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Customer's SURF2 which can be seen in the third photo in the round circle in the sump area...
"Here is pictures of my Only SPS system in KUWAIT, My system is running without any refugiums, chaeto reactors, Biopellets or any NO3 reduction dosing.. but running only with Surf2 algae scrubber, and reactor for GFO (Rowa) and another for Carbon. Usually I leave Surf until it is full and starts to die and become yellow, then I take it out to the garden and wash it with fresh water with slightly high pressure so all dead algae falls out easily and the green one stays inside then I return it to the sump with 10% water change ... usually this happens every 2 to 3 weeks cuz my system is ULNS" -- Mohammad Abdullah in Kuwait...
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Fresh new year gets a post of a winter indoor freshwater koi pond:
Customer's SURF8 that he converted to freshwater by adding roughed screens inside the compartments; the strings that SURF's come with are best for thick growth you get with saltwater, so by adding screens you give a large flat surface for freshwater slime growth to attach to without having to get the Green Grabber surfaces of our HOG2 which are great for freshwater. Besides, indoor ponds like this have no glass for HOG's to attach to.
"Just removed 12 ounces of growth from my three scrubber units [one is a freshwater converted SURF8]. I do it lightly, but more often, so a decent bunch is still in the surf units thus assuring me a constant ongoing process. It’s the stringy [freshwater] stuff and comes out easily with a toothbrush. Btw... the basement pond units are getting the highest amount after the slow start... sure is growing plenty of slime these days. -- William Garthe, Illinois, USA
Attachment 7670 Attachment 7671 Attachment 7672 Attachment 7673 Attachment 7674 Attachment 7675 Attachment 7676
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This is a nice Holiday-colored growth; this customer's HOG3 or 3x or 3xx in saltwater has green slime on the outer portion, and red slime in the middle portion. This is very rare, because green usually results from more light, not less, and the outer portion on these Green Grabber® textures would have less light (because the LED lights are in the middle).
Now, what might have happened is that the customer was indeed getting green thick growth in the middle but did not clean/harvest it for some reason. This could have shaded some of the deeper growth layers there in the middle, causing some die-off which caused higher nutrients in the shallow layers, and this may have caused the darker/red growth. Just a guess, since no more information is available.
Regardless, all this growth of any color still pulls nutrients out of the water, and stays attached to the Green Grabber textures because the rocky texture are very rough like rocks on a beach, which is where natural algae/seaweed has learned to attach...
Attachment 7698
And of course there there are no unsafe metal-case lights
(see LEDsafety.org )
Attachment 7699
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For freshwater folks, this customer has 2 of our HOG2 scrubber® units; one for each FW tank. This one had very thick dark growth, even with 24 hours of light, pulling out lots of nitrate and phosphate from the water. Since the nutrients were still coming out quickly from the water and into the growth, the growth stayed dark:
Attachment 7720
Here is a closeup; this is not mud! This is algal growth, and growth this thick in freshwater is rare because FW is usually very easy to grow, and is usually bright green Cladophora or Spirogyra species:
Attachment 7721
Like most all FW scrubbers, you'll need to scrape this in your sink, then brush it out under running water, so that you see the white Green Grabber® surfaces again. This will allow the most light possible to reflect off of the white, which will grow lighter colored growth even in high nitrate and high phosphate water.
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A lot more people are starting to use algae scrubbers for freshwater. But back to saltwater. This is a customer's HOG1 or 1x in saltwater... you can't tell which one because the Green Grabber rocks are the same on both; only the lights are different (X mean Xtra led's) and you can't see how many led's there are. Also, this is not packed green hair algae, and it is not black slime; it is somewhere in the middle... sort of a light green slime which still absorbs nutrients out of the water as long as you harvest it by brushing it out in your sink. Overall it's a compact little area to keep algae in, so less algae grows in your tank.
Attachment 7744
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Another one for freshwater: This HOG.5 in a guppy tank makes food that is fed back to the guppies. Filtering and feeding all in one...
Attachment 7751 Attachment 7752 Attachment 7753 Attachment 7754 Attachment 7755
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STzPzSJL454
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SURF8 quick harvest on saltwater reef pond:
https://youtu.be/L8zwmLwtKew
Attachment 7777
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This saltwater customer's SURF2 or 2x is growing and filtering well, but notice the yellow in the middle. This is where there are fewer air bubbles because this SURF model has two bubble entrances; more on the sides, but not in the middle. The air bubbles bring water in, and with the water comes nutrients, especially iron. Iron helps the growth stay dark green.
The growth here is thick enough to keep the bubbles from flowing to the middle, and so the middle does not get enough iron this week in this scrubber. A good cleaning/harvesting will do wonders (will open up the bubble pathway), as will feeding anything with iron such as nori or veggie pellets.
Attachment 7790
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This SURF4 was floated in the display of a reef (so no sump was needed). Most people do put SURF models in the sump, but the display is still an option, which it is not with a waterfall.
Attachment 7792
The install video is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE4fdZcjssE
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Here is a bunch of Cladophora algae (it grows in both fresh and saltwater) in a customer's HOG2 or 3 or 3x or 3xx. Since you can't see if strings are under the growth, you can't tell what model scrubber it is.
Cladophora growth can get long, and unlike a waterfall style of scrubber, our upflow styles keep the long growth suspended in the water and inside the case. Waterfall style scrubbers by contrast will let the long growth flow straight down where it gets caught in your other filters and pumps. This is why waterfalls are not recommended for freshwater growth, which tends to grow even longer Spirogyra growth that gets a meter long.
Attachment 7802
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