Cleaning

[steve]

Apologies if this answer lies somewhere else but I've searched and can't find....

Why is it recommended to clean the screen every 7-14 days? I have a new scrubber which is 9 days old and although is green, doesn't have large quanitites of hair algae. So why is it beneficial to clean now/in the next couple of days rather than wait for it to grow to a decent length.

Equally, the screen runs of in to my fue where I keep various macro algaes. This is now full, do you this it would be beneficial to remove some of this?

Whilst all of this is going on I still have lots of hair algae in my display which I plan on thinning out a little later on tonight.

Thoughts please on the rationale behind scrubber cleaning....?

Steve

[kerry]

When the growth gets thick is blocks the light to the roots and the algae starts to die and falls off and begins to rot which is what you do not want.

[steve]

So is there a depth at which the hair algae gets to when the roots start to die off? I can still see the screen on mine as the algae isn't that thick so is there an argument to leave it until such time the screen can't be seen rather than a set number of days?

[SantaMonica]

Once you can no longer see the screen, the roots start to die.

[steve]

Thanks SM.

Is there a link to the latest info on cleaning. eg how much to clean in one go? and best way to do it?

Is there any benefit to increasing the flow to above 60lph/cm? If so is there a suggestion?

Thanks for all the help!

[Floyd R Turbo]

I scrape of with a plastic pot scraper like the Pampered Chef ones (google it)

Clean down to the screen all the way as long as it's fully cured.

Increasing the flow will help deliver nutrients to the screen, but IMO you don't really need over 35 GPH/in. If your screen isn't rough enough, high flow can cause detachment. It all depends on how your tank parameters are I guess. If you have significantly measurable N and P, then something else is likely amiss