Various upflow growth pictures

[SantaMonica]

Here is a HOG1.3 or HOG2 in freshwater; these are better for FW because they don't have strings (strings are better for salt). Looks like it was just brushed clean in a sink, which is what you do with freshwater growth because it's so thin and slimy. Note the brave fish tail in the very upper left of the customer's scrubber picture.

[SantaMonica]

Freshwater growth, in a customer's newer HOG2 scrubbers. This person has four of them. Scrubbers like the HOG2 and others without strings are best for freshwater:

[SantaMonica]

Here is a customer's really new growth on a HOG1 or 1x. Growth has just started in the middle and has not spread to the edges yet.

[SantaMonica]

This customer's HOG1.3 is a typical growth amount for newer tanks and less feeding. When feeding increases, the scrubber growth will get thick quick. This looks like saltwater because of the thicker Ulva Fasciata growth, but the HOG1.3 is also great for freshwater because there are no strings to brush clean (strings are best for saltwater).

[SantaMonica]

This person's SURF2 or 2x shows a type of saltwater growth that occurs sometimes. It's a bright green, thin, jell-like growth that looks like a combination of slime and green hair. But it probably has some bacterial film growth too. It requires taking it to your sink and brushing under flowing water.

[SantaMonica]

Here is a customer's HOG3 in high-nutrient saltwater, and positioned slightly above the waterline. The high nutrients cause the very dark green slime growth, which is loaded with nutrients from the water (darker = more nutrients), and the air bubbles and salt spray are kept inside the case so that only air goes out the top hole. This dark growth will need brushing out with a toothbrush in a sink; once enough nutrients are removed from the water (which takes a few weeks), lighter colored hair algae usually grows, which can be pulled out by hand.

[SantaMonica]

This customer's HOG3 or 3x or 3xx in saltwater, on the display glass, shows it's growth above and below the waterline. Nutrients are lower in the water here, allowing for lighter colored growth to occur:

Before harvest:


After harvest:


Location on display:

[SantaMonica]

Customer's high-nutrient saltwater causing thick dark slime on this HOG3 or 3x or 3xx scrubber®. Will need cleaning with a toothbrush in a sink, often, until nutrients in the water come down enough for green hair algae to grow. Or add another scrubber to bring down nutrients faster.

Remember though, that dark slime algae has the most nutrients in it from the water (the high concentration of nutrients in the algae makes it dark or black). So as long as you harvest/clean it OFTEN, it pulls out a LOT of nutrients from the water. But it must be often, like every 3 or 4 days, because slime does not hold on well and will let go and float away. And you can't pull it out with your hands, so you must take the scrubber to the sink and toothbrush it until you see the white Green Grabber® rocks again.

Note the left side is bare; it was above the waterline, acting as a bubble and salt spray remover.

[SantaMonica]

Customer's sump shows a typical placement of one of our HOG scrubbers® slightly above the waterline. In this position, bubbles (and saltspray if saltwater) are removed, and only air comes out of the top.

This position also helps in higher nutrient water if the scrubber has been growing dark or black, because the water circulates around inside more, thus removing more nutrients from the water before the water exits; this less-nutrient water inside the scrubber allows for a light-colored growth to occur.

[SantaMonica]

This customer's HOG3 or 3x or 3xx in saltwater shows a growth progression after a cleaning, with the growth starting on the strings first and then filling in the Green Grabber® rocky textures. Sometimes the rock textures fill in before the strings, but here it's strings first. Also, a side benefit of the upflowing bubbles rubbing the Green Grabber strings, is that the strings move around and "brush" the glass, keeping the glass more free of growth. Growth on the glass is still filtering, and you still harvest it by scraping the HOG tray up the glass as you pull it up. Here is more info on HOG tricks: http://algaescrubber.net/forums/showthread.php?3216