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endorium
02-18-2014, 01:27 PM
Hi

I have a horizontal style scrubber.Its seems to run Ok but it seems to run far off its potential. Its roughly 4 inches wide and 9 inches long. I have around 300 lph going over it.
Light is a 10W red LED flood light roughly 3 inches above the scrubbr

I get green algae and come cyno(red algae) growing on it but it never seems to get thick or really take off as you see with most peoples. Any ideas?

I have cleaned it a couple of times (been going around 3 weeks with new light) and it does grow back but only very thinly :(

Any help on improvements would be great.

SantaMonica
02-18-2014, 05:48 PM
My guess is that the water is not fast enough, or too thick. If you tilt it up it will run faster.

endorium
02-19-2014, 06:08 AM
Ah....did not realise water had to b running fast.
Is that so it gets more oxygen?

SantaMonica
02-19-2014, 07:06 AM
No it is to remove the boundary layer around the algae, so the nutrients (including CO2) can dissolve into it. If you can add air bubbles, it will help even more.

endorium
02-21-2014, 03:18 PM
I have greatly increased the angle of the scrubber and increased the flow rate over it.

I am still not getting good results. There is a think layer of green algae on the mesh but it gets no more than that?
I cannot see where I am going wrong?

Any more ideas? Your help is very appreciated

SantaMonica
02-21-2014, 05:12 PM
Going to take more than 2 days to get results. Clean off the stuff now, so new growth has a rough surface to attach to.

Sly
02-22-2014, 08:35 AM
Also check your salinity (if saltwater) and lighting. I have found that low salinity and lighting that is shifted too far to the red end of the spectrum will encourage cyano growth. I used to use grow lights but now I stick to simple CFL daylight bulbs.

kerry
02-24-2014, 07:32 PM
I get red cyano when my pump needs to be cleaned on my horizontal. Keep the flow up and scrub away the dark and red growth. It will grow green but horizontals take longer to get established and dont work as well as the vertical does but I have to have one in my small pod grow tank, the rest of mine are vert though. The grow light is probably better as well if you give it a while. Cyano can happen in fresh or saltwater so salinity is probably not the issue, I bet is the flow as I experience.