# Other Aquarium Forums > Equipment and Accessories > DIY Projects >  DIY "Twinstar"

## greenie

After reading here and various website on this, decide to make one.

Items used are already found around the house.

1. Stainless Steel mesh. (leftover from moss project)
2. Acrylic sheet (leftover from some diy project)
3. PSU 19V 3A (from spoilt laptop).
4. Soldering iron/ solder.
5. Cable ties.
6. Digital AC timer

Cutting the rectangle shaped acrylic is kinda tedious using a cheapo dermel tool. It took up 50% effort and time of the project. Youtube have a lot of other designs you can follow.

Cut the SS Mesh to same size and solder each mesh to the wire stripped ends of the psu.

I sandwich the 2 stainless steel mesh cut to size in between 3 acrylic sheet. And finish off with cable ties to secure all together

Ensure the mesh don't contact each other. 

Before switch on: DSC_0021.jpg
After switch on: DSC_0022.jpg




I'm using my magnetic algae scrubber to hold it in place. There is a powerhead opposite of tank blowing in the direction of the DIY "Twinstar".

Now setting timer at 5 mins duration per hour. At the moment have a small BBA breakout after a massive rescape. Drop in biomass to fert/light amount is the cause.

Since I manage to make this DIY "Twinstar" for almost free, just trying it in conjunction to algaexit / fert / light regime. My CO2 injection is constant using pH controller and inline reactor.

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## tskyleth

Cool 


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## greenie

Thanks, was too free just now.  :Grin:

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## leehyeok

by soldering on the wire mesh, any chance that the current will leak into the water ?

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## greenie

Should leak I suppose as the design is based on electrolysis, but is it harmful to us?, will try later with a multimeter.

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## leehyeok

my concern is on the livestock that is in the tank. the question will be how twinstar prevent this.

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## greenie

My livestock of 50+ Cardinal tetras, 10+ guppies, 10+ Cory, 4 YOYO loaches, 30+ CPD and 5 sakura shrimps behaves normally.

Except one instance a loach came too close to the mesh while in operation and swam away agitated. Now every fauna in my tank stay clear when it is in operation.

My main concern is more of O2 depletion in water column rather than fauna electrocution. By the way that loach eating happily after the incident.

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## TS168

thumb up for the work. thanks for sharing.

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## greenie

Thanks TS168.

leehyeok, tested for stray voltage & current in water column. Zero. 

I connect positive probe in water and negative probe to a Gnd point on my arduino board used to control my diy led. Result no current or voltage reading.

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## leehyeok

thanks for the updates and this will be my my next diy project.

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## greenie

Thanks, do update us too.

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## AQMS

awesome!! i have been waiting for someone here to do it.....
it still puzzle me,how does this thing work??

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## chong99

very nice bro, what is the power consumption?

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## sixhunter

very interesting, by the way, what does a twinstar really does to the water and how is it helpful in keeping livestocks/aquatic plants  :Smile:

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## greenie

> very nice bro, what is the power consumption?


Based SP electricity tariff of 25.28cts per Kw/h and rounding off to nearest cents, 5 cents per 24/hr day. Negligble.

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## wongce

Bro,is it effective for controlling algae? Waiting for your review...haha if good i will diy one too lol

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## greenie

Update:

At the moment, the negative side always disintergrate the SS mesh after a couple of days use. Read that need to use a magnesium (cheapest) on the -ve wire side to prevent this. 

Experiment halted until I get some Mg probe of sorts and see how that goes.

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## gimhchng

Hi Greenie, sorry for digging out old thread. Was looking for ways to control algae. This looks like a nice DIY project. Any updates? anyone else do this?

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## greenie

Hi, it was just an experiment. Didn't able to see result as the SS mesh disintegrate after a few days. Was looking for alternative to SS but decided to rescape tank after a month or so. Didn't continue this experiment as algae wasn't an issue after the rescape.

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## gimhchng

Ic.thanks.

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