AquariCare Algae Scrubber - Need Feedback (video included)

[PeterFranc]

*Week 8 Update*

Here is my growth after nearly 21 days of not cleaning. I had a decent amount, but still not pleased with the overall growth. I'm going to let the scrubber run until the end of May. If I don't see results I will either bump the light as suggested by Santamonica, or build a waterfall scrubber and use the current 2 LED's and mount them closer to the screen. I did a screen cleaning and will update again next weekend.

Nitrates are still stable at 100-160 ppm.

Thanks for the help everyone!

[kerry]

You need to bump up the light now and your screen is not rough enough. Those patches of screen should be full of algae. I would rough up the screen a lot more, bump up the light an hour or two due to the very dark algae, and clean every 14 days because dark algae does not filter as good. Your algae may tend to be a little dark anyway due to the high nitrate.

[PeterFranc]

You need to bump up the light now and your screen is not rough enough. Those patches of screen should be full of algae. I would rough up the screen a lot more, bump up the light an hour or two due to the very dark algae, and clean every 14 days because dark algae does not filter as good. Your algae may tend to be a little dark anyway due to the high nitrate.

Thanks for the input. I will bump the lighting from 15 hours to 17 hours.

Before setting this scrubber back up I spent over a half hour with a hole saw roughing up the screen. I'm pretty sure the screen is rough enough, or as rough as it can be with a hole saw. Do you have another suggestion for roughing it up besides the hole saw? My screen began tearing because it was wearing so thin from plastic shavings coming off. I've attached two photos.

Thanks!

[Crusinjimbo]

I used a short drywall saw and wrapped the screen over a slightly curved surface (bucket) and worked it with slight pressure. I used a heaven grit sandpaper the break the shine. I am working in a new double layer screen with the back screen slightly offset from the front (my scrubber is a one-sided upflow). The rear screen hole corners are in the center of the front screen holes. Gonna fill in the holes with algae attached to the rear screen.

[kerry]

I use a regular saw which is the one normally use for cutting my PVC pipe. I just lay it down on ply-board and run the saw over it in several directions. That pic you have taken does look fairly rough but i get mine a little more rough if I can. As mentioned above I to have taken a wire brush to it before the saw. The double layer has never worked for me though.