Originally Posted by
kimini
In short, I've concluded that as expected, this shower filter does not reduce nitrate. That's neither good nor bad, it simply is, and the main point was reducing power costs, which has succeeded.
Longer status update: The shower filter is working fine, the proof being that ammonia is always near zero. The filter blocks have a very light brown tint, with virtually no gunk or blockages, no doubt due to the RDF. I'd post a picture but it looks just like it always has. Like the moving-bed filter that was used before, nitrate level is higher than I'd like in the summer, no doubt due to only doing ~10% water changes a week, since this is SoCal.
The FlowFriend pump draws about 120W, roughly a third of what the previous pump drew, yet we still get "you're using more power than your neighbors" notifications. I'm considering rerouting the skimmer directly into the RDF in order to eliminate that circuit's electrical draw, but suspect the skimmer won't work due to insufficient flow. I should try test to confirm that either way. If it works, it's unclear what to do with the sand and gravel filters, whether to keep the second pump and its power consumption, or try running the pond with no SG filters and see if the water gets cloudy. All in the name of low power consumption.
Oh, and we continue to get tons of string algae, some as long as 6-8 feet. I wind it up on a wooden pole and it's pretty nuts how much comes out. The Profi drum does the best it can, the hair algae get's conveyed only partially into the waste tray. As a result, a big sheet of it ends up hanging off the tray, in addition to a huge ball of it orbiting inside the drum. I can't fault the Profi; my DIY RDF did the very same thing. Hair algae is just tough to deal with.