My little scrubber

[Marksfish]

After a big push by one of the sponsors on a forum I use regularly, some of us have taken the plunge to start scrubbing. Being ever the sceptic, I have gone for a simple set up on my 3'x 2'x 2', just to check it out.

This is my basic set up:

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd122/marksfish/MFUK/DSCF1028.jpg

Originally it was lit on one side by a 6400k bulb:

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd122/marksfish/MFUK/DSCF1030.jpg

I then added a second light and placed some tin foil on the cabinet for a reflector:

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd122/marksfish/MFUK/DSCF1003-1.jpg

This was the growth after week 1:

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd122/marksfish/MFUK/DSCF1032.jpg

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd122/marksfish/MFUK/DSCF1033-1.jpg

I cleaned only one side after the first week, but went a bit mad and used a toothbrush. I then made another little reflector of tin foil and replaced the 6400k bulbs with 2700k:

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd122/marksfish/MFUK/DSCF1034-1.jpg

The plastic canvas was also about 2" under the water, so I extended the height of the unit. Results after 2 weeks:

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd122/marksfish/MFUK/DSCF1040-1.jpg

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd122/marksfish/MFUK/DSCF1041-1.jpg

This time it was cleaned by just using the fingertips. The growth this week has been phenomenal and I am getting green on the screen. Water flow has been a bit of an issue as I have been using a Maxijet 1200 which only produces 1100lph. I have now ordered a pump that will deliver 2000lph that will hopefully arrive during the week.

A little video of the screen at 17 days (not sure how to embed):

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

I will be testing my levels this weekend as I removed the phosphate remover last weekend. I still have some Bionatratex in the sump, which I will remove once I get some decent growth.

Mark

[SantaMonica]

You really need to get reflectors; you are losing half your light. What's the wattage?... you need 33 or 42 watts bulbs for that screen.

[Marksfish]

If I could find the reflectors to buy, I would, but until then, my made up effort will have to suffice. They are 15w/ 65w equiv at the moment.

[SantaMonica]

Get bigger bulbs for now. And you can use an aluminum can cut in half for a reflector:

http://www.radio-media.com/fish/BeerCan.jpg

http://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/232 ... -easy.html (http://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/232568-beercan-cfl-reflectors-cheap-easy.html)

[Marksfish]

Now that's an idea, got plenty of them :D . Funnily enough, I have just found mylar, so am looking for supplies of that too.

Mark

[Marksfish]

So, week 3. Both sides of the screen have quite a lot of growth, and it is green :).

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd122/marksfish/MFUK/DSCF1048.jpg

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd122/marksfish/MFUK/DSCF1049.jpg

I started off by cleaning both sides with a debit card, just to take the worst of it off. I then ran it under the tap and rubbed my hand over it to clean it up a bit more. The screen didn't scrub up very clean, so has gone back with some algae on it. This is what I got off it:

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd122/marksfish/MFUK/DSCF1051.jpg

A bit wet and sludgy and a weight of 25g!!

I haven't done a water change since last week and won't be doing one this week. My parameters are:

SG 1.025
Temp 25.5
No2 0
No3 5 (up from 2 last week)
Po4 0.1 (up from 0.03 last week)
Alk 7
Ca 480
Mg 1350

I wasn't really surprised my phosphates went up as I have removed the media and have increased tank feeding. I was surprised that nitrates went up though as I haven't removed the Bionitratex media yet, although I did get rid of the chaeto this week, but wouldn't think that makes a lot of difference.

Looking on the walls of the sump shows an abundance of pods and the like on the walls. There are much more than I had in the sump of my other tank, presumably because I was running a skimmer?

I'm hoping that this week will produce an increase in the amount of algae grown (given my current lighting and lack of reflectors) and that it will soon be able to start tackling the nutrients that have increased (I seem to recall reading it takes 3 screens full before working properly).

Mark

[new2scrub]

on the few tanks I have started a scrubber on ,It seems like water conditions will get a bit worse for a few weeks,,,then the algae gets a foothold and things get better than ever!

[mrbncal]

^^^
+1 on that statement

[Marksfish]

Thanks for the input :D

Little bit of confusion though :?. The screen is a single sheet. When reading up, I thought I had read that one side should be cleaned one week, the other the following week, to keep the filtering capacity. In another thread, SM said to clean both sides of the screen at a time, which I did last week. I posted on my regular forum about my experiences and was told it should be one side at a time. Is there a definitive answer please?

Mark

[SantaMonica]

You don't have much filtering now anyway, so make it easy and clean the whole thing.