I just redid my scrubber for my new 75 Gallon tank and I am astounded at the growth! Way better than the one I had on my 55 gallon Got almost 1/3 of a cup of algae. And this isn't even my final scrubber. Flow and lighting isn't optimal. I love scrubbers!!
Great! I really should set up a freshwater scrubber one of these days, so I can see the results for myself. I do believe that it helps tremendously to have an extremely rough screen, as FW algae is a bit weaker. Also most of my FW customers run a filter sock on the drain. I guess FW algae does exude a lot of green pigment.
What does your setup look like? I have a 75 gal fresh water as well and have a DIY UAS that I finally built. Below is most recent growth, not sure how long I should wait to harvest. Thoughts?
I would harvest now. My scrubber is a diy waterfall. It isn't the final design but here is a pic of it right now I plan on making a glass box to encase it so it doesn't splash all over. I have found that it is the flow that matters most. But I did have to roughen up my screen a second time. Another note is that the algae spreads really fast. It started to move across the top of the water in my sump. And yes it does excrete a lot of green pigment. But I've only had it really leak when I clean my screen. But you rinse it off and it doesn't get into the DT
UASs are different, you don't have to harvest quite as often, but it doesn't hurt to grab a handful of the longer strings and remove them. Just don't rinse/scrub the screen, at all. You can drape the entire screen in saran wrap and eliminate almost all of the splashing. If you place a filter pad underneath the screen, you might be surprised at how much green pigment it will collect
