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Marty's L2 Scrubber on a 54 gallon corner tank

Discussion in 'Customer Support' started by pitzenmj, Feb 23, 2013.

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  1. Mar 17, 2013 #21
    Turbo

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

    2,907
    156
    Iowa (United States)
    yeah ball valves can be very tricky to get right. Even if you take silicone grease and slather the ball with it and then open and close it a bunch, it's still hard to fine-tune the local HWS versions. The dual-union ball valves are a little better in this regard, but the BRS gate valve is the best way to go to get that drain tuned just right.

    Running at 85% is probably good for now. I see bits of green on your screen, so just give it more time to fill those in.
     
  2. Mar 17, 2013 #22
    pitzenmj

    pitzenmj New Member Customer

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    0
    sounds good, I need to make an order at BRS for more DI resin anyway, so maybe I'll throw a gate valve in there too. Should I be doing anything with the lighting this week (I was considering increasing it by another 2 hours given how dark the algae still is). Thoughts?
     
  3. Mar 17, 2013 #23
    pitzenmj

    pitzenmj New Member Customer

    18
    0
    sounds good, I need to make an order at BRS for more DI resin anyway, so maybe I'll throw a gate valve in there too. Should I be doing anything with the lighting this week (I was considering increasing it by another 2 hours given how dark my growth is right now). Thoughts?
     
  4. Mar 22, 2013 #24
    pitzenmj

    pitzenmj New Member Customer

    18
    0
    Week 5 Results

    okay guys, Here are the week 5 results. My gate valve came from BRS, so I took the opportunity to do a full tear down and cleaning of my L2. I also "corrected" some assembly errors that I made. I can now get the scrubber almost completely silent with 95% flow. For some reason I can't get it totally quiet with 100% flow, but it's running far better now then ever before, and i'm thrilled where I've landed. I've also increased the lighting period to the full 18 hours for the next week. We'll see if I can get some lighter green growth for next week.

    Bud, I would love to know your thoughts on my screen cleaning. Am I cleaning and scrapping too much, not enough, just right? any direction would be greatly appreciated. Anyway, here are the pictures of both sides and a picture post cleaning. I cleaned a day early this week, but growth seems to be the same as last week or slightly less, but it's not nearly as slimy as it was last week. Not sure what that means for the scrubber maturing, so would appreciate insight on that too.

    As a closing note, I will say that just the mentoring and advice you offer post purchase made this L2 a fantastic purchase. I have no regrets and would buy again in a heartbeat.

    IMG_0949.jpg IMG_0950.jpg IMG_0951.jpg
     
    Last edited: Mar 22, 2013
  5. Mar 22, 2013 #25
    Turbo

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

    2,907
    156
    Iowa (United States)
    Thanks for the comments on the support - I try to help whoever asks!!

    Your cleaning looks about right, you might scrape a bit more starting with the next cleaning, but only if you get much thicker and greener growth. The LEDs penetrate deep into the algae mat, so if you leave extra on the screen it will foster a faster grow-back. Once you start getting really thick growth, that's when you want to scrape down to the screen.

    One comment is that your water creep blockers (the zip-ties with the airline hose sections on them) are rotated out of the way. These should be rotated such that the tubing is touching the bottom quarter of the pipe, or else they won't function right. This will matter when you start getting a lot of heavy growth.
     
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