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Thread: DIY in tank waterfall scrubber

  1. #51

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    I can make it a little taller, but I can't make a second one. Maybe do more water changes until it grows hair algae?

  2. #52
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    Can you concentrate the light more? Also try 24 hours.

  3. #53

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    For the last couple of weeks I've upped the water change schedule and added a 3rd light.

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    The growth is lighter but it's still not growing the typical hair algae.

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    This is about all I scrape off it anymore, whats on there has a strong attachment.

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  4. #54

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    You might try adding actual, salt grown turf algae as seed, to start it growing. I left a screen in a creek, all summer in fresh water, I now have a very different algae's growing.

  5. #55
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    The surface is currently 1-sided. A 2-sided surface will grow more, greener, quicker because there is less shading.

    So maybe you can make it 2-sided.

  6. #56

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    I might try the seeding idea. I do live 30 minutes from the Gulf coast. I'm sure there's some algae growing there.

    Making it 2 sided would be difficult, the space it a total of 4" thick. I think the only way to do it would be with a reflector, and that will eventually get blocked as the algae grows.

    I should add that even though my scrubber is not growing the "best" type of algae. I think my tank is doing well. Especially considering all I'm running for filtration besides red lights is activated carbon and water changes.

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  7. #57

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    Well my tank was converted to salt water a little over a year ago. I've been running my algae scrubber ever since and it's still not growing the "desired" algae. I tried led's outside the tank, I tried 1, 2, & 3 gem5's in the tank. All at various lighting durations. (Currently running 3 GEM5's for 20 hours a day.) I tried dosing iron, hydrogen peroxide, and carbon/sugar. I've tried going 2 months without a water change, to 50% changes once a week.

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    I gave up on the scrubber only method a couple of weeks ago and starting running GFO to beat back the cyano that was always on the scrubber and rocks nearest the lights. That beat back the cyano, and gave way to really nice green hair algae carpet in my tank. I thought that might make the scrubber take off, but nope.

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    I thought Maybe the bio load is too high, though you should be able to handle a high bio load if you change the water enough. I'm not convinced though, I still have quarantine tank setup with a trigger and blue tang in it due to aggression. I have 2 uas scrubbers going in it with a much smaller bio load. One scrubber is the same black/dark green slime, the other one hardly grows anything. Just to be sure it was not the lights, one has 3 leds while the other has 5, I switched the screens in the respective scrubbers and the screen growth swapped the dark green for little growth. If the nutrients were high, why would the slime die off leaving the screen empty instead of turning to hair algae?

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    It's definitely getting frustrating. I have a 300 gallon system sitting in my garage I'm waiting to set up. I really like the idea of an all natural plant/algae with fish and coral ecosystem, but what I've seen far is it's not working. Before I set up my bigger tank, I want to know if this is going to work or not....

    After watching/reading about growing hydroponics under various lighting. It would seem that white led lights have the "best" growth compared to red. Subject to some interpretation of what the "best" plant looks like. So today I made another uas scrubber with 5 white 3w leds that I will add to my quarantine tank. Running head to head with the red ones should provide some insight. I need to try something different, the same old way isn't working.

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  8. #58
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    If the nutrients were high, why would the slime die off leaving the screen empty instead of turning to hair algae?
    Because slime can't hold on.

  9. #59

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    might try some old fashioned 2700k 23 watt CFL.

    On freshwater, I have noticed 2700k CFL grow quite well.
    It would be a good light to compare to the GEM 5,. Did you even try and seed a screen?
    I get a lot off ugly brown slime on my waterfall. Then I also had a hydra colony growing. Which the scrubber eradicated.

  10. #60

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    First week of running the white lights. I forgot that the forward voltage of the white led was greater and 5 white led needed 14 volts, so the 12 volt power supply I had didn't work.

    Once I got that sorted out I reused about an 8 inch piece of screen that had been growing the same algae in both previous UAS's. The white UAS is longer than the red one it's replacing, so I also added some new screen at the same time. There isn't much new growth, and what is new is very red. I suspect its Cano bacteria. Also the previously dark green or black growth turned very red. I'm not sure if that is a result of spectrum or par. With the different voltage requirements it's hard to tell if the lights are at the same output. The pictures don't do the red coloration justice. You can see in the picture that there is red slime on the epoxy and the algae cleaned off looks red against my white sink compared to the greener growth on the right grown under red lights.

    I switched the screens into the alternate red and white lights to see what it looks like next week.

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