Thanks for the answer Your thread was the first I read after joining the site, and some things just weren't adding up to me I was thinking I wasn't understanding how scrubbers were supposed to work I have read a few more threads on the site and it seems most people are/were running lighting cycles with their scrubbers. Your reply about not burning the algae most likely has something to do with that. I am guessing that as the screen mutures, the longer you can run the lights, right or wrong?
Yes but I've read you want to max out around 18 hours. Something about the algae needing time without light to maximize growth. I'm now just running it opposite my display tank lights to help stabilize my pH.
I am still running with the smaller fitting. I am waiting till I have time to redo some plumbing to the frag tank at the same time. Even without the upgrade the scrubber seems to be doing great
Steve becarefull on feeding that much cause that green slime you are getting is what I got right before my display got covered in GHA
I think my display tank would have GHA right now except I have a yellow tang who refuses to let any grow. I have tried to cut back on the feeding just a bit recently though. I'll let you know how it goes
Forgot to post the latest updates. Week 19 I did a thorough cleaning today. Hadn't really ever taken the whole unit out to clean it since I started this. Best harvest yet Decided I am going to start weighing the harvests. I just bunched up the whole lot and squeeze the water out. It's going to be tough getting an accurate process of weighing this stuff. Harvest: 66g Nitrates: 6 Phosphates: .05 Display tank has been very neglected. I haven't even blown the cyano off the rocks in a long while now. Even with the neglect it hasn't seemed to get worse though.
Dude, you haven't been taking the false bottom out during each cleaning, have you!!! Supposed to do that ya know...lol
Week 20 Nitrates @ 6 Phosphates @ .05 Took the light diffuser out of one side today. This will be the side the algae grows to 14 days on. Going keep an eye on it to make sure it isn't burning. I haven't done a water change in a month and my parameters have remained stable. The goal was never to stop water changes and I'm doing one tonight but it's nice to see anyway. Cleaned the display tank up today. It had been neglected for quite a while. We'll see how fast the cyano comes back...
Looking good! Over time I have gone from doing PWCs w/o scrubber, then scrubber w/o PWCs, and I am gravitating towards recommending doing small monthly PWCs of 10%, because there are many benefits of even swapping out a small amount of water that cannot really be measured/quantified
Week 21 This is 14 days growth. The best growth I've seen yet. Glad I took the light diffuser off I think it is helping. The side with 7 days growth. I haven't taken the diffuser off this side yet. Trying to make one small change at a time and observe for a while first. Nitrates @ 8 Phosphates not tested. Need to pick up more reagent packets. Display tank looking better. Not yet algae free. Just for fun.
Week 22 Another great week. Seems even better than last week yet again 14 days growth 7 days growth Nitrate @ 8 Phosphates @ .01 No real change with the cyano in the display. I blow it off every once in a while, it slowly grows back. It does seem to grow back more slowly as of late.
Week 29 Sorry for the lack of updates. Maintenance schedule was erratic for a while there. Need to get back to cleaning every Sunday. Did a deep clean of the scrubber today. Great growth on the screen. Quite a bit built up in the scrubber as well. Tried to clean and scrub the top of the screen a bit better as algae has been growing up into the slot and slowing the water flow. Before this weekend it had been at least a couple of months since I had done a water change. Both Nitrates and Phosphates had held steady at the same levels through the lack of maintenance. I took the light diffuser off the back side of the scrubber today. Hope to see even more growth with the extra light this week. I am going to do a 3 day lights out week ending on Sunday with a water change to try to kick the cyano that has been so stubborn in the display.
Okay, this has convinced me that I need to start going to 14 days between cleanings, and one side per week.
Steve - don't know if the L2 design permits this, but I use a bit of blacked out Perspex bent into a "U" shape that fits over my slot pipe. I get zero growth in the slot (or even near it), as that part of the screen stays darker;
Actually Garf I am going to be doing this as well on future models...for anyone paying attention, Perspex is acrylic. So a piece of 1/16" black, cut to size, heat it up and bend it around a piece of pipe, cut a notch for the ring or zip-tie and your good. or make 2 pieces. A little trickier than it sounds...but that's the basics.
I would love to see pictures of this. The growth around the pipe is the most difficult part of keeping the unit running between cleanings. I'm by no means an acrylic fabricator, but i'm hoping if you could post pictures of the process and maybe where to buy the material, it wouldn't be too difficult.
Here's my highly technical piece of kit. It's dual purpose but that's because my scrubber build is a bit Heath Robinson;
I had to google that. The Rube Goldberg of the UK. Or maybe the other way around... But regardless, that's the basic idea. Heat it up with something (heat gun would probably do, passing it back and forth to get even heating, or a torch) while it is laying over a pipe so it can take it's shape.
