New tank, no growth

[daddybuda]

SM,

I tried to attached two photos; the first one is of my reef tank, the second one was of the scrubber I built for my small reef. (I will send them to you in a PM, I know they are to big for the board). My scrubber is two inches wider than yours, because I pulled the screens back about 1 3/4 inches from the light. I used the same light you recommend, and I mounted the bulb so as it is centered in the 1" slot for the bulb. I am using a Rio 2100 to pump water to the scrubber. I would estimate the flow on each side at around 200 gph. I took the picture when the lights was in its 6 hour resting period. When the light is on you can see that the flow is every even over the entire screens. I have had this up and running since Sunday and the screens show no signs of algae as of yet. Granted, my tank is new, only six month old and there is little to no algae in the tank. I have four fish and a lot of coral, and I feed the fish once a day about a half a cube of food. How long should the waiting period be before I start to notice algae growing?

Thanks,
Tim Roberts

[SantaMonica]

Start feeding 2 cubes a day, and report back in 7 days.

[daddybuda]

I am a newbie to this part of reef keeping, so excuse my stupid questions. By feeding 2 cubes of food a day, won't that purposely pollute my tank with excess nutrients? My nitrate are high now if I pour that much uneaten food aren't the nitrates going to go through the roof? After feeding two cubes for a week, do I drop down to one cube, or am I to continue to feed at such high levels?

This is a hard concept for me to get my head around. I was under the impression you wanted a nutrient poor environment in your reef tank.

Again thanks,
Tim

[SantaMonica]

I did not know the nitrates were high.

Let it grow 7 days and report back.

[daddybuda]

SM, Here is a picture of the small scrubber I built and my nano reef tank Sorry it took so long to get the picture posted. There is brown algae starting to grow on the screens

[SantaMonica]

More pics if you could. Looks like a good build.

[daddybuda]

SM, the screen are getting brown and algae is growing on them. I am also getting algae growing on the bottom of the scrubber. Do I clean one of the two screens every week? There is no heavy growth on the screen, just a lot of dark brown color. Do I also clean the bottom of the scrubber? When will the scrubber start to grow the GHA?

Again thanks for all your help!

Tim R

[SantaMonica]

For now just clean one screen every 5 days. You can clean the bottom if you want, but it's really not important until there is thick stuff on it that might let go.

Green will depend on how much you are feeding, but it does not matter since any color will do filtering.

[daddybuda]

SM, my screens started with light brown algae, next cleaning some GHA, and more brown . The third cleaning over the weekend has produce a lot of red algae. Is this normal, and will the red aglae make it back into the tank? I also lot of bubbles forming on the bottom of the scrubber directly under the screens. I haven't noticed my NO3 coming down yet, however, my redox has jump about 50 points since I installed the scrubber.

As always thanks for all your help.

Tim R

[SantaMonica]

If your screen is rough, and you clean every 7 days, nothing should go into the tank.

Nitrate should start coming down after you have cleaned off 3 full screens.

[daddybuda]

SM,

I have cleaned the screens a half dozen times. I have the same results, dark brown slimy algae with little to no green growth.

I have noticed that green algae is growing more in the tank and beginning to cover my rocks. My nitrates are still at the same level as before I install the algae scrubber.

I must be doing something wrong?

Thanks

[SantaMonica]

Sounds like not enough wattage, for the amount of food you are feeding. But I'll need to see pics of the screen:

Right before cleaning, when it's still in the scrubber (preferably from the top opening)

Right before clean, when removed.

Right after cleaning.