Hi from Ukraine
Two month ago I finished first part of my Fluval Edge reef conversion.
The goal was to have a pure aquarium without cables and other equipment outside. All equipment + sump was inserted into the back stand. Thanks to this forum and SantaMonica personally, I get in touch with algae scrubbers and decided to build my project around algae scrubber. There are several photos with clarifications on the bottom.
For today I have some algae growth, but there are doubts about scrubber construction. The photo of the screen after 3 months:
One side
Other side
1. It seems that there is too many light for it? Should I decrease it (now it is only 45%), or the better way is to turn off one side and to increase the distance between the screen and the LEDs up to 6cm (2.36 in)?
2. Another problem - tons of practices in the water. I have read that it will stop when everything will cover with bio-films. But how much time I should wait (in principle don’t want to use socks or skimmer)?
Parametres:
- tank: 25 litres (6.6 gal)
- flow through screen: about 150 L/h (39.6 gal/h) (I may increase it up to 300 L/h (79.2 gal/h))
- screen: 8 x 13cm (3.14 x 5.11 in)
- LEDs: 2 x 660nm + 1 x 450nm wide-angle CREE / each side
- Distance between LEDs and Screen: 3cm (1.18 in)
- Light schedule: 18 h/day
- Feeding: no feeding (there are no fishes yet + easy corals + there are tons of practices in the water)
- Start: sand + 3kg of live rock from friend’s tank + bacterys. Al phases (like green hair, etc) was finished in 3 weeks after start.
- Inhabitants: Zoas, Clavularia papaya, Clavularia/Briareum, Ricordea yuma, Discosoma, Rhodactis, Snails + tons of very small creatures (zoo-plankton?)
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