DIY floating scrubber not growing

[Alanc425]

Hi all, I purchased a homemade surf 2 style (5 led) but I'm having trouble getting it to grow.

I have it running with a fusion 700, on about 21 hours a day, and had no growth for about a week and a half. Tried it with a black cloth covering the LEDs and two weeks later still no growth.

Increased my feeding to about 1 cube a day, nitrates are about 35-40, have algae all over my rocks and glass but nothing in the scrubber.

This is my first scrubber so any tips and ideas would be a great help.

Thanks!

[SantaMonica]

Welcome.

Are the LED's about half covered?

[Alanc425]

Thank you.

No I covered all the LEDs with a black cloth, light was still going through just not as intensely....I guess I should try covering half?

[SantaMonica]

Yes do half and see which side gets a brown coating first.

[Alanc425]

Okay great. Will report back in a few weeks =)

[Alanc425]

Started to get some growth on the uncovered side so I went ahead and uncovered the whole thing. Only one very small spot of green algae and the rest seems to be either a mix of diatom, cyanobacteria or
bubble algae. Should I let this continue to grow or scrub it out at this point?

Thanks again for the help.


Pic of whats growing

http://imgur.com/VmKdTV5

[SantaMonica]

Looks like it is not getting much light at all. Make sure the light is 18 hours., uncovered.

Could use more strings, too, it you want to epoxy some in.

[Alanc425]

Ive been having the light on for 18-20 hours. Should I go higher to 21-22?

[SantaMonica]

You can try. Any idea how many watts there are?

[Alanc425]

Just an update, still having issues growing nice algae. Run the lights about 22 hours a day and just keep getting black/dark brown sludge. And all the white has turned a dark/light green that does not scrub off with a tooth brush.

Unsure what to do at this point. My nitrates have stayed at about the same level 40-50ppm, so its working a little. I really want this to work but I might end up going biopellets. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks!!

This is a photo about 4 days after cleaning sludge and trying my best to scrub everything,

http://i.imgur.com/Cg92HGL.jpg

[bluelobstor]

I see where you have 5 LEDs but what are the wattages and what color are they. To my understanding black/dark from is from high nutrient water, you could try to lower nitrates other ways to help out the scrubber then let it take over. Also I don't see where you mention screen size but if your feeding 1 cube/day then the one sided screen should be 24 sguare inches lit by 12 watts of led which is why I ask what wattage the leds are and if the color spectrum is wrong then it will be harder to get the algae you are looking for if at all.
HTH

[SantaMonica]

Growth does not look black/brown to me.

How often do you need to clean the display glass?

[Alanc425]

Thanks for the prompt help. Blue I really have no clue what watts the leds are, but I don't believe there is a screen as you're referring to because its the floating style. I was considering vodka dosing or water changing my nitrates down if that might help the growth.

And come to think about the display glass, I hardly have to clean it anymore, maybe once every 2 weeks. Algae on glass vanished along with most of my pods if that's related. The brown algae is starting around the strings/air holes and will eventually turn black.

[SantaMonica]

Ok just make sure the bubbles are strong, which will help blow away the slime and let gha attach.

[bluelobstor]

Alanc425 ,
Technically it's not a screen, SM correct me if I'm wrong, but you still need 24 sq in of growing area for 1 cube/per day or its equivalents. In your case since the strings provide growing area you could still increase its effective size by adding more strings. The problem may be in your lighting. Ideally you would have 4 3w leds of the 660nm spectrum. If your leds are 1w then you would be at 5 watts which is less than half of what is needed. As for the spectrum ideally you would want red or at the very least 2700-3000k if yours are higher then that then your are losing some effectiveness. Since this scrubber is diy and your not sure of the leds you could always swap out your leds for ones that more ideal. 4 660nm and one 440-460nm would work. As far as lowering your nitrates I would think that it would only help as your screen is playing catch up. HTH

[Alanc425]

Cleaned again this week, just small pieces of green algae growing on the sides but not filling up the scrubber. my Nitrates are at 40 still and Phos tested at 0, could this have anything to do with the growth?

[bluelobstor]

If phosphates are indeed 0 then yes it can. Your test may not be accurate enough to show up but if you have algae growing in the tank then it is most likely uptaking as fast as the tank is producing the phosphate if indeed you do have 0 phosphates. I still think the reason the algae is growing elsewhere besides the scrubber is because tank conditions are more ideal than your scrubber and I still think that is because your scrubber is low on light.

[SantaMonica]

The color of the growth in the scrubber will tell you how much nutrients it is getting.

[bluelobstor]

The color of the growth in the scrubber will tell you how much nutrients it is getting.

I think that is the problem. I believe he said he is getting green growth but there is so little of it yet his nutrients are high

[Alanc425]

I wish I could figure out the LEDs. They have no identifiable markings but I attsched a photo with what little help it might be if any. They are very intense and red when on

http://i.imgur.com/a1TThyq.jpg

The brown growth is almost gone and its green now so hopefully that is a good sign

[bluelobstor]

Can you send a pic with the LED's on?

[Alanc425]

Yep! Phone camera makes the color look pink but it is def a red.

http://i.imgur.com/KsB6Ye7.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/j05ltd4.jpg

[bluelobstor]

Definitely red but hard to tell if 1w or 3w. Can you ask the people you got them from what wattage they are?

[Alanc425]

Unfortunately no, just to be sure I would replace them myself with 3w if I knew how. The leds are encased in epoxy

[SantaMonica]

I think they are 3w.

A growth pic after a week would be nice.

[Alanc425]

I will follow up, it was just cleaned and added more strings

[Alanc425]

As promised, 1 week of growth :-/, I started to vodka dose and if it doesn't pick up I will abandon it all together and go bio pellets I guess. It's unfortunate as I really loved the idea of a working scrubber

http://i.imgur.com/aziTbxx.jpg

[SantaMonica]

Very rare to see white strings on green rocks. I guess that's why you are here though.

If phosphate is still zero, maybe you can try dosing potassium phosphate.

[Alanc425]

I just added those strings last week, the older strings u see in there are green

[SantaMonica]

Well if most of the parts are green, then there is enough light.

[isenhart]

If it were my setup, I'd do some more testing before I abandoned the scrubber. You could make a temporary scrubber in your sump. Put a cfl or something similar shining on or though the glass onto something in the sump. If that grows better algae, then it's probably your leds. If nothing grows in the sump then something else is preventing the algae from growing.

[SantaMonica]

Care to try some antibiotics? If you have some Chemiclean or similar, it might be worth trying out, to see if reducing the bacteria population might encourage the algae.