Dark growth

[SantaMonica]

Leave it for now; bubbles will not hurt.

[icebrg5]

Leave it for now; bubbles will not hurt.

Finally got some pictures when i took it out for cleaning.

This was roughly 2 weeks worth of build up without a cleaning.It had a lot of air bubbles mixed in it and they are still shown in the pictures and the third picture is the back side of the screen where it gets no light since its in an enclosure. I did manage to scrap a good amount off the screen. I didn't use a toothbrush this time since i wanted some left on the screen.You can't see it very well but there was some green on the screen but nothing like what i thought it should look like.

[SantaMonica]

Yes really need more light, and a cleaning down to the white screen.

[icebrg5]

That growth was from a 26w 6500k bulb for a week and then i switched to a 43w 2700k bulb for the 2nd week.

I saw very little growth with the 26w 6500k bulb so i replaced it with the 43w 2700k one.

Now i will give it a week or so and see what just 43w 2700k bulb can do for it.

Also running the light about 2 inches from the screen and on for 18 hours and then off for 6.I do get algae build up on the acrylic in the sump
in front of the algae scrubber but i also scrub all that off when i notice it building up which is usually once a week.

Should i increase the amount of time the lights are on?

Also what should my bubble flow be like? the bubble wand i have now puts out really fine bubbles and if the screen is behind it its almost hard to see the screen because of the amount of super small bubbles filling in front of it. If i move the screen to the front/middle then i get a lot of bubbles building up on the screen.

Here is a link to a video that shows what my air flow looks like. Its using the same bubble wand i do and its putting out just as much as mine does in the algae scrubber.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4rvhTgK98Q

[SantaMonica]

Well those bubbles seem good.

Lights should be 22 hours a day.

[icebrg5]

Will change the light settings.

Also so it doesn't matter where the bubbles flow? behind middle or in front of the screen?

[SantaMonica]

Must rub the front:

[icebrg5]

Changed my setup so the bubbles flow right in the middle of the screen rubbing the front the entire time and i also changed it to 22 hours on time now.
Even with the large bubble flow i can still see plenty of the screen so hopefully i see some big improvement with the growth in the next week or two.

[icebrg5]

Here are the results

8 days with the new bulb on 22 hours a day and bubbles rubbing the middle of the screen.

Growth was dark but not as dark as before on the front but the growth on the backside of the screen was almost black just like before.
Also had an orangish spot in it which i have never had grow before. Any idea what the orange is?

I know i have high nitrates for sure. No idea what phosphates are at as i have no test kit for that. I do weekly water
changes and run a skimmer and uv sterilizer as well.

I did a full cleaning down to the white screen again. It wasn't cleaned to the white screen before just scraped really good.

[SantaMonica]

Another full cleaning. If it does not grow lighter, it will need need even stronger light.

The spot is pods eating.