Toolbox Scrubber

[coolhandgoose]

Well I thought I'd finally post some pictures of the toolbox scrubber. I just recently (like 3 days ago) changed my light to a 23W 2700K light. The growth is MUCH better. Still getting brown growth not the GHA as I'd like but hopefully that will come with the new light.

Here is the display
[attachment=2:tc5am3em]IMG_0273toolbox.JPG[/attachment:tc5am3em]

Inside the box
[attachment=1:tc5am3em]IMG_0275toolbox.JPG[/attachment:tc5am3em]

the new light
[attachment=0:tc5am3em]IMG_0276toolbox.JPG[/attachment:tc5am3em]

[coolhandgoose]

Also is this cyano, seems I have a lot more of it now on the glass
[attachment=0:2b847yhb]IMG_0278toolbox.JPG[/attachment:2b847yhb]

[ChrisD]

Hi. Just a point of caution with the exposed lamp like that. I had mine behind what I thought was an effective splash guard and salt still managed to get in and short the lamp socket. If you can't protect the lamp from the spray at least make sure that you have an RCD on the socket so you don't end up with blown fuses, a fire or mains voltage water next time you put your hand in.

[coolhandgoose]

Hi thanks for the warning.
Right now I have the bulb siliconed into the socket, but I might silicone the wire connections as well to prevent corroding. As far as I can see at the moment there hasn't been any splash up there, and the only water that gets even close is evaporation.

[kcress]

"Dear I brought the toolbox like you asked me....why is it all dripping.. like all over!"



:lol:

[SantaMonica]

Clean the dark stuff of every 4 days, until green starts growing.

[ChrisD]

Cool - I think mine shorted through moisture / salt creep in through theh holes where teh tube returns to the base, not the actual lamp holder as that was dry. The problem with these lamps over a remote ballast T5 for example is we can't seal everything as the ballast in the base needs some cooling.

And by the way, yes, that looks like cyano on your glass to me. Just keep syphoning it out at water changes. I find an air line attached to some sort of rigid 'stick' (acrylic rod, tweezers, bamboo skewer...) generates a good velocity of flow to do this.

Chris

[coolhandgoose]

An Update:

Since I installed the new light two weeks ago my nitrates have gone from 20 to 0.
The cyano in my display is now starting to disappear.
The screen is still producing a brown algae, but is about 1/4 covered in green spots (I would assume GHA but I think my flow is lacking a little)
Today I noticed a little bit of cyano on my screen. Im hoping this will just go away on its own as well.

[ChrisD]

I fit were me I'd rinse off the cyano so it doesn't block the light for the algae underneath.

[coolhandgoose]

I did a cleaning today and rinsed it off.

I scrubbed off most of the screen and left a line down the middle of the screen to keep some algae there. How thoroughly should I clean the screen seeing as it's only one sided? Also I was thinking about leaving alternating cleaning the middle of the screen and cleaning the edges of the screen.

[SantaMonica]

You can do that. Only needed if you are trying to avoid nutrients spikes though.