Ok I am building and adding this to my 58 gallon as a natural way to remove nutrients from my tank. The idea is to grow algae on a sheet and remove the algae on a regular basis, to pull nutrients from the water and hopefully eliminating the need for GFO. I hope to have this up and running with a week or two using a simple CFL light bulb. I plan to add LEDs down the road to free up more room in my sump and create more light while using less electricity. My tank is currently running GFO with 0 phosphates so I will not be able to watch phosphates drop any further however I do plan to stop using GFO if this works well.
Here are a few build pics. The box is 1/4 acrylic it measures 15"T x 12.25"L x 4" W.
Holes for bulkheads.
Two 1" bulkheads.
Top notched for 1/2" PVC.
Pipe laying on top.
After using a drimmel to cut a slit the entire length of the PVC so the screen slides in.
I fastened the screen to the pipe with zip ties. The water will flow down the screen like a curtain.