbles I was talking about. Heres a panoramic view: This sinusoidal perforation gives you 57% more surface area for algae to grow in the same confined space...
Maybe... I also just realized that algae would probably grow on the fine mesh and restrict flow, so this probably won't work. I have a workaround for that I just thought of, I'll sketch up a design and share.
Ok so that's the final idea. Double tube, inner (yellow) one has mesh (blue) for passive air injection, both have sinusoidal perforation, surface area is increased by 57%. Anybody wants to try it? I'm definitely building a prototype to see if flow is laminar and bubbly....
Just to be clear - these pics show the screen pointing sideway out the device. Your intention is that the square tube is horizontal, with the screen hanging down, like a curtain in front of a window, right?
About this - no big deal. Cram the LEDs together and crank up the intensity. That's the nice thing about LEDs. They are making them stronger and more efficient every day.
Still not getting the passive air injection concept - isn't that going to act like a filter screen, and just get clogged up right away? I think the wave-pattern screen is interesting if it could be realized, it certainly does solve a space issue. But, there are other engineering concerns here, mainly even flow across the screen. Also this might mean a different material than the plastic canvas, it would need to be flexible and also maintain a custom shape at the same time. Maybe we should call NASA.
Yes, of course, like a curtain, just like your models... the mod is basically: a- Double feed tube, with the inner feed tube's perforation covered by a thin mesh b- Sinusoidal perforation, on both feed tubes. As you can see in the pics the outer tube also has a big perforation on the top, basically to allow for air to circulate more freely and enhance gas interchange... The passive air injection concept is a filter screen, but since it is in the inner tube no light reaches the mesh and hopefully no algae would grow there... maybe it's overkill, was just an idea... I think the plastic canvas is flexible enough though... you don't think so? you could use some fishing line to "squeeze" the bottom part of the curtain and I think it would hold the shape... I'm building a prototype next week, I'll upload a video to share the results!
I"m not sure the plastic canvas would work well. It inherently wants to return to a flat position. So when inserted into the slot it would be touching the edges at every bend and cutting off flow to one side of the screen in an alternating pattern. What you need is a material that can be formed into the shape and then roughed up or vice versa, so that is float freely in the slot. Tough challenge but do able I think.
I got an idea for making bubbles what about like the down draft skimmer that rely on bio balls to make bubbles. The way they do it is they stack bio balls on the feed tube and the pump just pumps high pressure water tru the tube
From what I understand the bubbles in the stream of a faucet are made by more of a beckett/venturi type of method and not the screen. you could try to employ a beckett injector in this design or better yet use a skimmer pump with a venturi to draw air in with the water being pumped. That being said im looking forward to watching this design evolve!
