Todd's ATS Build... some new pics

Nice progress. The reason it went dark after the dip problem, was because a lot of life died off in the tank, and the scrubber absorbed the nutrients (more nutrients = darker growth).

 

I thought I'd chime in and post my latest pic just before scraping with my plastic puddy knife



This was today- about 2 weeks worth
Mine is those needle point plastic sheets, 13.5 x 11.5 ? I think.
I'm using 2 of them vertically, lit on both sides with 100W equivalent CFL house bulbs- 2700K, 20 hrs on,
4 hrs off.

My only regret, was not building this sooner/years ago!

My water is clearer, algae essentilaly disappeared, no chemicals, GFO, chemipure, etc.

Thanks for chiming in on my thread Mr. Santa Monica! Reading your threads initially and all the advancements you made And reading Turbos Aquatics threads is what finally got me to try this.
Better late than never in this case.

 

Awsome, I have extra bits of plumbing & pumps so will be adding one of these too.

 

That'That's the power of photosynthesis: pulling nutrients out of the water with great force.

 

This is about 16days, While both sides always look about the same, this time I decided to show both sides. Each time, while the system gets cleaner and stays cleaner- the panel grow more stringy green algae! This is one panel, as I harvest one at a time, about a week apart.

 

If you can get some light on the sides, it will spread farther across.

 

What size pipe are you using?

 

Thanks SM, Maybe it's hard to tell from my pic, but the 'turf' is growing OK on the sides too.
Granted, my lighting isn't ideal- 100W equiv. CFLS in those kinda dull aluminum reflecting cones.
My friend told my he say some similar light reflectors made out of the mirror like finish Plastic cones, with a plastic clamp.
I might just op for some LED's. Either the multi bulb sheet ones, or the large reflecto, single.

I'm using 1.5", it's what I had. Easy to plumg to my back up RP-
my DC12000- running on 2 out of 6.

 

You could just paint in the reflectors white, and they would reflect well.

 

This is a controlled experiemnt. LED growth vs CFL.

Well, I pulled the trigger and bought 2 x 30 W Grow Light LEDs.
** The lights I got were NOT plug and play! I kind of expected that however when I read that somewhere.
*Luckily- I save things that I think might be usefull on another project in the future!
I had several 5ft 3 prong/wire plug and wire I cut off my old/used PC lights.
So I got out my soldering iron and solder- that gets used once every 5 yrs or so, and soldered and taped the wires up- now like new!- freebie too.

Here are the lights- I bought two of them- shipped to me for less than $40 total.


After installing the wire/plug. Did NOT require any type of ballast/transformer, etc.


I used my noodle and devised a free, easy way to hang the lights at the existing area using some old (saved for future projects) fiberglass rod sections from an old tent I once had.
I used some old high tensile line salvaged out of my sailing gear. Todd_Sails- right?

The experiment is one sheet has CFL's and one has LED's.
I cleaned both sheets equally and at the same time this time so they both start even.







I'm also tried Aluminum Foil for the top splash guard this time, instead of clear plastic.
The alum. foil kinda stays creased around the pipe better than plastic wrap, and it will block the light too.

You can be sure I'll post back with the results,
Todd