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I'm still running 2 Gem5 lights for 20 hours a day. I harvest the algae twice a week. This is a typical looking clean out.

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I do a 50% water change about every 3 months now running...

Two days growth.

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I didn't really make any changes this week. I left town for the weekend, so I did a cleanout after 3 days. Fast forward to seven days after that, and this was my growth.

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Earlier this month marked the one year anniversary of running my 40 breeder with the in tank waterfall. This week I did a 50% water change every other day to see what the growth would look like. I'm...

The red is giving way to green hair, pretty much in rings directly in front of the leds.

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For my in tank waterfall scrubber, I removed the "rock" and replaced it with a screen that was running in my quarantine tank. I then placed the rock in the display to keep the algae alive and see if...

I didn't get a chance to post last weeks progress on the white lights.

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Todays cleanout is still pretty red, but its getting darker there are some green patches.

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First week of running the white lights. I forgot that the forward voltage of the white led was greater and 5 white led needed 14 volts, so the 12 volt power supply I had didn't work.

Once I got...

Well my tank was converted to salt water a little over a year ago. I've been running my algae scrubber ever since and it's still not growing the "desired" algae. I tried led's outside the tank, I...

I might try the seeding idea. I do live 30 minutes from the Gulf coast. I'm sure there's some algae growing there.

Making it 2 sided would be difficult, the space it a total of 4" thick. I think...

For the last couple of weeks I've upped the water change schedule and added a 3rd light.

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The growth is lighter but it's still not growing the typical hair algae.

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This is about...

I can make it a little taller, but I can't make a second one. Maybe do more water changes until it grows hair algae?

This weeks growth and cleanup. Still running 20 hours of light.

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This was 3 days growth at 20 hours a day of light.

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All cleaned up and ready to put back in.

I ran the lights continuous for ~72 hours. I back them off to 22 hours a day for rest of the week. I wonder if the lights are too intense. I have a clear acrylic piece at the bottom to hold filter...

Well 24 hours of light definitely got rid of the black/green. I'm not sure if it's an improvement or not?

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There are 2 gem5 lights, the whole compartment is only 4", wide so they have to be ~2-3" from a ~7x7" screen/rock. I find it hard to believe that's not enough light for 2/3 of a cube per day with 7...

I'm still not having any luck with the screen, so I made a rock. Actually it's sand mortar/cement. I used a piece of lighting diffuser as rebar.

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I left the screen over the mortar...

Well this week I scrapped the screen every other day all week after brushing 1/2 the screen almost clean. 7 days later is looks exactly the same as it did last week. It still looks black until you...

Ok, I used a toothbrush to clean half the screen to almost bare and added a second Gem5. Here's hoping.

I've had this scrubber going for 6 months now. It grows algae, but not hair algae. For months it didn't seem to matter, the water always tested good. In the last couple of weeks Cyano has starting...

What does glucose carbon do that's bad? Though a rusty nail would be cheaper.

This weeks growth. I'm going to start dosing some ferrous gluconate, fergon iron supplement. We'll see how that looks next week.

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Weekly harvest.

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According to my fish log, I added this cheato to my tank back on 4/3. I have never removed any of it.

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Here it is today.

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I think letting it go for 2 weeks didn't improve the growth. It in fact it has an increase of brown algae and added a couple of small patches of green algae in the display tank....

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This picture was taken a few days ago, I didn't have time to post it until now.

I'm not really getting anything that I would call hair algae. The water parameters are good, so I'm not too...

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4 days growth on 1/2 the screen, 1.5 weeks on the other half. It's starting to take off now.

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This weeks clean out. I increased feeding slightly and removed one Gem5. I also only scraped half the screen. The intent was always to clean half at a time, and clean more often. That way...

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The growth this week is less than last week. There is some brown algae in the display tank and there is less of that this week too. Maybe the screen is too large for my bio load? I'm...

This weeks clean out. Under normal lighting it looks mostly brown. If I put a flashlight on it, it looks really green though not hair algae.

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Cleaned up ready for next week with what...

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5 days growth. Most of the algae is really dark, but the screen is green on the edges and brown in the middle. Reduce the light or leave it 18 hours a day?

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Second week with Gem5 lights, seven days growth. I forgot before pictures, but I scraped only half the screen to see which half grows better for the next week.

After 1 week with the Gem5 lights. It's pretty much all brown algae, but it's the most growth I've had since converting to salt water.

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I replaced the black with white/clear screen and ran it for a week. Not much green on it.

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I was running 5 3watt leds on the outside of the tank for the last 2 months and I don't know...

I'm guessing I have too much light. I redid my lights, from being internal to external, two weeks ago. Since then 10 3w leds have been running @ 100% 18 hours a day ~4" from the screen. 1 week ago...

After 2 months my waterfall scrubber isn't working. Brown algae is all over the main display tank and the green algae on the screen all but disappeared. It was working really well when set up in...

I'm at a loss. My scrubber was working really well in fresh water. The only thing I've change is adding salt, and different fish. A month ago, other than having a lot of white in color, the algae was...

I converted my tank to salt about 3 weeks ago. I have 3 ~2" chromis in a 20 gallon tank. I could use a little help with an algae diagnosis. There is some green algae growing, but its covered in a...

The color comes out better on the camera in white light.

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Up and running.
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I didn't feel like typing it all out so I made a video.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWLE78tE8D4