Various upflow growth pictures

This overly-stuffed DROP1.2 or 1.2x needed a good cleaning/brushing a while ago. Not only does the growth block water and bubble flow (which is why the growth is bright yellow, because it can't get iron and nutrients), but it can block the circulation holes in the case so outside water can't get in. So a good brushing (including the door, on the left) in a kitchen sink will fix it. Take that growth, and fertilize your garden with it.

Note also, the top of the yellow which makes a line across the top of the case. This is the waterline on the inside; if the top air hole gets blocked by growth, this waterline will drop lower and lower as the inside fills with air (because the air can't get out).

Attachment 8042

This is the top side of a customer's HOG1.3 scrubber (the inside wet part) in saltwater. You can tell it's a HOG1.3 because the Green Grabber® white rocky surfaces don't go up the sides; they are on the back wall only.

The reason some of the Green Grabber white rocky surface are still white is because the top was kept partially out of the water about 1 inch, which keeps the bubbles and salt spray inside the case; you can see the air hole at the top. If used for freshwater, the salt spray is not a concern but the bubbles still are, and they are kept inside as well.

The growth itself looks like dark slime, but it's actually just very thick green hair mixed with chaeto that is matted down because it's taken out of the water for a photo. It's ready for a brushing in the kitchen sink!

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This photo of a customer's SURF8 or 8x shows one side of it (it has two comparments). It is floating in a saltwater sump (Surf models are best for saltwater), and the air bubbles can be seen in four places, where they come up through the growth.

A neat thing about bubbles coming up through the growth is that the bubbles create a vertical column, or tunnel or pathway, through the growth. This allows the red light above the growth (which is turned off here) to travel further down into the growth, and this helps the growth gets thicker without blocking too much light deeper down. The growth in this photo is about 2 inches (5 cm) thick, and will require two handfuls to take out.

At this stage of growth, you can reach in and grab the growth and pull it out. When new, however, or when dealing with very high nutrients in the water, the growth will be slime and you will need to take the whole thing to your sink for a brushing out.

Attachment 8048

Customer's HOG2 scrubber® with the red light removed from the glass. This unit should have been cleaned much sooner, because after the white rocky Green Grabber® surfaces are full of growth, the glass then gets covered with growth. And since glass is smooth and cannot hold on to growth, the upflowing air bubbles will eventually peel the growth off the glass, as it has started to do in this photo.

Interestingly, growth on the glass increases the total amount of growth, and thus increases filtering, up until it blocks enough light reaching the scrubber surfaces, or until the growth peels off the glass.

Solution: Clean the glass and the scrubber sooner.


Attachment 8049

Customer's HOG2 or HOG3 before harvest. Can't tell which one, because a HOG2 does not have strings, but a HOG3 does, and strings might be in there somewhere:

Attachment 8050

Customer's DROP.6 single-LED upflow in saltwater, with big dark growth ring. The open space in the ring allows water to get to it, to prevent die-off of the thick dark growth. This allows growth to go a few days longer before harvesting. However, it is already time to harvest this one.


Attachment 8061

Customer's small size HOG.5 scrubber® in saltwater. Most of the growth appears to be Cladophora, with some Ulva Fasciata. Since the HOG.5 only has one LED in the middle, you can see this is where the growth is concentrated. Also it looks like there is some coralline spots on the upper left section.

This customer's scrubber could now be set in the display to feed the fish, or the growth could be pulled off by hand and fed to the fish. Or of course it could be brushed off in a bucket or sink and then put in a garden as fertilizer. Feeling brave?... put the greenest growth in your warm bath to have your very own seaweed bath like they offer in some skin spas.

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Many people with larger tanks want a single, larger size algae scrubber. Probably because it seems simpler. And it certainly is cheaper. But when the focus is more filtering (not more pods), it's better to have two or more smaller scrubbers instead of one larger one. This is because scrubbers only filter when they have algae growing inside, and if you clean/harvest it completely, there is little filtering for a few days until it grows back. And cleaning/harvesting it with freshwater in your sink will kill many of the pods that will otherwise eat your algae, thus increasing filtering more.

It's certainly possible to only clean half of a scrubber, or to just partially harvest it. But for higher nutrient water, cleaning all the way down to the white Green Grabber® rocky surface on a HOG, DROP or SURF model, or the white Green Grabber screen on a RAIN model (including inside the screen holes), helps the white surface reflect more light back to the roots of the growth, allowing for more days of attached growth to occur before it lets go.

If the focus instead is more pods (and not more filtering), then you want to leave as much growth in the scrubber as you can, for as long as you can, and clean/harvest it minimally so that the pods grow and multiply more. So multiple scrubbers are not needed. And in saltwater, if you can clean/harvest with saltwater (or just harvest in-place without removing the scrubber), then you will have the most pods possible for feeding. Pods also occur in freshwater tanks, but less so.

Here are two HOG3 units which have strings for saltwater; for freshwater you don't need the strings, and a HOG2 or 2x is fine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYGa1gr29zc

Customer's HOG1 which is a small scrubber, being used on a sump of a large tank, mostly for pods:

Attachment 8064

Customer's HOG1 or 1x Scrubber® in saltwater. It's rare to get a full harvest this quick, but here it is. Usually all the Green Grabber® white beach rock surfaces get coated with slime for several weeks first, and need brushings out in a sink, but this one went straight to green hair algae (looks like Cladophora) right away. Freshwater often does this as fast, but not saltwater. Anyway it's ready for feeding, fertilizing, skin wraps, seaweed baths, and salads :)

Attachment 8065