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Screen Growth

Discussion in 'Customer Support' started by regmo123, Jun 21, 2013.

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  1. regmo123

    regmo123 New Member Customer

    1
    0
    UK
    Hi,

    I've been running my R2 ATS for approx 6 months now. I'm getting the level of growth seen in the pic attached. I've started to see some hair algae growth back in my main tank.

    I'm not sure that this is as thick or green as I would expect - am I correct or is this about right?

    I'm cleaning the screen every 7 days - both sides.

    I also have the diffuser screen in place in front of the LED's - are people sticking with the screen or getting better results without it?

    Thanks
     

    Attached Files:

  2. Turbo

    Turbo Does not really look like Johnny Carson Staff Member Site Owner Multiple Units! Customer

    (we e-mailed back and forth about this, regno123's answers in blue)

    I think your growth looks good. I have begun to steer away from trying to get a certain type of growth, and instead focus now on how your overall system is doing. meaning, are your N and P under control, fish healthy, corals healthy, display tank algae under control, etc. Are any of these "out of whack"?


    My fish and corals are healthy but I'm starting to see some increased hair algae growth in the tank.
    You can try removing one of the diffusers, and compare the growth on each side.

    A few ?s

    how often do you clean? Do you clean each side alternating, or the whole screen at once?

    I clean every 7 days and I clean the whole screen at once.

    At the 7 day point, take the screen off and clean the slot pipe and top edge of the screen to make sure there is no impedance of flow. Then do a very light cleaning, and don't run it under tap water. Only run the screen under tap water if you are having an issue with copepods causing detachment (this is a new recommendation of mine). I read a study that said that exposing SW algae to FW causes the cells to burst. Seems to make sense to me. Taking a small pan of saltwater out to use for rinsing doesn't affect the system that much.

    When you do your intermediary cleaning, scrape the algae off the screen for about 2-3 rows in from the sides and bottom edges on each side. Then swipe your scraper across the whole algae mat lightly on both sides to loosen off the top layer or any loosely attached algae, and then use the edge of the scraper to clean off strips in a "tic-tac-toe" pattern on one side, then a similar pattern on the other side but rotated 45 degrees.

    I like this technique instead of cleaning one side completely. The LEDs penetrate deep enough to keep roots alive, so this keeps about 25% of the algae on the screen to continue filtration without a "gap".
     
  3. Turbo

    Turbo Does not really look like Johnny Carson Staff Member Site Owner Multiple Units! Customer

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