55g scrubber

[Bottenbrew]

I let my new scrubber run for about 2.5 weeks before doing my fist cleaning tonight. Here is the front/back picture, I am open to any suggestions on how to increase my algal growth on the scrubber.

Thanks!

17761777

[SantaMonica]

Not a bad start. Probably could use more light, but growth will fill in.

[Bottenbrew]

Good to hear, I'll up the photo period from 12 hours to about 16 and see how that goes.

[Floyd R Turbo]

Nice start BB! Post a pic of your setup.

[Bottenbrew]

It is ugly as sin, I'd rather not be mocked to my face...

[Floyd R Turbo]

LOL

Who cares how ugly it is as long as it gets the job done though...that's what really matters.

[DennisC]

You want to look at mine if you want ugly. But it is working so far.

Dennis

[kerry]

I have all ugly tanks and scrubbers, Floyd thought my scrubber looked so bad that it was going to fall down LOL!!!! PS Its still up Floyd, and STILL waiting for the new stuff???...

[Floyd R Turbo]

going through a few design changes, but mainly waiting to build until I have a good solid start on 3 tanks - a 35g frag tank, 30g frag display sale tank, and a 70g FW sump. Oh and still finishing the e-shine scrubber. But I have all the pieces rough cut for a 1 and 2 cube scrubber, and templates made so I can hammer them out. Plus 7 sets of LEDs for 2 cube ones on the way :)

[DennisC]

Without hijacking the thread, are you using the standard e-shine LED lights. I was looking at the 12x3w for mine but it would be to much for one each side.

[Floyd R Turbo]

yeah the 50 x 1W array. Haven't looked much at their square fixtures.

[Bottenbrew]

I checked the growth today and it has already filled back in well past what it was when I cleaned it out. I am starting to believe. I'd take a pic but like I said before I have it awkwardly set up so that my sump sits behind the center beam of my stand, so you have to crane your head sideways to even see the scrubber. I'll post pics in a week when I clean it.

[DennisC]

Exactly the same as me mate with the centre support. If my scrubber works as expected then I propose to build a smaller sump just to fit behind 1 door of the cabinet and run just a scrubber with no skimmer or phos reactor.

Dennis

[Bottenbrew]

I took my scrubber out for the weekly cleaning and there wasn't much growth. I noticed the one area I had nice thick green growth was also the area with the most flow. So I took out the dremel and widened the gap along the whole way. When I put it back onto my pump there is probably about double the flow cascading down the screen, so I am hopeful the increased flow will translate into increased growth. On a side note I found out my display algae problem is bryopsis, so I am going to give the Kent Tech M super magnesium method a go for a couple of months to hopefully clean it up.

[SantaMonica]

You don't need the Kent's.

[Bottenbrew]

Ah, well I found a good deal on a couple of gallons on Amazon, so it was about the same price as some other brands. Any impact on the scrubber I should be worried about? It is just starting to get going, I'd hate to kill it after all that build up time.

[Floyd R Turbo]

You're in for some trouble my friend. Talk to srusso about his problems with bryopsis. A scrubber will not necessarily beat it out SM. Srusso's tank is case in point. He did everything in the book and nothing worked.

[Bottenbrew]

I am going to try this 2 month magnesium treatment. If it doesn't work I am going to have to either just rip it out by the handful every week or break the tank down and start over.

[SantaMonica]

His would be the first tank then. In the tanks I have seen where the scrubber was not strong enough to remove the algae, I don't recall any of them saying it was specifically briopsys that remained. And even those tanks were able to defeat the remaining algae when they fixed there scrubbers.

Algae on rocks does just not have the environment to beat out algae on a screen, if the screen is set up properly. If algae stays on the rocks, then by definition the screen is not set up properly.

[Floyd R Turbo]

Well talk to him about that, last I talked to him he's still battling it hard. The last ditch effort is to throw out the rock and start over, before that I'd cook the rocks for a few months.

[Bottenbrew]

I have found that putting the rocks into a solution of hydrogen peroxide kills basically anything on them. The problem of course is that my bacteria load with no live rock in the tank will be very low for the couple of months minimum it takes to reestablish. Then when you throw in the fact that the bryposis grows from the sand too, cooking the rocks doesn't take care of it all. I fried half my rock last weekend, and I am going to do the other half this weekend, which I am hoping when paired with my increasingly efficient scrubber and magnesium treatment will battle back the big blooms, allowing the scrubber to keep it at a manageable level over all. I've been messing with this stuff for too long to just use a 1 method at a time attack, full blitz has been called.

[SantaMonica]

Lowering the display lighting will always do it.

[Bottenbrew]

I snuck a peek at my scrubber, and I am amazed the difference that just upping the flow has created. I harvested 4 days ago and it is already at about double the growth level that it was. This is pretty exciting.

[Bottenbrew]

If my scrubber is showing considerable growth but isn't to the point where the algae is going to fall off the screen, should I just let it go for a few more days or scrape it down?

[SantaMonica]

14 days max.

[Bottenbrew]

Sounds good, thanks for all the help getting me up and running!