algae growth progression

[CHOMPERS]

here's the starting point of my scrubber

[attachment=0:33l59yzi]36 resized.jpg[/attachment:33l59yzi]

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It took just under a week to grow algae and about the middle of the second week it was looking like this
[attachment=0:2z4fa14v]1 resized.jpg[/attachment:2z4fa14v]

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SantaMonica advised me to upgrade to the plastic canvas and use two layers. I took his advice and used the old screen to seed the new ones (see picture). I had significant growth on the new ones in about two days.

[CHOMPERS]

Here is the new screen after several days of growth.

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I had been monitoring the tests for the first several weeks. It took about two weeks before the screens matured enough to take a bite out of the ammonia and nitrates (new tank). As soon as the ammonia was at zero, I started testing the nitrates and phosphates (the progression is from right to left).[attachment=1:2vrm9zdw]ammonia tests.jpg[/attachment:2vrm9zdw]

[attachment=0:2vrm9zdw]phosphate tests.jpg[/attachment:2vrm9zdw]

[CHOMPERS]

Up to this point, I had been running LED's on the scrubber. I switched to compact flourecents and within days I got my first spot of green algae. This picture was taken after the brown algae was hosed off (the green stayed).

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Here are some pictures of the green algae over about a week and a half.
[attachment=2:20jt7goz]green algae 2.jpg[/attachment:20jt7goz]
[attachment=1:20jt7goz]green algae 3.jpg[/attachment:20jt7goz]
[attachment=0:20jt7goz]green algae 4.jpg[/attachment:20jt7goz]

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And my first three harvests. Each was about three to four days apart. The container is a small Lee's specimin container.

[attachment=2:1cbhnnd2]first harvest.jpg[/attachment:1cbhnnd2]
[attachment=1:1cbhnnd2]second harvest.jpg[/attachment:1cbhnnd2]
[attachment=0:1cbhnnd2]third harvest.jpg[/attachment:1cbhnnd2]

[CHOMPERS]

Here's the scrubber when it matured.

[kcress]

Great write up!

Thanks.

[SantaMonica]

Great to see thick growth!

Couple things. The round holes in the earlier pics are pods... are you sure it did not go past 7 days?

Also, did you rough up the screen?

I see what you are doing in your harvesting... you are only removing the longs strands. Instead, do this: Use your fingers (not fingernails) to push off most of the algae. The rougher the screen, the more algae will remain.

[ocean rock]

nice one m8 looking good and doing its job

[rainerfeyer]

This may sound like a silly question (sorry), but:

since sides of screens are cleaned alternately, and cleaning is every 7 days, does this mean that each specific side is cleaned every 14 days, or do both sides get cleaned within a 7 day period?

[SantaMonica]

It means each side is cleaned every 14 days, BUT, the whole thing gets FW. And it's the FW that keeps the pods in control.

Now, if you get really high growth, you can clean the whole thing every 7 days, but you'll have a nutrients spike for a day. Unless of course you have two screens and you clean one at a time.

[rainerfeyer]

Thank you, SantaMonica, all clear now!

Rainer

[CHOMPERS]

Great to see thick growth!

Couple things. The round holes in the earlier pics are pods... are you sure it did not go past 7 days?

Also, did you rough up the screen?

I see what you are doing in your harvesting... you are only removing the longs strands. Instead, do this: Use your fingers (not fingernails) to push off most of the algae. The rougher the screen, the more algae will remain.
I don't think the screen went past seven days, however during the seeding of the plastic canvas screens it may have. I always am impatiently waiting for the next time I can clean the screens, but during the seeding of the new ones I put off cleaning so I wouldn't interupt the seeding process. I had atributed the bald spots to thinner growth areas on the old screen, but pods makes sense.

I roughed up both sides of both screens until they were cactussy. I'm not sure if the insides needed it but I did them anyway. They are holding the algae really well.


I recently saw your videos on screen cleaning. I'll be doing it that way now.

[rainerfeyer]

Chompers,

great stuff! How long 'til the screen was fully mature?

Rainer

[CHOMPERS]

I wish I had kept better notes...or at least written notes. I did my best not to look at the scrubber more than once a day (pretty hard since the urge is to check it every hour). I took pictures roughly every other day or when I saw a noticable change. When I took the pictures, I made mental notes of "this and that". Of course my mental notes got muddied with time. :(

I started with LED's and experimented with different wavelenths, trying to find an ideal combination. I did that for about three weeks. The growth progression hit a plataeu until I put a clip on light with a compact flourescent bulb on it. The side with the clip on started growing green within only a few days. After that side had filled about 50%, the other side wasn't showing any promise of growing green algae so I switched that side to a clip on too. If I recall correctly, it was about two weeks after adding the second clip-on light when the full growth picture was taken.

If starting from scratch (non seeded screen) and using clip-on lights from the beginning, you should be able to reach maturity in 3-4 weeks.

[rainerfeyer]

Excellent!

thanks for the revamp of your mental notes - that gives me an idea of what to expect, also remembering notes written by SantaMonica,

Good luck!

Rainer

[swiftly]

Well Done on getting control,
You said that the LEDs were not effective - what types and colour combinations were you using?
Thanks.