I ordered two Drop1.2x scrubbers which arrived yesterday. I installed both in my 80 gallon freshwater BB fish tank (about 75 gallons of water). They were both on yesterday for about 5 hours; starting today they are going 12on/12off and I will check progress on day #7 (19 June). Starting params: pH 6.8-7.0; ammonia: 0.00; nitrite: 0.00; nitrate: ~60+; phosphate: ~10+.
Primary filtration is a Marineland C360, which has been cycling for a couple of years. Secondary filtration are two TLF reactors, one with Seachem Matrix and the other with crushed coral. I had a problem keeping the pH up until I added the crushed coral. I may replace the Matrix with more crushed coral, since I don't think it's doing very much and I'd like to get the pH above 7.0 and get more carbonate into the water. I also recently added a moving bed filter with Hel-x media, but it has not started to cycle yet. Once it starts cycling I intend to retire the Marineland C360.
Side view showing the two Drops hanging from the end:
Top view showing the two Drops side by side:
Note that there is a lot of surface movement; the streaks and blobs in the both photos are actually streams of air bubbles on the surface. In the first photo the water seems to appear cloudy, but it's not. It's full of very tiny air bubbles swirling around at that end of the tank. The moving bed filter super aerates the water so its always full of air bubbles. In the second photo the water looks green, but it's not. I have a dark green background on the glass and lots of plastic plants at that end which are out of focus due to the surface movement and small bubbles mixing in the water column.
Unfortunately, when I took the photos, all the fish decided to hide at the other end of the tank, although you can see one of the big apple snails in both photos. I have Julii, Copper and Pepper corys, Buenos Aires tetras, Chinese Golden and Rainbow barbs, Platys, a couple of male Dwarf Gouramis, and an ancistrus. Everyone is active and healthy.
Michael
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