Reef Central Online Community - View Single Post - Waterfall Turf Algea Filter: CHEAP and EASY to build

herring_fish · 07/23/2008, 01:33 PM

That would work but it will not work at its best. I don’t think that the air interchange is as important as Area, Light and Surge.

Adey’s designs do not concentrate on the interchange factor. His most popular design for large operations uses a bump bucket but it is placed only inches off of the screen. The water flows from the bucket, out over the screen without much of a splash. It’s more like the wall of water at the front of a flash flood not a cresting wave. One of his designs starts with water flowing evenly over a screen that is moving forward and back with an electric motor to simulate surge. It has no added air interchange.

I believe that you should stick to SantaMonica’s rule of thumb of “one-square-inch-per-gal” for surface Area. Your screen may need to be bigger than a 15g tank foot print. Don’t skimp on the amount of light. Light is the primary driver of the algal turf scrubbers. Lights can be cheap but they should be powerful or plentiful.

Finally, as I have said before, surge adds about 50% to the efficiency. You can live without it if you have to but try to incorporate surge into your design.

07/23/2008, 01:33 PM	#102
herring_fish Crazy Designer Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Winston-Salem NC, USA Posts: 1,029	Area, Light and Surge That would work but it will not work at its best. I don’t think that the air interchange is as important as Area, Light and Surge. Adey’s designs do not concentrate on the interchange factor. His most popular design for large operations uses a bump bucket but it is placed only inches off of the screen. The water flows from the bucket, out over the screen without much of a splash. It’s more like the wall of water at the front of a flash flood not a cresting wave. One of his designs starts with water flowing evenly over a screen that is moving forward and back with an electric motor to simulate surge. It has no added air interchange. I believe that you should stick to SantaMonica’s rule of thumb of “one-square-inch-per-gal” for surface Area. Your screen may need to be bigger than a 15g tank foot print. Don’t skimp on the amount of light. Light is the primary driver of the algal turf scrubbers. Lights can be cheap but they should be powerful or plentiful. Finally, as I have said before, surge adds about 50% to the efficiency. You can live without it if you have to but try to incorporate surge into your design.