Algae growth

[getmealemon]

Hi all, I've had a Nano tank (55 litres) setup since November 2012 with a little scrubber running since day one. I will at some point do a thread about it. It is not conventional in that it is fully submerged with a powerhead at the bottom blowing up across the screen so like the UAS only with no bubbles. It has been growing algae well and i take a reasonable amount out each week.

My question relates to where the algae grows best in my setup. I currently have a wooden skewer running upwards to make sure the screen stays flat and i always seem to get extremely good algae growth on the wooden skewer, more than my screen. Has anyone tried any good alternatives to the roughed up screen?

The picture shows my screen a couple of days after scraping. I have just changed the light before taking the picture and need to see what effect this will have aswell. It is clear to see the algae growth on the wood compared to the screen though.

[Nick28]

I just removed my air pump today as well, and inserted a power head into my uas box no bubbles. (an air pump worked great in freshwater not saltwater.)

I "would" say the wood has a higher surface area:D

Maybe the skewers is not being scraped as thouroughly as the screen?

[SantaMonica]

Welcome.

There are certainly other rougher surfaces available than plastic canvas, but they tend to not be as easy to work with.

[getmealemon]

I'm going to try and take a picture of the screen everyday to chart its progress.

After the next scraping i might try replacing the screen with the skewers to see what growth will be like with just them.

Also toying with the idea of putting bubbles up it as well, might give that a go the week after.

The new light doesn't seem to light the entire screen which is expected really but will see how it gets on. Growth pic for today...

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[Garf]

In professional oceanic algae growing setups, they use nets and ropes and grow vaste amounts of broad kelp type algaes. Watching with interest.

[getmealemon]

Few more details about my setup. The screen is 3.5 inches wide by 6 inches tall and is housed in a spaghetti box. It is a single sided screen due to space. It is powered by a maxijet 1200lph pump. The light i was using was the standard tank light which was a good size for the screen and seemed to do an ok job. Think it was an 18W CFL. I've now changed to something labelled as a Chaeto growing bulb which has 3 3W bridgelux led's 1 Red, one warm white and one cool white. They have 60 degree optics, is it possible to change the optics to make a less focused beam and get more even coverage? As it is this new bulb does not illuminate the whole screen.

A few pics of my setup from the start....

[getmealemon]

As is evident from the last picture i have quite alot of macro algae growing - my tests all read very good for nitrate and phosphate however it is more likely this macro algae is consuming it, hence the good test readings. My quest i suppose is to improve my scrubber so it can out compete the macro algae in the display.

[Garf]

Snails, small yellow tang, yellow eye kole. Have you no herbivores?

[getmealemon]

Its only a very small setup - 12US gallons so no tangs for me! As for snails i've got a Orange lipped Conch, some trochus snails, cerith snails and dove snails.

[Garf]

It's only a very young tank. Looks good to me.

Edit - are you on a UK marine site?

[getmealemon]

Yeah Ultimate reef.

http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/showthread.php?p=5577682#post5577682

[getmealemon]

2 days worth of growth pics. Was messing around with the pump and forgot to switch it back on for half a day so now the screen has trapped lots of bubbles, wonder what effect that will have?

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[getmealemon]

Last two days worth of pics. Bulb does not cover enough of screen, getting very good growth otherwise, need another bulb above it really. I've moved the bulb to the top half of the screen now.

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[Garf]

I'd put a cfl on it for now, until you can source another cheato lamp (if that's the way you want to go). You don't really want the algae at the bottom dying off.

[getmealemon]

Yeah your probably right, not ideal having no light over what has grown already. I take it the algae generally is different for everyone depending on what nutrients it is consuming. Just looked through your thread Garf and can see you get quite a dark green mat of the stuff where as mine seems quite stringy green stuff.

[getmealemon]

On the lighting front i've just ordered a red kessil a150....hoping this will be a good move!

[getmealemon]

Screen prior to harvest, 13g worth in it's wet state....trying a few more bamboo sticks and see how well it grows this time.




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[getmealemon]

Scraped screen earlier today, 17g taken this time. Kessil red grow light is now on!

[SantaMonica]

Nice.

[getmealemon]

Cleaned screen a couple of days ago and got a massive 70 grams off of screen. Not sure why so much this time, don't know if it's taken a while to adapt to new light?

[getmealemon]

Will get some pics on next cleaning.

[SantaMonica]

More feeding? Something died? Moved rocks?

[getmealemon]

Hey, yeah makes sense - have been feeding a bit more lately so probably just because of that. Nothing dead and no rocks moved. All looking good at the moment.

[getmealemon]

Getting consistent high yields now, this little lot was just over 100g!

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[Nick28]

Getting consistent high yields now, this little lot was just over 100g!

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is that 7 days?

[getmealemon]

Yeah 7 days, it's growing well!

[Nick28]

Yeah 7 days, it's growing well!

nice, my screen is setup kinda like yours (powerhead blows across the screen at 152 gph).However I'm using a lot less lighting, I might just increase it and see what happens.

How many inches is the kessil from the screen?

[silverwolf72]

I'm just curious but wouldn't that much growth indicate that the screen is to small. I see all these new screens with tons of algae, my thinking is that this would mean there is more than enough nutrients for them to grow so fast or is most of the energy coming from the lighting and less from absorbing nutrients out of the water?

[SantaMonica]

The goal of a scrubber is to grow as much as possible; this absorbs the most nutrients.

[getmealemon]

My tank is only a nano - 50 Litres (UK). My screen is approximately 7 x 3 which would probably make it slightly over size for the tank. I never really worked it out but just made whatever would fit in one of the rear chambers of the sump. I have a maxijet 1200lph pump blowing straight up the screen. The kessil sits less than an inch from the glass but is pointed at an angle upwards as i've not enough space at the back of the tank to have it pointing directly - if i could achieve this i think the growth would be even better. Since the last cleaning i have added a diy reflector as i was getting alot of light spill - i can visibly see the difference in the chamber, approximately 20% more light. I will take some pictures of the whole setup again soon.

[getmealemon]

Few pics of my DIY setup. First is top down view. Second is reflector i made by sticking some of the diamond reflector material to an old takeaway container. Inside the tank chamber is a spaghetti container with a hole at the bottom for the maxijet 1200 poking out of it blowing up the screen. Lighting has been on at 1500 and off at 0700. I'm now trying on at 0700 for 2 hours. On at 1100 for 2 hours then on at 1700 until 0700 to see what effect that might have. Sorry pics are not great!

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[SantaMonica]

Now that's a light.

[getmealemon]

Tried the reflector for a few weeks but was getting very little growth compared to normal, don't know if that made the light too strong?

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[getmealemon]

Have now ditched the reflector and added some roughed up cable ties to screen (trying to mimic new surf scrubber ribbons). Looks promising, just harvested and over 80g. Easier to harvest aswell, have not scraped the screen just pulled it from between cable ties.

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[SantaMonica]

The ties should really help. They are 2-sided.