Mega-Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover Replaces Skimmer, Refugium, part 1-4

Today's N-and-P-lowering success are both from the UR site, and both of them were a build-of-the-day that I previously posted:

"Col" says: "Test results from tonight are N=7.5 & P=0.1 I've not had test results as low as this before. The lighting on side 2 of the screen is really making a difference. Thanks SantaMonica for all your help!

"johnt" says: "Tested today and nitrate has come down from 50 to less than 25:


Date------8/21--------9/7---------9/14--------9/20

Nitrate----60-----------*-----------50-----------<25
pH---------8.24---------*-----------8.23---------8.27
Mag-------1394--------*-----------1335--------1440
Cal---------500----------*-----------465----------460
dKH-------7.2----------*------------8.6----------8.3
SG---------1.026-------*------------1.026-------1.026
Temp-----26.3---------*------------25.3---------24.8
Phos------0.25---------*------------0.1-----------<0.1

* = Started Scrubber

"First a big drop in Phosphate and now an equally impressive drop in Nitrate"
 
I guess not, but they do have monsoon weather. Wish we didn't have that problem here. I still like the idea you perposed.
 
Results of the day:

jski711 on the RF site says: "Well i ditched my euro reef skimmer and have not noticed any side effects from doing so. i'm still doing water changes on a regular basis but i have increased feedings tremendously and have no adverse side effects from doing so."

keithqueef on RC says: "Update. Well i received my screen from inland (12x12) last friday. and since putting it into my system my trates have gone from red to orange to now dark yellow not quite orange, i lost my color card so i dunno numbers. the screen is dense with it."
 
Ok here is a four-part video I made of the last scraping of the screen of my original bucket before I give it to the LFS to replace the tank-divider screen he's been testing. This video is low-light (with a 5 year old 2-meg camera), so you can't see the algae on the screen, but the purpose is to see the technique of screen cleaning/scraping:

Hi-res:

Part 1: http://www.radio-media.com/fish/Scraping1.mpg
Part 2: http://www.radio-media.com/fish/Scraping2.mpg
Part 2: http://www.radio-media.com/fish/Scraping3.mpg
Part 3: http://www.radio-media.com/fish/Scraping4.mpg

YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypgNfJV6gBo#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9vlUorbooo#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Voo4mBWWuuQ#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2msQ4Nw0pYc#
 
That screen, which is going to the LFS in a few day, is "cleaned" of the loose stuff once a week in the sink, and "scraped" once a month, i.e., this week scrape one side, wait two weeks and scrape the other, wait two weeks and scrape this side again, etc.
 
I am in the middle of building a bucket version and have a couple questions. 1) How imperative is it to have a fan? My tank is in my bedroom and I creating it so that the lid can still snap on limiting the amount of light emitted. 2) I was going to attach a SCWD to the feed line with the other output back to tank. The cycle timing should be approx. 10 - 15 seconds on and off. Will this be suitable? Thanks in advance.
 
If for your bedroom, then skip the fan and the scwd. See how it works as-is. Also, wrap the bucket and lid in tin foil to eliminate the light leackage. There will be no noise with this setup once adjusted.
 
I was going to use foil tape on the inside to not only block the light, but also help with the reflection of the light. Just wanted to build it right all in one shot rather than setting it up and then tinkering.
 
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