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Thread: DIY in tank waterfall scrubber

  1. #31

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    This weeks growth. I'm going to start dosing some ferrous gluconate, fergon iron supplement. We'll see how that looks next week.

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  2. #32
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    Growth is fairly dark now; probably don't need it. Plus, that stuff has glucose carbon in it; better would be an inorganic version like Ken't Manganese+Iron. Or a rusty nail.

  3. #33

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    What does glucose carbon do that's bad? Though a rusty nail would be cheaper.

  4. #34
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    It's like carbon/sugar dosing.

  5. #35

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    I've had this scrubber going for 6 months now. It grows algae, but not hair algae. For months it didn't seem to matter, the water always tested good. In the last couple of weeks Cyano has starting growing on the sand and some hair algae has started growing in the tank. I did a fairly large water change, it did not seem to slow the Cyano growth at all.

    I made a change to the waterfall. Previously it had ~15 degree angle to reduced the sound of water splashing. Thinking that it might be restricting the air interface, I made it vertical. So far it has not made any difference in the algae type, color, growth, but it is louder. I also tried dosing a very small amount of Ferrous Sulfate, Iron, carbon/sugar. I added 28 mg to 5 gallons of the auto top off reservoir.

    What I can't get my head around is this exact setup in fresh water worked perfectly. Why isn't it working when adding salt?

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  6. #36
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    FW is always easier to grow, I think because spirogyra is a very thin hair algae and blocks the least amount of light, and allows the most nutrient flow in/out of it. The salt in SW seems to allow thicker/darker growth to occur, which is great if you are making oil.

    Your pictures now show very dark slime, which means it's trying to work but just needs more light. So max out the light, 24 hours (no timer), as near as possible to the screen. And clean the black slime as soon as it covers the screen.

  7. #37

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    Ok, I used a toothbrush to clean half the screen to almost bare and added a second Gem5. Here's hoping.

  8. #38
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    Clean the whole thing. You don't want any of that black slime on anything.

  9. #39

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    Well this week I scrapped the screen every other day all week after brushing 1/2 the screen almost clean. 7 days later is looks exactly the same as it did last week. It still looks black until you shine a light on it, then it's green. I don't know if its just a natural cycle or scraping the screen more, but the cyano is almost gone. More hair algae in the tank though.

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    I scraped the screen clean, brushed it, and I got out the hole saw again. Lets see what it looks like next week.

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    If this screen doesn't start growing hair algae soon, I'm seriously thinking about cutting down a rock from the display tank that seems to support hair algae growth just fine.

  10. #40

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    I'm still not having any luck with the screen, so I made a rock. Actually it's sand mortar/cement. I used a piece of lighting diffuser as rebar.

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    I left the screen over the mortar for a couple of days.

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    Here it is 4 days later. What has me baffled is the algae is pretty much the exact same green/black slime.

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    All cleaned up and ready for another week.

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