Surf 4 Journey

[reef4life]

Hi Guys,

So I bought a Surf4 about a month ago threw on my sump but I haven't been able to get any growth. Hence I am set to start the journey anew and hopefully documenting it here will help me get some feedback into what I am doing wrong.


Here is some background:


Tank size: 100 Gallon DSA tank
Lights: 2 Orphek LED PR156W
Pumps: 2 x Fusion 700 (Had them running at full force, turned them down to 50% to help new algae growth attach- planning on turning it back to 100% once I have good growth on the unit)
Light Schedule: They are set on a timer to run 18 Hours a day as opposed as possible to my main display tank light. (Lights on the scrubber start when the main tank is completely dark and they turn off right before or an hour after my Daylights turn on my main display tank - On a side note I also only plugged in one of the LED clusters instead of the two)
Filtration: I had my skimmer running and my GFO reactor also. I just took my GFO reactor offline yesterday


Status: No growth on the unit, no algae in the tank but started battling Cyano as I had a big outbreak now it is starting to comeback into the tank. (By the way I don't think Cyano is related to flow issues as I have 2 MP40 on my tank)

I will update with pictures when I get home. But feel free to give me some pointers or ideas :-)

[SantaMonica]

Welcome.

If you have no measurable nutrients, you probably need to use a shade cloth on the lights.

[reef4life]

Welcome.

If you have no measurable nutrients, you probably need to use a shade cloth on the lights.

But if I had no nutrients then I wouldnt have Cyano showing no?

[SantaMonica]

Cyano is using food particles settle on the sand.

[reef4life]

So as promised here are some of the pics that I promised.
What is really impressive is how clean my surf unit is...

[reef4life]

Sorry for the ignorance SantaMonica, but shouldnt the Surf out-compete the cyano for those nutrients? So the Cyano is the rock work, I am assuming that if it feeding from the food particles in the sand then it means it dissolves into the water column at which point it should be fair game for the cyano and the surf no? Sorry I am kinda confused.

[SantaMonica]

The scrubber can't do anything until it starts growing. And that can't happen when the light is too bright for the amount of nutrients in the water, which is very little because this is a new tank. So, cover about 2/3 of the light with a t-shirt (keeping only one SURF4 light plugged in), and in 7 days see what part grows more... the covered or uncovered part.

You have some nice rock there, but cyano and dino's are normal for a newly set up tank, since the dead rotting stuff in the rock has to dissolve and let nutrients out. So keep the rocks, flow, lights, and everything unchanged so that periphyton can develop on the rocks, and the scrubber will be a good filter as time goes on.

[reef4life]

So as you mentioned Santa Monica I cut a piece of an old shirt and covered about 2/3 of the unit.. sorry for the bad picture quality.. here is what it looks like... ( by the way i checked my unit last night and it is still white)

Did I do it right?

[SantaMonica]

One layer of cloth should be good. After 7 days check the growth pattern.

[reef4life]

Well Seven days have passed so here I am updating the thread and the journey of the Surf4. Last thing I did was cover half the unit like Santa Monica suggested and as of right now I am only running half the LEDs... here are the pictures of the unit as it looks and one of the tank... 5524552555265527

What should the next steps be? Should I turn the other side of the lights on as well.. take the cover off with only half the lights running or run the full blast with no covers?.... Also should the Cyano start going away?

[SantaMonica]

Ah good, now it's growing.

Take the cloth off, and plug both lights in, and run them for 18 hours. Bubbles of course are 24 hours.

Check back in 10 days.

[reef4life]

So decided to take a look after 6 days... and this is what the unit is looking like...I have a lot more cyano growing now in my Display tank since taking the GFO offline and I have a bit of cyano in the Scrubber... should I dose something in the Display tank in order to get rid of the cyano in the tank?

553255335534

[SantaMonica]

Let the cyano do its cycle on its own.

Meanwhile go to 22 hours of scrubber light, and be sure the cloth is removed, and the light is clean. At 12 days it should be full.

[reef4life]

Thanks for the quick reply Santa Monica...
Sorry for my ignorance but what do u mean let the cyano do it's cycle?
If unchecked wouldn't it just rampant?

[SantaMonica]

No it's just adjusting. As periphyton develops on the rocks, the cyano will have a tougher time. Also of course you can point a powerhead near the cyano.

[reef4life]

So I took a peak again at my scrubber today and here is what it looks like.. should I harvest it or keep it going? if I harvest it how much do I take out? also my cyano is still in full bloom :(


5543554455455546

[SantaMonica]

Grab a handful and take it out. And clean off the light, and check back in 10 days. Run it 22 hours light per day.

It's a new tank, so the cyano is going to take two or three months to go away, at least.

[SantaMonica]

And the reason it takes time, is that the nutrients coming out of the rock and sand get to the cyano before the nutrients ever reach the scrubber. So the nutrients have to be removed from the rock and sand first.

However the more scrubber (harvesting of algae) you do, the faster it happens.

[reef4life]

First Harvest...

So I did as you suggested Santa Monica I harvested or I tried to harvest for the first time here are some of the pictures of what it looked like and some observations to go with it...
55495550

So the algae that it is growing its pretty attached to the strings.. actually that is where most of the growth was.. didn't have a lot of free floating algae.. it is so stuck to the string that when I was trying to clean it I took out one of the strings by mistake...

[SantaMonica]

Many scrubbers will loose a string to two as the materials settle into place.

Just make sure there is no black or brown or slime remaining in the box; remove it with a toothbrush if there is. There should only be green growth and white texture remaining.

Let grow 10 days.

Of course the bubbles should be 24 hours, and the light 22 hours.

[reef4life]

Hi Santa Monica,

So I had a cleaning question.. should I clean the unit outside the aquarium? and should I scrape the green off the white box? how much algae should I remove?
Also if there is some deitrus should I remove it as well?

[SantaMonica]

All black and brown and slime needs to be brushed off the textures and strings. Green hair can remain. All detritus should come out to.

Later when it's been growing a while, you can just reach in and remove the green hair.