I've been looking at my sump, pondering an idea. Was hoping I might get some feedback from other DIY'ers.
I'm using an EShopps RS100 sump. Has a 7" sock compartment. I dislike socks... they're a pain to clean, and I'm not at all sure how much good they actually do. So, I've got a 7" round 'hole' where water falls 5" or so on a constant basis.
I've got a thought coming together. Make a 7" round, 5" tall 'roll' of plastic mesh canvas, rough it up on the inside surface as in most DIY scrubber projects, and suspend it from the hanging ring of one of my old socks. Put an LED light source over the thing, and let it grow algae. I'm thinking a magna-fuge on the lid over the sock area might do it. There's several cheap waterproof LED bars on Amazon that might work, need to research the most suitable lighting. It'd be suspended on the clear acrylic cover over the sock area, it'd need to spread to a 7" round spot in roughly 4" drop before it'd hit the top edge of the growth media.
Easy. No pump needed, a steady stream of water guaranteed, takes no additional space (can't use the space it takes up for anything else, anyway) Seems like someone could sell a commercial 'algae surface ring' in common sock sizes pretty cheaply... any of you with more of an entrepreneur bent than I have, feel free to take it and run with it. Maintenance should be a snap, since the sock rings are meant to be easily removable, yank it out, scrape it off, drop it back in.
Downsides? It's not contained, meaning the light can escape to other areas of the sump. I suppose some sort of dark plastic on the outside might be workable, but honestly, I'm not sure it'd be needed. On my sump, the frame holding the sock is opaque anyway, there's not going to be much light spillage. Any algae that breaks away would run on through the sump, but in my sump, anyway, it'd be caught by the open cell foam between the skimmer and return pump compartments. It'd only be lit on the inside, but once again, is that a bad thing? There's at least as much surface area in a 1 sided 7" round, 5" long 'tube' of growth media than in the single 'sheet' of double sided material most DIY scrubbers use.
Lighting... I've never run an algae scrubber. Most of the commercial ones have some flavor of 'red' light. I've never had a problem growing algae under white... what would be best from a lighting standpoint?
Love to hear your thoughts...
I'm using an EShopps RS100 sump. Has a 7" sock compartment. I dislike socks... they're a pain to clean, and I'm not at all sure how much good they actually do. So, I've got a 7" round 'hole' where water falls 5" or so on a constant basis.
I've got a thought coming together. Make a 7" round, 5" tall 'roll' of plastic mesh canvas, rough it up on the inside surface as in most DIY scrubber projects, and suspend it from the hanging ring of one of my old socks. Put an LED light source over the thing, and let it grow algae. I'm thinking a magna-fuge on the lid over the sock area might do it. There's several cheap waterproof LED bars on Amazon that might work, need to research the most suitable lighting. It'd be suspended on the clear acrylic cover over the sock area, it'd need to spread to a 7" round spot in roughly 4" drop before it'd hit the top edge of the growth media.
Easy. No pump needed, a steady stream of water guaranteed, takes no additional space (can't use the space it takes up for anything else, anyway) Seems like someone could sell a commercial 'algae surface ring' in common sock sizes pretty cheaply... any of you with more of an entrepreneur bent than I have, feel free to take it and run with it. Maintenance should be a snap, since the sock rings are meant to be easily removable, yank it out, scrape it off, drop it back in.
Downsides? It's not contained, meaning the light can escape to other areas of the sump. I suppose some sort of dark plastic on the outside might be workable, but honestly, I'm not sure it'd be needed. On my sump, the frame holding the sock is opaque anyway, there's not going to be much light spillage. Any algae that breaks away would run on through the sump, but in my sump, anyway, it'd be caught by the open cell foam between the skimmer and return pump compartments. It'd only be lit on the inside, but once again, is that a bad thing? There's at least as much surface area in a 1 sided 7" round, 5" long 'tube' of growth media than in the single 'sheet' of double sided material most DIY scrubbers use.
Lighting... I've never run an algae scrubber. Most of the commercial ones have some flavor of 'red' light. I've never had a problem growing algae under white... what would be best from a lighting standpoint?
Love to hear your thoughts...