Cyano on the screen?

[Vannpytt]

This screen is 4 days old. From last night, till this morning I get microbubbles on the screen.

Do I need to change anything?

[SantaMonica]

Looks fine for four days. I don't think it's cyano. Clean at 7 days.

[Vannpytt]

lots of detrius and green stuff in the bottom of the box. water looks crystal tho. should i clean box also?

[SantaMonica]

If you want to. It helps a little bit.

[Vannpytt]

System is 2w 3d

Have cfl 22w on each side. 3000k (1490lumens each) hanging 5-10 cm from screen.
Screen is 35square inches 2 sided - not sure if its rough enough.
Flow is very decent. http://www.youtube.com/user/JEGkUli#p/a/u/2/W4uUWfq3__g

Is this growth normal or should I change something. The bubbles dissapeared by itself 1 day after I posted.

[attachment=2:39nkmkvc]IMAG0012.jpg[/attachment:39nkmkvc][attachment=1:39nkmkvc]IMAG0013.jpg[/attachment:39nkmkvc][attachment=0:39nkmkvc]IMAG0014.jpg[/attachment:39nkmkvc]

[Gigaah]

in my oppinion you need something to shield most of the direct light from the bottom of the bucket. I ran my with out a reflector/shield and it created tremendous algae growth on the bottom. Since that surface isn't very rough it will tend to break free, float around, and when it gets bad enough discolor the water.

[Vannpytt]

good point

[SantaMonica]

Pics need to be when you remove the screen, not inside. Post pics of before and after cleaning.

[Vannpytt]

Decided to start a new screen with the Plastic Canvas Mesh 5 to get it rougher than my previous Lego plate. The result was alot more light due to transperancy I guess, and also alot seemingly better flow, due to the size of the mesh. Does this improve oxygenization?

What can I expect out of this?

Its a 35g tank. The screen is 17cm wide and 20cm deep. 34cm^2 (~5,2 inch^2). I have 1x22w CFL on each side (3000k) in a bucket.

Youtube 2 days out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeLok_wiDtA

[SantaMonica]

That will be a very strong scrubber, shortly. Get some tin/aluminum foil, and attach it with super glue to the bucket behind the bulbs. All the way around, actually.

Oxygenation comes only from the outside surface of the water touching the air, and, from the inside surface of the water touching the algae.

Do watch out for algae growing on the bottom; wipe it out when cleaning the screen.

[Vannpytt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AaX3CrhyPI

Day 8, after 1st cleaning. Added the foil as suggested.

[SantaMonica]

Looks good.

[Vannpytt]

not happy with the flow at all. It does flow 'decently' and the pump is around 250gph with a lifting capacity of 2meters. so it should be good, but im not happy with it. think my tube is too small tbh. its only 15mm ish.

[SantaMonica]

It's the pump then, not the tube.

[Vannpytt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwL3iBw0DWU

Added another drain, increased flow and widend the slot. It's alot better, might even be too much?

[ocean rock]

just watched the vids looks good
carnt see any cyano

[SantaMonica]

Can't have too much flow, as long as the screen is rough.

[Vannpytt]

It should be very roughted up. Used the plastic Mesh that you promoted as best, and a hole saw. The growth is alot better these last days after increased flow. Hope to see results within a few weeks.

[Vannpytt]

14 Days, 2nd cleaning:[attachment=1:4bpfai07]IMAG0029_rs.jpg[/attachment:4bpfai07][attachment=0:4bpfai07]IMAG0029_rs1.jpg[/attachment:4bpfai07]

[SantaMonica]

It has the look of a screen that is not getting enough light.

[Vannpytt]

or the nutrient levels in the water are too high?

[SantaMonica]

Same thing. High nutrients need more light to get green. Without more light, high nutrients give brown, which hopefully removes enough nutrients to get to green evenually. But no matter what the nutrient level, very strong lighting can get green in the first week (recent discovery). Then, the lighting can be reduced later, if desired.

[Vannpytt]

So I add another 2x22w CFL bulbs like in the picture?

[SantaMonica]

Would help. Move them to the sides so they cover the screen more evenly.

[Vannpytt]

imagine the bucket beeing square (Lights mounted in the lid, hanging down into the bucket.)

Previously it was like this:


|---------|
|L S
| S
| S L
|---------|

Now it's like this:



|----S----|
|L S L|
| S |
|L S L|
|----S----|

[SantaMonica]

Much better.

[Vannpytt]

This is quite peculiar, but i have green hair algae on the drainpipe opening out of my bucket (2-4cm away from the bottom of the light). They are growing rapidly and healthy fully submerged. On the screen there is still no visible growth of GHA and the flow should be decent after I upgraded to a 1700 lph pump with only 1m to lift the water. I added a second layer to not get the slot to work as a sprinkler system.

It does seem like I'm getting alot thicker growth, but nothing looking like the really green stuff (except on the screen INSIDE the flow pipe and on the drainpipe wich is neither roughed or lighted atm).

[SantaMonica]

Let it run for another couple cleanings.

[Vannpytt]

i should run it 18-6, cleaning every 7 days?

It's yellowgreenish atm, thick at some spots, looks like short hair.

[SantaMonica]

Yes

[Vannpytt]

One week after adding another light and increasing the flow. It's really stuck on there, looks like some short moss, spungy, yellowgreenish, or light light brown. Greener at some spots than others. Adjustments?

[attachment=0:2ls0pi8j]IMAG0049.jpg[/attachment:2ls0pi8j][attachment=1:2ls0pi8j]IMAG0047.jpg[/attachment:2ls0pi8j][attachment=2:2ls0pi8j]IMAG0048.jpg[/attachment:2ls0pi8j]

[SantaMonica]

If you can't increase flow, more, then try adding iron, like Kent's Iron + Manganese. This will help it grow greener and longer. Last resort is to move the light further away, or decrease the light hours.

[Vannpytt]

i'm one of those anoying people who wants to know why. I'm reagarding this thread as my "building blogg" for my own reference when I set up a scrubber for my new 240gallon later this summer. I really appreciate your feedback tho. I can increase flow, quite radically, but I need to know how much and also wich to know why. If adding Iron is best option, I'll do that, if increasing flow is, i'll do that.

[SantaMonica]

Yellow mean it's not getting enough nutrients like iron. Increasing flow delivers more iron, as well and nitrate and phosphate. But if the algae gets washed away, it doesn't help. So you manually add iron. A very rough screen is what is needed. If you see bald spot from day to day, the algae is letting go.

[Vannpytt]

No bald spots, but the flow is so strong from my 20cm wide slot that it looks like a sprinkler system even with two layers. I could probably widen it even more, but then it's not alot of pipe left :D It really is rushing down there, the screens are very rought, did it so much that the plastic mesh almost scredded. Guess I'll have to dose iron to grow the algae. I'm using Hobby Ferrogan 24. It's some highly concentrated product. Hope it doesn't kill anything in there. How soon would I see results from adding it, and would I keep doing it even after gettign green?

[SantaMonica]

Well I'm sure that stuff has iron, but I'm not sure about the other ingredients for a reef. If you put enough iron, the yellow will starting turning green in one day.

[Vannpytt]

Measured nitrates today. Not measurable for the first time since I added fish 6 months ago. I got a decent bioload, feed 4-5 times a day and don't change water or use a skimmer. I'm not even growing greens on my screen, altho the iron seems to help.

[rygh]

It now looks a bit like mine did.
Especially if it is fairly solid lumpy ice-plant like yellow, not a dusting.
What fixed it for me was reducing the lighting. Changed period down to 12 hours, and added some tape to filter it.

Interestingly, I am not convinced the color matters as far as filtering, but it does save energy, and the green
seems easier to clean off.

[Vannpytt]

following the logic, more light=more filtration.

I spoke to a local biologist who said plants are very dependant on iron, not a very common addition to a saltwater aquarium, but it seems to help. its alot darker today already. Even too dark, but very much greener. The growth is good in general also, and no nitrates anymore. used to have 20-50 on my RSM tester

[SantaMonica]

The green vs. yellow makes a difference when you can get green hairs. The hairs, spaghetti, or other stringy algae filter the best (because they let light and water flow all around them), but they don't come in yellow. Yellow always stays packed tightly, blocking flow from getting to the bottom layers.

[Vannpytt]

I got some algae on my glass, should I clean it or will it dissapear by itself?

I don't have nitrates atm, due to the algae, but would it release too much back if I clean?

[SantaMonica]

When you clean the glass, the particles help feed the corals, but the nutrients go back in the water too.

[Vannpytt]

After I added the iron supplements, it turned darker, yet no green hair, only short brown/yellowish. Few bald spots, but seems closes to the center of the bulbs its not as much growth. Might be too close, to much? There are risks involved in overdosing iron to the aquarium, so I'm at the daily dosage, but not sure if its enought, or if something else is _not_ causing the algae to grow green.

[SantaMonica]

Long hairs need to attach directly to the screen. So after some cleanings they might start.

[Vannpytt]

I've read all the Norwegian and Swedish forums about this subject, and noone have posted results and pictures before me. I can conclude that this was a great success. My watervalues are perfect, more or less, im not running skimmer, don't change water, and feed alot. I'm going to be upgrading my current 130l into a 1k liter system (300l of wich is a sump) with 6*39w t5ho and acrylic diy box and fixtures. I'm not going to run anything except getting an UV filter for killing paracites and the well sized scrubber as standalone filtration in the sump. Will be posting pictures once the building starts.

Thanks alot for feedback and advice throughout, and also, great work promoting this. Not only am I going to save LOTS of bucks, I'm getting a better system than mechanical setups.

PS! Santa didn't pay me to say this, nor am I a bot.

[Vannpytt]

It's growing massivly, even in the bucket as I did not find a suitable lightshield. Regardless, I'm wondering what's going on. I get small black egglike things, mby 2mm in diameter. What can this be? I'll post pictures later if needed though I'd rather not take anything out untill tomrrow.

[SantaMonica]

Sounds like bubble algae

[Vannpytt]

I found (like previously mentioned in this thread) that the algae also gets stuck in the floor of the bucket. What I did to counter this was make horizontal screen hanging on the bottom of my screen like an flat anchor. It grows very good already, and I have effectivly increased my total screen size by 1/3rd. The flow is also very good there due to my drains leaving some water in the bucket at all times.




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