B.a.d.a.s.s.

I set him up perfectly.. ha ha ha

 

I thought all we cared about was filtering ability. I could care less if I can grow 10lbs of algae a week if my phosphates are still rising.

 

You just made me so happy ace.

I've been asking the same thing for months!

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I would think that unless you can measure total dissolved Phosphorous, then you are stuck measuring dry weight of algae removed. Otherwise, you might just be measuring the ability of the scrubber to facilitate the rapid conversion of inorganic phosphorous into organic (or some other dissolved forms that the test kit cannot measure).

So even though the scrubber is removing the measurable phosphate so quickly that you cannot measure any; you cannot be sure it's been incorporated into the algae biomass and not just converted to some other organic form that is not hobby test kit measure-able, and destined to be exported with the algae harvest.

 

So what is the point of the 'badass'? I thought the point of trying a surge setup was to see if using that method allowed the algae to filter the water better. If a surge setup that is 4"x4"x6" can filter better than a 10x10" screen, I will be the second person to build one on my systems, but if they offer no better filtration, no point in me changing anything.

 

It isn't about 'screens', my quest is to find the smallest space needed to obtain the absolute best filtering ability. I have high hopes the surge method could cut the size down considerably if it proves to be able to filter more efficiently. To me the surge setup seems like it should be the best of the best as that is how it works in nature. The way algae grows on the waterfall method (flat/matted down) seems like there should be huge room for improvement.

So I think what Ricky and I are looking for is test results, not pictures of algae on a scale because that doesn't tell us anything. To be honest though, I think the only way we will know how well it works is if we just try it ourselves. Since I have a 'phosphate rising' issue on my tanks, the only real way to know if the surge system works better is the try it and see how it compares to my old setups. We need a tank that has phosphates in the .2+ range and see if the surge method is able to reduce that number, because from my experience, the waterfall method can't on my tanks.

That leads to the next question, can you make a post showing how you built it? I still can't wrap my head around how the surge works by looking at the pictures.

 

Agree... Or replace it with per energy consumption (ie: per kWh). It would also be valuable if more people wrote their nitrate and phosphate levels. It's not difficult to grow tons of algae in high nutrient water but since we like to grow corals as well, one of the most important features of any filtration method is that it can export N&P even in water with very low levels. A measure looking something like 5 g/d using 0,36 kWh/d @ 2 ppm NO3 & 0.03 ppm PO4 would provide much more information.

 

Reckon you're right.

Look forward to seeing that.