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Thread: DIY floating scrubber not growing

  1. #1

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    DIY floating scrubber not growing

    Hi all, I purchased a homemade surf 2 style (5 led) but I'm having trouble getting it to grow.

    I have it running with a fusion 700, on about 21 hours a day, and had no growth for about a week and a half. Tried it with a black cloth covering the LEDs and two weeks later still no growth.

    Increased my feeding to about 1 cube a day, nitrates are about 35-40, have algae all over my rocks and glass but nothing in the scrubber.

    This is my first scrubber so any tips and ideas would be a great help.

    Thanks!

  2. #2
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    Welcome.

    Are the LED's about half covered?

  3. #3

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    Thank you.

    No I covered all the LEDs with a black cloth, light was still going through just not as intensely....I guess I should try covering half?

  4. #4
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    Yes do half and see which side gets a brown coating first.

  5. #5

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    Okay great. Will report back in a few weeks =)
    Last edited by Alanc425; 04-18-2015 at 09:58 PM.

  6. #6

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    Started to get some growth on the uncovered side so I went ahead and uncovered the whole thing. Only one very small spot of green algae and the rest seems to be either a mix of diatom, cyanobacteria or
    bubble algae. Should I let this continue to grow or scrub it out at this point?

    Thanks again for the help.


    Pic of whats growing

    http://imgur.com/VmKdTV5

  7. #7
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    Looks like it is not getting much light at all. Make sure the light is 18 hours., uncovered.

    Could use more strings, too, it you want to epoxy some in.

  8. #8

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    Ive been having the light on for 18-20 hours. Should I go higher to 21-22?

  9. #9
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    You can try. Any idea how many watts there are?

  10. #10

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    Just an update, still having issues growing nice algae. Run the lights about 22 hours a day and just keep getting black/dark brown sludge. And all the white has turned a dark/light green that does not scrub off with a tooth brush.

    Unsure what to do at this point. My nitrates have stayed at about the same level 40-50ppm, so its working a little. I really want this to work but I might end up going biopellets. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks!!

    This is a photo about 4 days after cleaning sludge and trying my best to scrub everything,

    http://i.imgur.com/Cg92HGL.jpg

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