First time scrubber!

[jimrawr1]

Thanks guys, will reduce the lighting again and see what happens this week.

[jimrawr1]

Well reducing the photoperiod and changing the bulbs back has definitely removed that burn in the middle of the screen. I am also starting to see some green algae growth on those areas which I can say I am happy about Its minimal right now but I see it coming. Tomorrow will be 7 days since last cleaning, thinking I should let it go 10-14 days?

[SantaMonica]

Yes.

If you see brown wheat looking spots on the screen when cleaning, then it's too long and the roots died.

[jimrawr1]

Dont think I will have that problem for awhile, definitely growing in but not exactly off the screen yet

[jimrawr1]

Here is this weeks harvest. Its 12 days of growth. Lighting is back on the smaller 23w bulbs, and 12/12 cycle. Should I go to 10 on 14 off? Still getting a bit of a burn in the middle. Also its difficult to tell in the pics but there is some green growth in the middle of the screen, but mostly red/brown which looks like Cyano to me.

[kerry]

I was having a problem getting my screen to get green until I re-sized it to fit my feedings, I built it bigger to meet future plans but, that was working against the screen getting green. I feed 2-3 cubes a day so I cut my screen from 9"x6" to 6"X6". In 30 hours I had more green then ever!!! I could not believe the difference. Sure its not an inch or two thick yet but it far better then I ever had.

[jimrawr1]

Well right now I am feeding one cube per day, and then about a 2x2 piece of Nori per day. I think thats well under my screen size, but at the same time my goal isnt to get my screen green, but to remove GHA from my display tank. So if the screen is over filtering for what I am feeding, that isn't necessarily a bad thing right? It should at least be removing whatever the GHA is feeding off of, no? Or is the screen only effective when its got green growth on it??

In essence, I dont want to feed my tank more with the purpose of getting green on my screen. Thats not my main goal. Main goal is get rid of this damn GHA in my display.

So i guess my question is, can a screen size be too big and not effectively reduce/remove po4 and no3 in tank because its oversized? My po4 is always low (.01-.05) and my NO3 is usually .2-1.0. Not terribly high on either of them but enough to have some GHA in display

[kerry]

A larger screen is not really more powerful, the most powerful is the thick green algae. If you can get that to happen its way better then a big screen with brown algae. I did have a larger screen on my first one, its was almost a full sheet. It got my nutrients down to zero-ish but it was not as fast as when I built my second one with a 9x6 screen which produced about 30-50% green on the screen. I suspect now with this 6x6 screen to be at 100% green.

[jimrawr1]

Interesting.. I didnt think it would work like that, figured larger will remove more even if not all green. Can anyone else chime in?

[kerry]

It does make some since. With a screen to large the algae is very thin, with a smaller screen the algae grows outward and longer like grass grows longer. The longer the strands of algae the more it consumes like longer grass requires more nutrients then shorter grass. I am sure there are others that will post. There are a lot of people here with much more experience then I have. If I am wrong it would be good to know as well!!!!