New Surf2

[elosreef]

Tank is a 90 gallon reef tank setup for about 1.5 years now. I run a fairly simple setup with a skimmer, brs reactions with gfo/carbon.

Tank is doing pretty good utilizing water changes about 1x per month, same with gfo/carbon. I do have a few patches of hair algae on my rocks and overflow which is why I wanted to start using an algae scrubber.

So attached is a pic of my surf2 after 10 days with the black cloth on (18hrs a day). You will see that it pretty much looks like the day I bought it.

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My tests for nitrates usually are around 10, and phosphate never gives my any readings. Maybe its all being consumed by the algae or bound? Just want to know what steps I should take next to get some algae growing. Thanks.

[SantaMonica]

Welcome.

The cloth should be about 1/3 the way open, so you can compare covered and non-covered. It will definitely grow once it takes hold.

Bubbles are strong and 24 hours?

And you have watched the light turn off when you think it does?

[elosreef]

Yes bubbles are very strong, and I definitely see it go off and on at the right times. I will leave it 1/3 uncovered and check it the differences.

[elosreef]

So after taking off 1/3 of the black cloth to see the difference I noticed the area with light showed progress. I removed the rest of the black cloth a day later

Day 20 - Should I be increasing time from 18 hrs/6 off?

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[SantaMonica]

It actually is only the number of days since you removed the cloth.

Keep it at 18 hours for another week, then it should be ready for a toothbrush cleaning in your sink.

[elosreef]

So since my last post about 2.5 weeks ago and after a toothbrush cleaning, I increased the light to 19 hrs. Here's what it looked like last night.

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Some observations since I have had it running for about month. Tank colors really look good and the green algae growth on the rocks has stopped, and looks a little unhealthy..hah.
The weird thing is my skimmer has really been foamy, like when you use epoxy in your tank. It's been like that for the last 3 weeks, haven't pulled any skim out. I do feed mysis, pellets, everyday as well.

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[SantaMonica]

Dark slime means clean again really good with the toothbrush in your sink... all rocks and strings should be white.

Up the hours to 22 hours of light. No cloth anymore, of course.

Should start filling more with green hair algae by 10 more days.

[elosreef]

So since my last post on Nov 17th I cleaned all the rocks and strings in the sink. I let it go for about 25-30 days and it looked very similar to the post above.

Since then I cleaned it once more December 20th and set the hours to 21. It seems like the green algae is growing underneath the brown stuff, almost like it's too much light.

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[SantaMonica]

Toothbrush again, and whenever the slime builds up. The green is slowly attaching.

You've probably been waiting too long to clean; once the slime covers the surfaces, no more green can attach. Note that green is starting at the holes; this is because the bubbles blow away the slime at that point and let the green attach instead.