My journey with the Rain2 Algae Scrubber and my 80G Tank

[MulletBoy]

Hey

So I setup a new tank nearly 3 months ago, its roughly 80G or 300L total water volume. I started with dry rock, cycled with Dr Tims and then added 2 small clowns and 2 Nassarius Snails. Obviously there was little bio-load or much of anything with a tank this size at first. Slowly diatom phase came, but was at best a light dusting. This gradually evolved into a bit of a red/brown film with some of the thicker areas having a slight hairy texture, but all in all, this has been fairly light and barely noticeable with the exception of 2-3 places where the flow make the conditions more ideal for this type of growth, certainly not out of control or anything.

I have a skimmer running which has only really started producing a small amount of skimmate in the last 2 weeks. I attribute this to 1. lack of bio-load for the first two months of the tanks life and 2. break-in period of the skimmer itself

2 weeks ago I increased the bioload significantly by introducing more fish, 2 small tangs, 1 royal gamma. I introduced a fair amount of coral mainly LPS consisting of mainly Hammers, Torches, Zoanthids, Goni's and a Scolymia. I added 2 small SPS frags for now as well.

2 weeks ago I also installed the Rain2 Algae Turf Scrubber. I would have preferred to install it earlier, but such is shipping times from USA -> AU and my lack of planning to order it early enough.

The Rain2 has been running with a single light for 18 hours on - 6 hours off, roughly on a reverse cycle with the display lighting (there is some overlap as the display lighting is on for more than 6 hours).

After one week there was no growth at all on the screen, so I did not clean it and just left it.

Here is what the screen looks like today at the 2 week point. Should I clean it or leave it longer? It appears to be growing the same brown film that is growing in parts of the display.

[SantaMonica]

Welcome from Australia,

That's about the growth I'd expect on a new screen on a new tank. And even now, you can see the middle is over-lit compared to the very little nutrients in the water.

Just let it go another week, and then do a light brushing. After all the holes fill in, add a second light.

[MulletBoy]

So heres an update after week on what the screen looks like



As you can seen there is some more different types of algae growing on it now, some red, dark green, brown and a single strand of what appears to me to be green hair algae which has grown long and down off the bottom.

Should I wait another week before scrubbing?

Heres a full tank shot to give some context to my tank

[SantaMonica]

Moving right along. Leave it for another week and just let the green attach. Also you can double your feeding now if you want.

[MulletBoy]

So one more week and here is how it is looking, I still only have 1 light on, its shining on the side with the less filled section around the middle.

At this point should I clean it off? What about turning on the second light?

[SantaMonica]

Much better. Add a light on the other side, but don't clean yet. Grow one more week, then clean.

[MulletBoy]

Two days after turning on the second light, still running the 18 hour on 6 hour off cycle, here's the growth





Got some new corals too, they are looking happy

[SantaMonica]

Great. Another few days and scrape.

[MulletBoy]

Did my first scrape off last night. After squeezing out the water it was about 34grams. I mainly pulled the algae off with my fingers, then scraped it with the back side of a kitchen knife.

[SantaMonica]

Very nice. It will be tanks like yours that save the Aussie reefs.