My DIY Horizontal ATS It's working!!New RB LED light.

Very neat! I love it

 

Yes just ziptied the "upriver" side.

 

I have a couple of dumb questions if you don't mind.With regards to the distance of the light do you think a few more inches will matter keeping in mind I do not have a piece of glass or acrylic between the bulb and screen??(light noob lol) I understand the par/pur goes down with distance but it doesn't seem like it is that much to cause concern.
Also with regards to contact with air as I am sure you are aware many have had hair algae in tanks with no exposure to air so I am not sure why the air is needed.(algae noob lol)I thought the purpose of using the air bubbles was to create flow and not necessarily provide air.

I have moved the light directly over the screen and it is about 6 inches above the water level.I also moved the screen up a bit to just under the waters surface. I guess since I am going to leave it anyway I will find out eventually one way or the other but just wanted to explain the reasoning behind my little project.8)8)

EDIT:I just visited your HP and saw the answer about the air .

 

I don't know much about the air interface properties of hair algae, but I my first algae scrubber was a horizontal trough configuration. There was very little air interface due to the deepness of the trough and multiple species of algae thrived, including hair algae. Now I run a standard vertical system, so plenty of air.

My suggestion for lights is some cheap Sylvania 6500K screw in compact fluorescent bulbs. I get them at Wal-Mart, 2 for 10 buck or so. Those combined with some shop light reflectors grows the funk out of my algae. I run one for the algae scrubber and one for the refugium, both are about 6" away from their respective surfaces.

 

I looked into horizontals, but it did not turn out good. I had always thought of doing a tray of some sort for a horizontal area and then asked a few old timers about it.

Seems the problems become not enough velocity for the water. At some point no matter what is begins to channel. If you go deeper, then the algae that grew on the screen first begins to die off underneath new growth. Not a hug deal, but it stops being a export at that point. As simple as is sounds, it had a lot of problems.

I like your idea. I looks cool... but with no defined tray or bottom, the water if free to go where it like. If you move the screen up to the very top, the water will just go underneath. It goes over the top right now, but when algae grows, it will not keep doing that. It will seek th least resistance.

I would love to find a way to take advantage of horizontal space already built into a lot of our systems, but it is harder than it looks.

 

lol I like the idea of vinnys ATS and am definatly curious to see where he takes it.

I have algae growth on my baffles in teh sump and to me it works like a ATS mabey not as good since glass is not rough but hey algea is algea.

 

Thanks for the reply PM. I have the screen adjusted so the upstream part is about an inch under the waters surface with about 1/8 inch of space between the beginning of the screen and the baffle. I have the down stream side basically floating on the surface.I am hoping that the weight of the algae will push the downstream side just below the waters surface. I did not put any support under the down stream side for this reason.There are several ways to attach the screen and make it movable so I am still in the experimenting stage but so far after 2 days I do indeed have algae beginning to grow. I realise this is a very small victory and I am far from calling success but I think I have a pretty good handle on it so I guess we will all see together.lol If nothing else it allows me to put some of that "wasted" flow through my sump to good use.;DBecause of the position of the baffle I have a fairly large wave that is created at the up stream portion and the screen looks to be at a perfect depth. I have the eggcrate anchored at the bottom with a few pieces of LR so it should stay were I placed it.
I will take another pic tomorrow of the growth so far.

 

Thanks will keep updating. I will figure this out. It's what I do.LOL

 

We made an ATS for our 75 gallon tank. http://www.3reef.com/forums/i-made/algae-turf-scrubber-build-thread-139323.html

It took forever to grow algae on it, but it finally started growing after several weeks. When the algae finally started showing up, It was pretty much all brown algae. We cleaned the brown stuff off, and we're hoping the green hair algae starts growing on it. We are giving it some time to break in. I think they take a while to break in (?).

 

Lot's a folks more knowledgeable than me on ATS. And I'm certainly down with tinkering. That would be cool if it turns out.

And ya... free flow.. bring it down from the DT and figure out a way to spread it out and flow over a ATS. That's what I was trying to figure out. Either horizontal of angled into a skimmer section or sump. It would be very beneficial since most tank systems are vertically challenged but have horizontal room. But ya, problems with channeling and velocity and what not.

Good luck with the project!