Coming Soon: Turbo HF - Rev 3 of the L Series Algae Scrubber

The next revision of my Turbo Algae Scrubbers will be finalized very soon. I still have Rev 2 parts in stock, but have decided that I will stop production of that version in favor of the new design.

As of now, I have dubbed the Rev 3 the Turbo HF, which stands for High Flow.

The Rev 3 will feature the following improvements:

- Slot pipe is fully enclosed inside the box
- Slot pipe will be easy to clean, inside and out
- Slot pipe is indirectly connected to pump, so that the pump will not cause lifting or rotating of the slot pipe
- Screen roughing process ensures plastic canvas is rough, deep into the screen
- Dual-material lid is warp free (so far - long term testing still needed)
- Lid will have built-in light blocker for slot pipe/screen junction
- No more bulkheads - all box penetrations are tapped for threaded PVC
- Larger side and bottom drains allow for very high flow, safely
- New false bottom design more logically directs flow
- New false bottom configuration allows for very high flow rate
- Custom built 1" drain control valve for level control and drain silencing
- Bubble blocker stops 100% of bubbles (more of an issue with high flow rates)

So far, my "bench" testing of the L2 and L4 have shown that these units are capable of handling extremely high flow rates. I tested the L2 HF with a Mag 12 and measured the flow at over 650 GPH (across a 6.5" wide screen, that's 100 GPH per inch of screen width) with only a trickle of flow through the side drain (the L4 with Mag 12 tested 680 GPH and no flow through side drain).

That is all with the small (1") drain option - you can go one size bigger, to a 1.25" drain, if you really wanted to. I did not have have a Mag 18 to use for that test! However, I will be testing a wider slot pipe to test some other high flow characteristics which may lead to a VHF model (Very High Flow)...or maybe UHF (Ultra High Flow) since no one uses those acronyms anymore!! Maybe Garf will come up with a better one. Who knows.

The good news for all of you Rev 1 and Rev 2 owners is that there will be retrofit kits available for every one of the improvements on the list above.

Final pricing is yet to be determined, but I will post that as soon as possible, probably before June 3rd.

Contact me if you would like to be put on the list for additional information as it is available. I will not be making a "waiting list", rather an "interest" list. Once units are in production, they will ship on a first paid basis.

 

Here is a quick video I made today showing the changes I incorporated into the 3rd Revision of my line of Waterfall Algae Scrubbers

 

In this video, I go over how I plan to implement the new revisions backwards down to the Rev 1 L2 and the Rev 2 L2, 3, and 4 models.

 

Also a note - I haven't quite figured out the light-blocker yet, but once this one is done, it should be an easy add-on for anyone who has one, new or old.

 

I have that figured out, just need to post it. Busy weekend

 

Posted now on each product thread (links in signature)

 

I have the parts in line at the CNC shop, but I probably won't have them in hand until July 8th. Delivery to anywhere in the US is max 3 days shipping. I'll shoot you a PM

 

To all that have been waiting, I have had some delays in production. I didn't get parts until July 3rd, then went out of town, and have been catching up at work and home since then, leaving not much time for production.

I still have a few new assembly steps that are proving more difficult than anticipated, which has literally resulted in entire days wasted. But that is the way things go with progress sometimes.

Speaking of progress, after way too much overthinking the light blocker, I believe I have the solution, and it is really stupidly easy.

Take a piece of vinyl sheeting (like what you would stick to the back of your tank using an oil or water technique), cut to size, cut a ring out of a piece of flex PVC, and assemble:







I have to test this, but it shows real promise and makes me really feel like an engineer...but not in a good way, in the way that I overthought this for way to long.

I may have one more change to roll in, something that is showing up Tuesday instead of 6 weeks from now, and I will have to check it out before I reveal it. Gotta leave something hanging out there!

 

The concept here is that you can use higher flow in order to achieve a higher turnover rate of total tank volume per unit of time. Many users have seen growth increases simply by increasing flow. The "35 GPH/in" rule was really a rough guesstimate based on what seemed to be working. You can definitely get away with less flow, and you can definitely use more flow.

In certain situations, higher flow really makes a difference. So I wanted my units to have the capability of running at higher flow rates, but this is by no means a requirement.

Higher flow rates generally will result in more growth. Also, I have found that if you slowing increase flow, starting low for the curing/maturing stage, and then increasing after you start to get good growth, the growth really takes off. This again is sometimes dependent on the system.

One more thing I may be adding is the inclusion of a second slot pipe, which has a slightly larger width slot to accommodate higher flow without adding excess head pressure. I will have to do more flow tests, but it might be as simple as a larger slot width allowing higher flow with the same pump.

I also have a screen modification that I'll be rolling in, thanks to danmgray for this suggestion. The new screens will be a few rows/columns longer than the slot, so that the water flow out the ends of the slot have some screen to run down. Think of the shape like an inverted T. Pics soon

 

Light Blocker

Light Blocker

This ended up working perfectly! This is 8 days of growth - zero under the blockers. I did have to trim them back a bit so that they weren't "hugging" the screen at all.



Going to work in keeping this one as simple as possible, yet easy to use...

 

New LED Boards

New LED Boards

Here is a peek at another improvement that will be rolled in ASAP. I'm going to eliminate the diffusers in favor of adjustable LED arrays.

2-LED Board



8-LED Board



These are custom metal-core printed circuit boards (MCPCBs) that I had designed for me. I had 2 goals here: 1) eliminate the large amount of labor time involved in pre-tinning, mounting, and wiring LEDs, and 2) eliminate the need for diffusers.

The 2-LED board has a 2-position jumper strip between the LEDs, and a "sharkbite" or "quick-connect" terminal block on the end of the board. The jumper strip allows one to configure the pair of LEDs so that they run in series (both at full current) or in parallel (both at 1/2 current).

The 8-LED board is functionally the same as using 4 of the 2-LED boards - it is 4 pairs of LEDs wired in series. Each pair of LEDs can be configured so that they are running at full current or half current. Just as I configure the LEDs now, there will be 2 blues in the middle with reds around the perimeter.

The blues should always be operated at half-current, but now you can change the intensity of the red LEDs. If you were starting with a brand new screen, instead of placing diffusers in front of the LED fixture, you would set the reds to run at half-current. Once you have enough growth, you would just flip a couple jumpers and your Reds will run at full power (this would be similar to removing the diffuser)

These boards will be bonded directly to the MakersLED heat sink using a thermal adhesive.

I'll post images of the first set of populated boards as soon as I get them (hopefully tomorrow).

I will have a big stockpile of these boards available in about 3 weeks. Until then, I will build the fixture the old fashioned way for anyone who does not want to wait.

 

Update on the drain valve concept

Update on the drain valve concept

I have given up on production of the "DIY Wedge Valve" idea. It was good in concept, but nearly impossible to actually mass-produce and make it look good.

Instead, I decided to switch to using a single-union ball valve. A single-union ball valve is like a normal everyday ball valve, except that it has a union fitting on one end. As you tighten the union nut, it tightens on the ball and locks it in place. But, when you loosen it, the ball will rotate very easily (especially when kept occasionally lubricated with silicone grease) and thus you can get that fine-tuning adjustability that is needed, but without the high cost of a large gate valve.

I still have to determine if I will choose a 1" or 1-1/4" valve. The 1" valve is likely to be adequate for normal flow on all units, and for high flow on the L2 and L3. The L4 might need a larger, less constricting valve for HF operation, but such users will probably be the exception.

 

How to Order

How to Order

I'll be sending out an e-mail to all those who have contacted me summarizing the current state of availability. I am to the point where I can start production and ship units within 2 weeks, so I will start taking payments sometime in the next 2 days. Orders will be filled in priority of payments made.

If you have not contacted me directly, please do so by sending me a PM (private message) or fill out the "contact us" form.

All 3 sizes (L2, L3, and L4) will be available as Full Rev 3 type units as well as "patched" Rev 3 units. The "patched" versions will have only the slot pipe patches and an extended lid (so that it covers the top of the patches), the drain holes will be tapped just like the Full Rev 3.

"Patched" versions will be at a slightly discounted price, and will be subject to availability since existing customers wishing to upgrade will get priority to choose which version they want.

All units will come with all necessary plumbing accessories for out-of-the-box operation including (but not limited to) PVC drain pipe, screen scraper and cleaning brushes, and hose & valve for connection to a pump. A pump is pretty much the only thing not included.

 

I got the boards in, and aside from a slight error with the print (just the text labels) they work better than I imagined. When mounted on a heat sink, this board spreads and dissipates the heat so well that I can't see any situation where a fan will be needed - after 2 hours running, the heat sink I had it on did not break 95F anywhere on the heat sink (using infrared temp gun)

I had intended to just be able to have "pair' functions like half power (current) vs full power (current) but you can actually do more. It's a little hard to tell the difference between full and half current (that's an LED v camera issue), but here are some examples:

The red jumper wires shown here are just what I had, these units will come with short-circuit jumpers like what is used on hard drives or PC motherboards.

Board, wired for "standard" operation (reds full, blues half)





Reds all on at half, blues bypassed



Reds 3 & 4 on full (bottom left and middle)



Reds 2-6 on full (upper right and all of bottom)



Same with blues on half power



Same with blues on full power



I played around even more and figured out that you can bypass a single LED in a pair as well, so if you wanted to run #1 but not #2, or maybe just one of the blues, you can do exactly that. I'm not sure why one would want to bypass a particular LED, but hey, you can if you want to!

This also means there is an additional redundancy built into the board. If one LED goes bad, you can bypass it until a replacement board arrives. Although, I haven't had anyone have an LED go bad on them (at least not that they've told me).

These boards also have much less "handling time" since I'm not pretinning or soldering anything.

I am still considering offering the DIY LED kit for the "budget" customer...

 

http://www.turbosaquatics.com/forum...g-orders-for-the-turbo-hf-algae-scrubber.185/