henward Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 I am in a massive driev to reduce water and power cost in my set ups. i am wondering, how viable is a duckweed reactor? what is a negative bi product of duckweek absorbing nitrate? i mean i know algae product unwanted stuff in itself, but duckweed you just remove the duckweed when there is too much. i am thinking of just using a generic 20w fluro conpact energy saver in a duckweek reactor to reduce water chagnes dramatrically, who uses a ducweek reactor or seen one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted August 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 They remove phosphates and nitrogen very effectively.... i read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navarre Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 Cant you do the same by having a coil of long thin tubing with tank water flowing very very slowly thru it? That way you dont have duck weed everywhere Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 The nitrate is still there but in the plants so you actually need to farm the plants and remove the excess. Not very effective and hard to get the balance. Has been used to control eutrophication and remove nutrient from sewage in oxidation ponds but the plants that are used overseas are unwanted organisms here (big time)---like water lettuce and water hyacinth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted August 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 no, i wont put the duckweed in the tank. i will put it in a separate compartment linked to the sump. in theory, water comes from sump into the reactor and back at the sump to mix with the rest of the water. I figure it should work, iw otn have it in the tank itself, its messy do you think hat wills ufficiently absorb the bad stuff and can just cull and remove the duckweed when 'duckweed sump' is overrrun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 I am in a massive driev to reduce water and power cost in my set ups. i am wondering, how viable is a duckweed reactor? what is a negative bi product of duckweek absorbing nitrate? i mean i know algae product unwanted stuff in itself, but duckweed you just remove the duckweed when there is too much. i am thinking of just using a generic 20w fluro conpact energy saver in a duckweek reactor to reduce water chagnes dramatrically, who uses a ducweek reactor or seen one? Why? You'd have to have a HUGE one, with much larger than a 20w light to make it worth the time. Then you're costing more money, more maintenance. Water is cheap, maybe you'd be better off rigging up a better way of changing water? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted August 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 eyah i guess if i need a big tank then wouldnt be worth it. just exploring options. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 maybe you'd be better off rigging up a better way of changing water? I don't think there is a much better way than changing 100% over the course of the week in several daily doses without having to lift a finger... Do some reading about plant filtration on MFK, from the little bit of research I've done it seems that plants that grow out of the water work best. And as Alan said, you're not actually removing the nitrate until you harvest the plants. And as Ira said, you may find the cost of the lighting (the more light you have the more growth you'll get and the more waste you'll remove, so you can't just run a single little light and expect it to crank) may work out to be more than the cost of water, unless you can use natural sunlight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spoon Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 plumb it to a pond in summer only Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simian Posted August 24, 2011 Report Share Posted August 24, 2011 Look up algae scrubbers, something I keep meaning to do. Same principal but use algae to absorb the waste Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueether Posted August 24, 2011 Report Share Posted August 24, 2011 My 400 l native tank is now plumed into the water feature (about 100 l) on the back porch. This has duckweed, yellow button and Callitriche stagnalis/Elatine gratioloides (not sure which plant it is). This is using the same overflow system that I was using for a drip auto water changer, still has a drip feed but only about 3 drips/5 seconds. Ant excess water waters the herb trough. This has only been setup like this for 3 days so is very early stages atm. will be interesting to see how the nitrate levels go over a few weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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