I'm not sure how it's set up, but SW does work very different. A white screen material would also be best.
I'm not sure how it's set up, but SW does work very different. A white screen material would also be best.
I'm guessing I have too much light. I redid my lights, from being internal to external, two weeks ago. Since then 10 3w leds have been running @ 100% 18 hours a day ~4" from the screen. 1 week ago with no growth, I roughed up the screen more. I also added a piece of lava rock just to see if the screen was the problem. Today, I still have no growth.
The last two pictures are of cheato, the side facing the lights are turning yellow and pulls apart easy. The back side, getting less light, is dark green and has strong strands.
Thoughts? I can dim the led's or decrease the duration.
I think nutrients are too high, and are growing black slime which covers the screen. Scrub everything off of the screen every 3 days until you see some green stick to it. And get a white screen material if you can. Black screens in high nutrient water are bad combinations.
I replaced the black with white/clear screen and ran it for a week. Not much green on it.
I was running 5 3watt leds on the outside of the tank for the last 2 months and I don't know why but I can't get this scrubber to take off.
So today I unplugged the lights on the outside and added the GEM5 lights to the inside of the tank. One black and one white, both have 3 lights above the water line and 2 below. I also have some cheato algae below my scrubber I use primarily as a bubble trap and small nutrient export.
Gem5 lights test, day 1.
After 1 week with the Gem5 lights. It's pretty much all brown algae, but it's the most growth I've had since converting to salt water.
Second week with Gem5 lights, seven days growth. I forgot before pictures, but I scraped only half the screen to see which half grows better for the next week.
Scrape it all off, so that you see the white of the screen.
5 days growth. Most of the algae is really dark, but the screen is green on the edges and brown in the middle. Reduce the light or leave it 18 hours a day?
Leave it and do another 10 days.
This weeks clean out. Under normal lighting it looks mostly brown. If I put a flashlight on it, it looks really green though not hair algae.
Cleaned up ready for next week with what was scrapped off the screen.
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