Mega-Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover Replaces Skimmer, Refugium, part 1-4
- Thread starter SantaMonica
- Start date
Final screen version
The previous screen material that I had people testing was starting to rip where the tie-wraps went through, so it was not working. I did find a custom manufactured solution to solve this, which used a solid sheet on the inside of the screen, but it was just too much money. So it looks like the best screen material for me to offer is extreme-roughened, double-layered, plastic canvas.
As you know, if you already tried to rough up plastic canvas, all the work is in making it rough. You have to use a hole-saw (by hand), since sandpaper does not leave the "jagged" pieces that you want. You really need the jagged pieces which will grab hold of the algae, so the algae won't let go and fall into the water. This is of course because more algae growth (i.e, more filtering) means more weight. You DO want lots of algae (weight), but you DON'T want it to fall off of the screen. It should look like this:
Since the prickly catcus-like parts don't show well on the camera, I did a towell-drop test on the canvas. Here is the roughed-up version:
http://www.radio-media.com/fish/CanvasTowellDrop1.mpg
Versus the smooth version:
http://www.radio-media.com/fish/CanvasTowellDrop2.mpg
And both sides of both layers needs to be rough, so that algae will stay on the inside (between the layers) of the screen after you clean the outsides. And since the algae stays on the inside of the screen, you can clean the outside as hard as you want (scrape all the algae off) without worrying about "keeping some algae on the the screen".
So since this material has already been proven by hundreds of people who are using it right now (athough I never see it roughed up enough), it is just a matter of how much money is fair for a completed screen. If there is enough interest, then I'll start selling them.
It looks like I can make them for 20 cents per square inch. This is equal to:
0.20 USD per square inch
.032 USD per square cm
2.65 MXN per square inch
0.43 MXN per square cm
0.22 CAD per square inch
.035 CAD per square cm
0.14 EUR per square inch
.023 EUR per square cm
0.12 GBP per square inch
0.02 GBP per square cm
0.28 NZD per square inch
0.45 NZD per square cm
0.28 SGD per square inch
.045 SGD per square cm
1.49 ZAR per square inch
.024 ZAR per square cm
1.31 FRF per square inch
0.21 FRF per square cm
2.20 NLG per square inch
0.35 NLG per square cm
70.0 PHP per square inch
11.2 PHP per square cm
Shipping would be extra of course. Also, the screen area is just the finished screen size; you don't have to think about the multiple layers. So as an example:
A 10 X 10 inch screen = 100 square inches = $20 USD = $265 MXN = $22 CAD etc.
A 40 X 60 cm screen = 2400 square cm = $76.80 USD = $1032 MXN = $84 CAD etc.
A 3 X 6 inch nano screen = 18 square inches = $3.60 USD = $48 MSN = $3.96 CAD etc.
So post on here if you would get one at this price. There needs to be enough people otherwise it is not worth setting up to do it. If there is enough interest (at this price), then I will make them.
The previous screen material that I had people testing was starting to rip where the tie-wraps went through, so it was not working. I did find a custom manufactured solution to solve this, which used a solid sheet on the inside of the screen, but it was just too much money. So it looks like the best screen material for me to offer is extreme-roughened, double-layered, plastic canvas.
As you know, if you already tried to rough up plastic canvas, all the work is in making it rough. You have to use a hole-saw (by hand), since sandpaper does not leave the "jagged" pieces that you want. You really need the jagged pieces which will grab hold of the algae, so the algae won't let go and fall into the water. This is of course because more algae growth (i.e, more filtering) means more weight. You DO want lots of algae (weight), but you DON'T want it to fall off of the screen. It should look like this:
Since the prickly catcus-like parts don't show well on the camera, I did a towell-drop test on the canvas. Here is the roughed-up version:
http://www.radio-media.com/fish/CanvasTowellDrop1.mpg
Versus the smooth version:
http://www.radio-media.com/fish/CanvasTowellDrop2.mpg
And both sides of both layers needs to be rough, so that algae will stay on the inside (between the layers) of the screen after you clean the outsides. And since the algae stays on the inside of the screen, you can clean the outside as hard as you want (scrape all the algae off) without worrying about "keeping some algae on the the screen".
So since this material has already been proven by hundreds of people who are using it right now (athough I never see it roughed up enough), it is just a matter of how much money is fair for a completed screen. If there is enough interest, then I'll start selling them.
It looks like I can make them for 20 cents per square inch. This is equal to:
0.20 USD per square inch
.032 USD per square cm
2.65 MXN per square inch
0.43 MXN per square cm
0.22 CAD per square inch
.035 CAD per square cm
0.14 EUR per square inch
.023 EUR per square cm
0.12 GBP per square inch
0.02 GBP per square cm
0.28 NZD per square inch
0.45 NZD per square cm
0.28 SGD per square inch
.045 SGD per square cm
1.49 ZAR per square inch
.024 ZAR per square cm
1.31 FRF per square inch
0.21 FRF per square cm
2.20 NLG per square inch
0.35 NLG per square cm
70.0 PHP per square inch
11.2 PHP per square cm
Shipping would be extra of course. Also, the screen area is just the finished screen size; you don't have to think about the multiple layers. So as an example:
A 10 X 10 inch screen = 100 square inches = $20 USD = $265 MXN = $22 CAD etc.
A 40 X 60 cm screen = 2400 square cm = $76.80 USD = $1032 MXN = $84 CAD etc.
A 3 X 6 inch nano screen = 18 square inches = $3.60 USD = $48 MSN = $3.96 CAD etc.
So post on here if you would get one at this price. There needs to be enough people otherwise it is not worth setting up to do it. If there is enough interest (at this price), then I will make them.
You know...after all this time I thought I had hair algae in my tank...but I was confusing it with turf algae. I have the green and dark red/brown variants of it. The dark red is MUCH harder to pull off the rocks than the green.
If I pull some off my rocks and seed it to a screen, how do I make the remaining turf that's on my rocks in my display go away? If it's on the rocks in the display, does it have the same filter effects as it does as the "scrubber"?
If I pull some off my rocks and seed it to a screen, how do I make the remaining turf that's on my rocks in my display go away? If it's on the rocks in the display, does it have the same filter effects as it does as the "scrubber"?
So...is it good algae in essence? What eats it by the way? My banded trochus snails sometimes take a chunk out if they feel like it...but that's about it.
Well, not necessarily good in the display, since it does compete for space with corals and will overgrow them in order to do so. But it can and will reduce nutrients. That is the benefit of a scrubber in that you provide more optimal conditions for algae on a controlled surface as opposed to the display. The growth on the screen will be faster and therefore more efficient than any in the display. This is why scrubbers can outcompete algae in the display. I would suggest very close cropping and even scrubbing with a brush in your display so that the Trochus are better able to eat it and keep it under control.
^ I got a Dolabella auricularia (sea hare) last week and it burrows itself in the sand during the day and comes out at night to eat...I have no clue what kind of algae it eats but its pretty fat. Seems to be eating mostly film algae off the glass...they don't have a taste for the turf/macro?
The problem with having organisms in the display to eat it is that its not really removing it from the system. By using macroalgae or a turf scrubber, you are actually exporting nutrients. The algae sucks it up, and you pull it out and throw it away. If there is something in the tank eating the algae, the algae sucks the nutrients up, it gets eaten, and it gets put right back into the tank through the waste of whatever is eating it (less whatever is burned off in the form of calories by the organism doing the eating). That is why cleaning the screen on a turf scrubber is so vital - you use the turf to suck nitrate and phosphate out of the water column, then literally manually remove it from the system when you scrub the screen and throw the algae away.
Heh, it seems like microalgae on the glass tends to be its preference. I don't imagine it would touch much else: http://seaslugforum.net/factsheet.cfm?base=dolaauri
